29/05/23 - January Man - May at May Hill

 

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man - Month by Month

May sees Christopher setting his alarm very early.  Every May 1st, Morris Men celebrate the battle between Winter and Summer by dancing on the top of May Hill, Gloucestershire.  He timed his walk to tie in with the festivities.

We had our own May Day encounter with Morris Men. On another day, Upton Folk Festival could have been a hoot - the whole town awash with eccentrics, bursting into spontaneous jigging. We had looked for somewhere quiet to take our Guide Dog in Training, Ivy. Men with painted faces and women with feathers poking out their hats terrified her.

May Hill straddles the border of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. I've walked it before - remembering woodland, mud and fine views over the meandering Severn Estuary and the Black Mountains.

Early disappoint provides an excuse for a post walk visit to Newent.

A couple of days early - alternative refreshments required

The walk is a straightforward, circular route on forest tracks. An Adventure Lab Cache completed on the ascent and traditional caching on the descent.

Tree Clump at the Top

Views of the Severn Estuary

Trees planted for the Silver Jubilee

Newent was a pleasant, historical place to mooch around - the chipper is housed in a building with the date 1465 etched into the brickworks. Two quick ALCs and then the pub. But which one?  Newent locals don't seem to use their pubs. The Wye Inn looked impressive but was bolted closed. Cobblers, the Good Beer Guide Micro Pub doesn't open till 5pm, even on bank holidays. The Black Dog and an impressive coaching house, The George - couldn't have had more than 3 punters in each.

Lose them or lose them, Newent.

George Hotel - just add punters

Walk Details

Previous Walks - January, February, March, April

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 9 and three Adventure Lab Caches

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks for Motorists, Bristol & Bath, Somerset and Gloucestershire - Walk 36

27/05/23 - Greater Manchester Ringway - Stage 7

England's highest aqueduct crossed on another great section of Manchester's boundary path

The walk that almost failed before it started. Manchester Rover ticket bought, bus to Piccadilly Gardens slightly late. Walk from Piccadilly gardens to the station longer than the names would suggest. Signalling failure and no trains west. Use #Ashburys for more information.

Nothing can stop you if you have a credit card and a mobile phone. But try arranging an Uber pick up from Piccadilly. The sting of having my number blocked by angry Waseem will last a long time.  In case he is reading, I did have "Location Sharing" set to on.

Eventually, 90 minutes later than planned, I get to Marple to pick up the canal. The walking soon soothes my mood. By the mid point of the ramble, I am returning people's "Good Afternoon's".

There are three highlights on today's section.

Highlight 1:  The Marple Aqueduct

A vertigo inducing walk across it and then a steep drop down to admire it from below.

Across the top

And the view from below

Highlight 2 - Country Parks

Excellent walking through the watery Etherow and the Trans Pennine Trail delivering the views from Werneth Low Country Park.

High on the Trans Pennine Trail

The City of Manchester in the far distance

War Memorial at Werneth Low Country Park

Highlight 3: Harewood Arms, Broadbottom

The end of the walk is Broadbottom Station. Still no trains running on this line. 

Just up the road is a fine pub. Not only a Good Beer Guide Tick but also a brewery Tap for Green Mill Brewery. If that is not enough, a fine collection of continental keg and bottles.

Inside the Harewood Arms, Broadbottom

Handily, the landlady is an expert on bus routes.

A Green Mill Extra Special Bitter, Northern Lights, taken to absorb this information and steel myself for two 40 minute bus trips.

But what;s this - Trainline suggest the 15:29 is actually running.

I hot-foot it back to the station for success. 

Walk Information

Start - Marple

Finish - Broadbottom

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 4

Good Beer Guide Tick - #849

Walk Inspiration

26/05/23 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Huddersfield

 Why do people ever leave Huddersfield by train when there are so many temptations?

One of the finest arrivals by train, anywhere in the country. Emerge through Doric arches into a very cosmopolitan square. A square that evokes such civic pride that it is safe to leave an unguarded statue of a former prime minister.

You'll run out of fingers counting backwards to the last PM that this honour would be safe for.

Is this Madrid?

The Adventure Lab Geocaching doesnt take as long as expected, so a quick bargain pint at the Cherry Tree.  A JDW Conversion from a former bed shop, so there is no need to bring you photos. 

Head south and beyond the safety of the ring-road for Ossett's Rat and Ratchet.  A proper pub in every sense of the word... tiled floors, wall mounted beer paraphernalia, multi-roomed and even, if the other punters are to be believed, a beer garden.

Now this is what I call a pub

In the Interests of experimentation, an Ossett Butterley

Of course, I asked for a pint of Butterfly, prompting the witty barman to retort that we get a lot of Lepidoperests in. I was impressed, until I saw the joke chalked on the board behind me.

In a normal town, I would have camped here. If for any reason, you have come with transport (7.5 Tonne Lorry should suffice), I must bring a shop around the corner to your attention.

I petition to make the Crate Escape a national chain?

Back across town for pint of the day. A bold claim, for a Timothy Taylor Boltmaker and one I may retract as I work down the blog.

What the Sportsman lacked in punters, it made up with by a classic, timeless lunchtime pint feel.

I've heard the sun is dangerous and should be avoided

Plenty going on in evenings, with tap takeovers and even whisky nights.

The Good Beer Guide App (now unavailable, so I can never upgrade my phone) takes me to a Brewery Tap that I may otherwise have missed. A short walk, but the Magic Rock Brewery, is labelled under Birkby, rather than Huddersfield.

It wasn't until Head of Steam that I realised why Magic Rock struck a cord with me. A very nice Tap, where you dodge the forklifts to sit either inside or outside, with lots of benches available. A whole smorgasbord of keg and cask to try in various size of dispense. 

The caged barrel aging at Magic Rock

With such a choice, I cannot recommend what you have to drink. However, if you need snacks, do not pass the poppadums by. Nuts, crisps and even scampi fries don't stand a chance when you get a little tub of mango chutney inside the packet.

Never having seen them before, I am now ruined for life.

Restaurant Quality

Finally, back to the twin guardians of the railway station. Like Euston, we have a couple of sentries built into the Station fabric, offering temptation not to catch the next train.

The King's Head is the Good Beer Guide Tick and is further endorsed by being the watering hole of Postmen. Men in shorts always know where to drink.

Abbeydale Brewery Black Mass - can you guess the ABV? I'll give you a clue, I thought best to take 2/3rds.

6.66%.  Bonus point for naming another beer at this ABV

On the opposite side - and somehow shunned by the GBG - is the Head of Steam. What a collection of beers. Magic Rock Cannon Ball reminding me where I had heard of the brewery before.

A fine collection of international beers adding to the continental square feel.

La Trappe Tripel on draught...... I'll look to see what time the next train is.

Huddersfield, Yorkshire, Europe

25/05/23 - Geocaching the Historic Pubs of Manchester - #3

 

Discovering the historic pubs of Manchester through Geocaching for a third time.

Round 1, Round 2

Third and final Adventure Lab Cache (ALC), taking me on a tour of Manchester's oldest pubs. For new blogfans, an ALC is an on-line treasure hunt where you follow your phone's GPS to answer a question at a location. With all of Manchester's Good Beer Guide Pubs ticked off, the game has provided an alternative pub crawl that requires little planning on my part.

And this one ends at a well known and much loved gem.

To get to the start location, I'm attempting a first use of the Manchester Free Bus #1 (this City is ahead of its time) to try and get from Piccadilly to Spinningfields. At 5:30pm, when Utd are at home. The "Drive" suggesting walking from Portland Street as we are going nowhere fast.

My destination - The Oxnoble, Liverpool Road. Possibly the first pub that I have visited named after a potato.

In the shadow of the Tower

When I was working in Manchester at turn of the Century, this had a reputation as one of the finest Gastropubs in the North. I did visit once but it left no lasting memory. Unlike the chipper, just up the road.

So I entered with some trepidation. Is it going to be all tables laden with napkins, wine glasses and candles? Nope, it's got worse. It's now has a very chainy feel of a "family dining" pub, with large laminated menus containing anything you could possibly want as long as it is a meal deal burger. Harassed staff and dirtier tables than the JDW of your nightmares. Possibly my second trauma of the day to do with UTD being at home.

I was glad to escape the melee for an oasis of calm in the front patio, taking a below par Landlord with me.

Only 4 on Untappd.  It usually gets a 5.

Sticking with the Utd theme, a pleasant surprise for my next destination.  I thought Gary Neville, having realised he needed to retire after his 2011 New Year's Day defensive display made the Baggies Jerome Thomas look like Ronaldo, had raised The Sir Ralph Abercromby to the ground.

Fair play to him - after a campaign to save the pub, he tore up his Bootle Street redevelopment plans.

This leaves behind a real hidden gem in the city, complete with a fine beer garden. Always worth knowing, as Brian from BC Camplight sings on his  fantastic new album - "It Never Rains in Manchester".  Paulaner in the sunshine made the most sense and was most enjoyed.  

Since 1780 - Witness to the Peterloo Massacre

Back on familiar ground to one of the previous ALCs.  Next to the Wellington is both the observed but never visited before Sinclair's Oyster Bar and never noticed before Mitre.

Manchester - with its second set of three adjacent pubs

Sinclair's cam trace its roots to 1720 - a chop house, then a tavern, then a purveyor of Oysters in the 1840s. To enable me to enjoy a Sam Smiths Stout, it had to survive two bomb attempts. First by the Luftwaffe in the Xmas Blitz of 1941 and then by the IRA in 1996. Google it and you may find some fascinating photos of it moving locations on stilts.

On reflection, did I need a top up?

The Mitre is Manchester's oldest hotel, dating from 1815. There is a bar and I may have been hasty with my investigations. I got as far as the cocktails menu and thought maybe its not for me.

When Geocaching, you have got to pace yourself.

And the final historic pub? As if by design, it's one of my favourites, The Marble Arch, Rochdale Road.  First time visitors will be wowed by the 1888 Gothic architecture, the vaulted roof, the sloping, tiled floor carrying you downhill to sample Marble brewery beers in peak condition.

No need for new photos - I can pull some from my Flickr Photostream.

Who's that knocking on the door of 73 Rochdale Road - Mappiman!

A perfect place to drink

A chance to sit and celebrate my success at a perfect combination of two hobbies. But what to do next - drink-wise - when in Manchester?

I'm open to suggestions but my "Want to Go" tag in Google Maps has Mulligans, Bar Fringe, Wolf at the Door and Corbieres highlighted.

Not sure what the theme of that blog will be but I am prepared to give it a go in the name of 2nd City originality.

20/05/23 - Slow Way to Roberto's Bar and Tasting Club

 Inner City PsychoGeography to a must visit Micro Pub

A journey on foot from Rowley Regis to Halesowen from the Slow Ways movement. The second walk completed, both excellent..... well plotted, with unexpected surprises. This time, a WW1 memorial naming the area Shell Corner. Proper country walking on the Monarchs Way - a King's escape route. Dudley Canal number 2 - half dry, half navigable leading to town centre civilisation.

Entering Shell Corner along a rare urban section

WW1 Memorial - a painted shell

Good views over Clent as we enter Mucklow Hill to pick up the Monarch's Way

Which runs along the part derelict Dudley Number 2 Canal

Only complaint - too short. After 3.5 miles, I am delivered to a new town at 10:15am.

Breakfast at 'spoons it is. Making it last until my real reason for coming to Halesowen opens.

105 minutes to learn that in a cost of living crisis, JDW holds the keys to the future. Theakston's Old Peculiar for £2.67. A breakfast with add-ons for around a fiver. Hand delivered to my table via app ordering and paypal payment. Air conditioned bliss on the warmest day of the year so far. 

A magazine, that once past the covid tin hat theories, was a surprisingly interesting read. There are JDW tickers - and at least three of them having their profile detailed in print. One man (of course it was a man) making it to every single one in the land, with the exception of those behind air-side security.  He wouldn't like the prices there. Or the way they queue.  

The William Shenstone - Not going to win architecture awards - the man buried in the churchyard over the road

Midday and Roberto's Bar opens up. This is a micro-pub that I have wanted to visit when it was in Digbeth. The everlasting roadworks there eventually forcing a relocation to a place that I've never had cause to visit before.

The glassware gives a better indication of what to expect. Etched onto the side is the full name of the joint.  "Robertos Bar and Tasting Club". Their Twitter bio goes further;

A world-class destination for the best beer the universe has to offer. Local excellence & Belgian specials!

No arguments from me - A Torrside Franconia smoked Rauchbier and yes, I know I am late on the bandwagon, an Anspach and Hobday London Black.

If only I was on Insta.

All this enjoyed on plush Chesterfields, listening to the locals talk of great nights out in Rum Runners and Barbarellas with teary glints in their eyes.

Won't be my last visit to Halesowen

Has to be a pre-emptive Good Beer Guide Tick - and whilst in town, I might as well visit the two current entries.

The King Edward VII is a nick-nack filled traditional pub. Quiet on a Saturday afternoon, offering a decent Oakham Citra.

A quiet afternoon in the King Edward VII

This leaves a good 25 minute walk to the Crafty Pint. Another micro, run by passionate and friendly people. But what's with all the signs? People come to the pub to enjoy their freedom, not to be told off in advance for crimes uncommitted. 

Dogs off the furniture! Don't get banned for swearing! and quite frankly, they've gone overboard in the gents.

They've got a laminator and they are going to use it.

OK.....

Not the worse way to spend a sunny Saturday but where the Slow Ways deliver me next?  Could be Stourbridge.... could be Longbridge.

I'll see what pubs need ticking.

Walk Details

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 3 (Good Beer Guide Ticks #842 and #843)

Walk Inspiration - Slow Ways

Previous Slows Ways - Birmingham to Blackheath

14/05/23 - Return to the Queen Elizabeth, Elmley Castle

 A Community Owned, Good Beer Guide Stalwart

The answer to the questions "Best Sunday Lunch" in Worcestershire can be answered by the Queen Elizabeth, Elmley Castle.

Returning to the Queen Elizabeth, after the walk

The reason for this..... Good value, lamb is an option and cauliflower cheese is standard - not a charged add on.

And it's now a regular in the Good Beer Guide.

A bit of history - my first walking visit to the village found the place closed up. A desperate appeal was on a hand written note on the front door "when will this pub re-open?". In 2014, the locals decided to do something about being a dry village. After all, at one point in pubs hey-deys, they were served by 3. 

36 residents clubbed together and purchased the lease, re-opening the doors in the December of that year.

It's now the heart of the village - offering not only booze but a tea room/cafe opening from 9am, a library, a takeaway and running many theme nights. Quiz nights look good, with a £10 entry fee covering fish and chips.

To work up an appetite for lunch, a puppy friendly route is found from one of my many guide books. This was written in 1993 and describes a fast disappeared world of pub hospitality. An interview with the long term landlord, Tony Howells, revealed the following rather quaint thoughts;

• There was no need to advertise, as business was so good.
• The only food available then were crisps, the guide book writer at pains to point out the unusual "ham and mustard" flavour on offer
• Bar games are available - darts, shove halfpenny and quoits (anyone?)
• Opening hours are 12-3pm and 7-11pm..... but flexible if the cricket team are at home
• Dogs are welcome but not children

Build me a time machine!

1993 will do... no need to go back to when Elizabeth I visited

You simply cannot go wrong for the walk - head up the flanks of Bredon Hill and dependent on your energy levels, pick up any of the myriad paths to circuit the top. Today, we pick the shortest possible. One of our team is only six months old.

Puffing and panting up Bredon Hills

Walk Details

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks in Worcestershire, Walk 26

Distance - 3.5 Miles

13/05/23 - Centenary Way - Stage 18 - Harbury

 A bold claim is made - Harbury, the village with the most pubs in the UK

Back on the Centenary Way. After many disasters (HS2, Overgrown fields, failed stiles) it's OK to have a mundane, uninspiring walk with no hazards.

This is completed across agricultural land, heading South from the village of Harbury, meeting the M40 and turning back. Where there are crops, there are good paths through them. When there is mud, its manageable.

Good paths along the rape fields

Bluebells in Itchington Halt

Harbury village adds some much needed interest, with varied architecture, civil war history and a bold claim from the author of my guide book.

Harbury Mill - Currently Scaffold clad, but picture found on Flickr

Stephen Cross, Centenary Way guide book author and former mayor of Warwick, claims that Harbury has the highest number of public houses of any village in the UK. Stephen claims many watering holes were required to support the navvies from the nearby Oxford canal. Internet based research offers no collaboration of this fact so we can only use the evidence in front of us. 

The population is 2500 souls and until recently, there used to be 5 pubs. The Old New Inn and the Dog Inn have both gone. The former, for having a stupid name. The latter to create a nursery. Although judging by the behaviour of the after school mums who get tanked up on proscecco on a Friday afternoon, ruing the ambiance in the snug in MY local, closure was totally unnecessary. Let the kids run riot in the boozer. I'll take the crossword and my Butty Bach to Wacky Warehouse.

This leaves 3 pubs and there's little information to give Mappiman the information of which to visit. Few reviews on Pubsgalore. No Good Beer Guide Entries (Correction: And proof no one reads the blog to correct me - there is one!). Google reviews scream "avoid the Crown", but this may be a personal vendetta.

I was going to try the Gamecock but this looked uninviting, all in darkness but the door open to show its functioning.

This left the Shakespeare. A solid name for a Warwickshire pub and the sponsor of the local rugby club. Also the biggest in the village.

And the centre of all gossip.    

Largest pub in the village with most pubs.

Hard not to eavesdrop, especially when the groups of ladies voices drops to a pitch that you know the good stuff is coming. Only there 30 minutes and I learn who is the village cocaine addict is and the married teacher who is having an affair with one of the sixth formers.

Surprisingly, its not the same person.

Pub wise - you know you are in trouble when the menu is laminated and the size of a duvet. How many burger variations is too many? 

The Purity Ubu was more than serviceable and making up for the horrorshow of loaded chips, when all you wanted was a nice sandwich.

Chesterfields and a handsome pint of LocALE

Walk Information

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 6

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17

07/05/23 - January Man - April at RSPB Marshside, Merseyside

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man - Month by Month

Slight delay to April's chapter. I need to think of my global footprint.

April sees Christopher on the Southern banks of the Ribble Estuary, near Southport. His book is based on an English folk song and April's chorus leads;

 "Through the April rain the man goes down to watch the birds come to share the summer...."

In search of feathered friends, Christopher heads off to RSPB Marshside. An area that I find myself passing, following an early May sojourn to the Lake District.

RSPB Marshside

I've come prepared. Which Magazine best budget binoculars have been purchased. Possibly overkill for my first brush with nature.

Flap Flap Flap.... that'll never get off the ground

The bird sanctuary is a weird place to walk. It's half surrounded by a footpath shared with a golf course. The external perimeter is a fast road called Marine Drive. A mixture of freshwater wetlands and saltwater marshlands. Both loved by a variety of permanent and migrating bird-life.

Optical envy from professional twitchers, with bigger telescopes and camera lenses.

Odd rambling along Marine Drive

Easily the most interesting part of the walk was along the Old Haul Road. A dead end track to the sea, used historically by the sand works and according to signage, by commercial fishermen in the present day.

Even without the binoculars, its possible to make out the funfair entertainment in both directions. The pier and big wheel at Southport. The tower and the big dipper at Blackpool.

Old Haul Road - Path to the Sea

Walk Details

Previous Walks - January, February, March

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Marshside Visitors Map

06/05/23 - Rannerdale Knotts, Whiteless Pike and Wandope

 Finding my limits on the eastern path from Wandope

Time to pick off a few more Wainwrights and a valuable lesson learned for my future self. Rather than actually pick a route at random - have a look at the complexity and height gain.

This is the closest I have got to giving up, lying down and waiting for someone to come to the rescue.

The walks is in one of the most beautiful parts of the Lake District, Buttermere. I was last here on the Inn Way to the Lake District and took the time for an afternoon nap on a little spit of headland jutting into Crummock Water. On awakening, I got a little emotional at the beauty and had a little cry. It was nothing to do with the lunch time four pints of Loweswater Gold at the Kirstile Inn.

The walk is meant to start at a little free parking area at the bottom of Rannerdale Knotts. I am early, but it is Saturday on a bank holiday weekend and in the one bit of planning I do, I spot more space elsewhere.

My walk begins at Newlands Hause, opposite Moss Force.

Opposite Moss Force 

The guidebook does explain that this in intricate and occasionally off path. I recognise that I have to cross Mill Beck and this proves easy enough with walking poles to balance on slippery stones.  Its then up and up to Rannderdale Knotts - providing superb views across the lakes.

Buttermere and Crummock from the end of Rannderdale Knotts

The descent is steep but short and the true start of the walk is found.  Yep, the car park is full.  I made the correct decision.

Doubling back on myself along Squat Beck, the bluebells are out if force. A roped walkway avoiding unnecessary trampling. Fleece off, predicted thunderstorms failing to materialise, this is as good as the day gets.

Through the Bluebells

I can see Whiteless Pike and convince myself that I am not going up the huge lump looming over it.

This is, of course, Wandope. 51st out of 214 in terms of height. It's a relentless plod. Fell runners in both directions laugh at my lack of fitness.

Whiteless Pike - dropping off to climb Wandope (peak to the right)

Then it all goes slightly wrong. The path east off Wandope (running past the hanging valley of Addacombe Hole) is a feint dashed line on the map. I get to the edge and look for it and there is nothing on the ground - just the steepest drop I have ever seen.

I am unsure what to do. It doesn't look safe, but I have no other way than forward, unless I go back the way I came.

Tentatively, I head "off piste", half hoping one of the other walkers will see me and talk me down.

After a very nervous start, a sole footprint is spotted in the peat and there is the faintest of paths dropping straight down along a thin ridge. Even with walking poles, I decide the only way to descend is on my backside, using the poles as some sort of breaking oar.  

Sliding down starts as a good idea, if a little unglamorous, until my trousers ride up.

I am now wearing my testicles as ear-rings.  

Getting to the bottom at Addacombe Beck, I see that I am supposed to do another climb - Ard Crags and Knott Rigg.

There's simply nothing left in the tank, but thankfully, I do have an escape route. The path running underneath Bleak Rigg will return me to where I crossed Mill Beck and a short climb back to the car.

Hugging the valley floor for as long as possible

I've never stopped so many times on a walk. My average speed, 1.23 MPH.    

Once back in civilisation, I investigate other people's experience of this route. I have read of a few who have walked up this killer path to Wandope.  

They all vow "never again".

I also google steepest incline safe to walk and find this;

An able-bodied person might go up an incline that is 45-50 degrees without the need of a harness, spotter, safety handles, or restraint. People who have excellent balance and great centers of gravity fall into this group of people who can climb such things unassisted.

The descent from Wandope is 40-49 degrees.

Walk Details

Distance - 8 Miles

Duration - 5 hours

Average Speed - 1.23 MPH

Height Gain - 3120ft

Walk Inspiration - Walking the Wainwrights, Graham Ulney, Walk 54 

 

Geocaches - 0