retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
April 2026. Lincoln. Easter Monday means one of a) pubs you expect to be closed are open, b) pubs you expect open are closed, c) trains don’t run, or d) you’ve got a hangover from Sunday night. I took a punt on the Adam & Eve in Wragby,...
April 2026. Barkisland. West Yorkshire. As you’ll observe, I don’t tend to suffer from writer’s block, unless I stupidly follow pints of Old Peculier with pints of Wobbly Bob and suffer the consequences. Vikram Seth is still struggling...
April 2026. Norden. Greater Manchester. Look at those contour lines ! An underrated place, Greater Rochdale, with micros in the town and hills all around. And top blogger (and bloke) Tandleman and the lovely E close by. But what does...
A Gusty Good Day In Walsall.
April 2026. Norden. Greater Manchester. Closing in on a belated completion of Greater Manchester GBG entries now (two Wigan brewery taps left, and who can guess when they’ll be open). As you’ll know by now I tend to go stir crazy if I...
April 2026. Bingley. West Yorkshire. A very quick in Steeton in the drizzle, then a hop back on the train to Leeds and home. Very unsatisfactory, there must be a worthwhile stop that isn’t Leeds or Wakefield. Where to break the trip back...
April 2026. Steeton. West Yorkshire. I shouldn’t be jealous of anyone, really, jealousy gets you nowhere. But I do look at Simon’s blog and wish I was travelling round the country doing seven pints a day again. While BRAPA was finding...
April 2026. Manchester. A day in central Manchester, the modern bit between St Peters and the Irwell, with a diversion through Spinninfields (no ta), and a quick look at the history of Unionism (yes please) in the wonderful People’s...
April 2026. Manchester. Quite a contrast between the central squares in Tyldesley, and Manchester, where I find Mrs RM in the art gallery. Well, the cafe. She tells me the city looks gorgeous in the sun, the flashy high rise...
April 2026. Tyldesley. You can’t come to Tyldesley and just do the lone new GBG entry. Perhaps I should have gone craft, but the lure of the longstanding “Proper” pub was too strong, so the Union Arms it was. Thwaites on the bar, a clear...
April 2026. Tyldesley. A slight post now, perhaps, but I thought you’d like to see the highlights of my mile walk through central Tyldesley (pop. 16,142) in Wigan’s old colliery belt. Love a Monkey Puzzle tree. A spotless red brick town,...
April 2026. Tyldesley. My GBG newbie is over a mile from the centre of Tyldesley, in an area of neatly kept old mine workers houses, pleasant if unremarkable. You’ll need to cross the A580 into Astley for the really interesting houses...
April (finally !) 2026. Manchester to Tyldesley. You learn a lot about the UK transport networks as a pub ticker. Some towns stand out as tough to tick, particularly the string of mining towns without a railway station between Manchester...
March 2026. Waterbeach. Waterbach Gault looked rather lovely last Tuesday. Less so, the contents of the skip we’d hired to clear muck from garage and potting shed. The house sale rumbles into its 15th month, quite the most stressful 15...
March 2026. Chesterton. Back down in Waterbeach, where Dad was looking better groomed than myself, and then a catch-up with Dortmund Annie to discuss “stuff” at the Haymakers. A possible answer to a quiz question, Milton (via Waterbeach)...