ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – TRACK BREWERY TAP, PICCADILLY

May 2024. Manchester. Three (3) entries in the Mancunian Beer Book ticked in a little over an hour, all of them modern brewery taps underneath (or close to) the railway arches. What a cliche I’m becoming. But Track make excellent real ale; their Sonoma has been one of the great cask beers of the last…

ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – BALANCE BREWING, PICCADILLY

May 2024. Manchester. Two hours till kick-off, a dangerous amount of time with Piccadilly’s brew taps on the route. I was challenged last month when I (re) visited Sureshot. “Why (oh why) didn’t you do Balance. It’s next door !”. And so it is. Under the arches, as Flanagan and Allen once sang, but not…

ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – RUNAWAY BREWERY, MANCHESTER

May 2024. Stockport. A 5.30 Saturday kick-off v Wolves at the Etihad, sadly no longer clashing with Olivia Rodrigo at the Co-op across the road as she opted to busk outside the Arndale Centre instead, sounded perfect. The walk through Sheffield station on Bank Holiday Saturday finds the city as busy as I’ve seen it,…

KINVER EDGE ROCK HOUSES

May 2024. Kinver. Herefordshire complete, our campervan overnighter at the Waterworks in Hereford’s posh bit (I know !) was quiet apart from the alarm going off twice, the second occasion prompting a security van to come out. Probably just a werewolf. Better than the alternatives at the dodgy-sounding St. Martin’s car park. Never mind the…

IT’S A BLACK COUNTRY WORLD AND WE’RE JUST TICKING IN IT

May 2024. Hereford. An unsatisfactory overnighter in Hereford, lacking return visits to the Barrels and the crafty place, but I did tick the last newbie in the county, and while the Orange Tree may be a bit identikit Black Country it was cheery and the beer was great so I’ll take the win. A young…

HEREFORD BACK STREET BOOZER

May 2024. Hereford. Day 2 of the May Marches march. We needed a place to park up for the night in Hereford, a place with toilet facilities for Mrs RM; what could be more appropriate that the overflow car park for the town Waterworks Museum, tantalisingly only open on Tuesdays. Just as tantalisingly, I could…

DILWYN WEARS THE CROWN

May 2024. Dilwyn. Leominster. I loved this Marches trip; fantastic scenery, new roads to pink in on the Philip Navigator (that’s never happening), and some first ever visits to places like Docklow and Dilwyn, which sounds like a Leominster solicitor. Sadly the weather was too grim for a visit to the rhododendrons at Hergest Croft…

REMEMBERING HEREFORDSHIRE’S CLASSIC, BASIC AND UNSPOILT PUBS

The roads get slower and tighter as you leave the relative luxury of the A456 Ludlow-Bewdley road, the trail that converted us to the joys of perpetual travel 30 years ago. My first Herefordshire pubs, when GBG ticking was yet to become an obsession, were possibly of RW Coe’s list of Classic, Basic and Unspoilt…

CIDER WITH MRS RM. THE TENBURY VAULTS.

May 2024. Tenbury Wells. An attractive but not especially prosperous little, town, the Market Drayton of the Marches I finally decided, home to Robinsons (no relation) Cider whose livery decorates the last GBG entry here. Scarily, that Pembroke visit was eight (8) years ago, when I noted “Tenbury looks a bit worn, not helped by traffic…

ELECTION DAY, TENBURY WELLS

May 2024. Tenbury Wells. Election morning in Ludlow, where I almost overslept the free period in the car park and then nipped out to get the shot of the famous Feathers Hotel, which has seemingly ditched cask and converted its bar to a Starbucks, so lose/lose. We sleep surprisingly well in the campervan, as long…