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
March 2026. Beverley. There’s more to life than pubs. “No there’s not”. My blog, my rules, time for culture. One of the bonuses of parking up in the campervan at Driffield Riverhead (£10 donation to canal conservation), apart from a...
March 2026. Wansford. East Yorkshire. A mile south of delightful Driffield, our final Humberside + tick, and once again not a classic, but plenty good enough. Always best to leave your final East Yorkshire pub to Hull. Not much to say...
March 2026. Hornsea. East Yorkshire. Saturday at home in Sheffield means tearing at the leash to get out Sunday, despite, you know, weeds to pull and all that. Two hours later I’m in Hornsea for my penultimate East Yorkshire tick, which...
February 2026. Edenham. Lincolnshire. Not quite Greater Grantham, more Bigger Bourne. Have any of you ever been to Bourne ? I knew nothing about little Edenham, 15 minutes off the A1 and Newton’s house, just past that Corby Glen I wrote...
February 2026. Islington. 20 minutes walk from Bombay Corner to my gig at Islington Assembly Hall over Regent’s Canal. Walking London is a joy, questionable football clubs apart. Not the most, or best, pubbed part of London, but great to...
February 2026. London. From Charlton the train takes you back over the Thames, then stops abruptly at Cannon Street. It’s a quarter to six in the City of London; let’s have a look. Not many suits or bowler hats or folded copies of the...
February 2026. Charlton. Two South London pubs relatively close together, but with no great public transport option that I understood, so an athletic walk west from Plumstead to Charlton through some “unprepossessing” suburbia, where...
February 2026. Woolwich to Plumstead. Gig night in London, a chance to get a rare couple of GBG ticks, with an exciting Thameslink trip past London Bridge (new and shiny) and Greenwich (old) to Woolwich (scruffy but exciting). I knew...
February 2026. Downham Market. £9.30 “invested” on an old person’s evening out in Downham Market, and all I had to show for it were some blurred photos from the Crown, which I’m out to convince you is a great pub. Perhaps I can borrow...
February 2026. Downham Market. When mum was coming towards the end of her life just over a year ago I was virtually living in Waterbeach. The only thing keeping me sane were a few short rail trips once mum was in bed, exciting places...
February 2026. Waterbeach. My cousins from North Norfolk came over last week to give us hand clearing Mum’s belongings (yes, it’s a long process). They used to love visiting Sunnyside, and have recently acquired a liking for the Nepalese...
February 2026. Back from Hull, Mrs RM taunts me with photos from her Rome weekend. Prize if you can name this one, quite famous I reckon. I’d been abandoned while she went off on her girls weekend, but I get to sit in my new favourite...
February 2026. Hull. I can’t leave Hull without another quick look at the Old Town, one of our very finest. The city really got its tourist act together for its spell as UK Capital of Culture, producing loads of trails for its wealth of...
February 2026. Hull. Just back from a lovely evening with James at the “new” Harlequin, burgers and 12% Dutch banana bread pastry stouts, and finding it hard to find the enthusiasm to complete my blogs on Hull. Which probably sums up the...
Only 30 different pubs, and 10 Italian bars in a month of just one revisit; the Fargate proving its popularity with Sheffield folk during trips with Ian and Rich (two top Pub Men), who would have approved of this pump clip. February was...