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
July 2026. Sawley. Derbyshire. Another month, another top pub crawl, again organised by the estimable Shawn Collier of Leicester. Long Eaton station for Derbyshire’s Sawley and the Trent; can this unsung corner of the East Midlands match...
Learn more July 2026. Crosby. Merseyside. Attempting to rescue gig night in Liverpool without the gig, I’d at least done the culture and the beach, and could now get a new GBG tick in curious Crosby, where even the safetywear outlets...
July 2026. Waterloo/Crosby. Merseyside. An afternoon in Liverpool before a gig that had just been cancelled; what to do ? Loads of museums, but most of the Scouse culture comes in the pubs, and the Globe or the Vines would have been top...
July 2026. Liverpool. Since we got back from all that foreign muck in Armenia you’ve had a string of classic UK pubs. The Harp, the Cock, the Rutland, the New Barrack, the KIT, the Tunbridge Wells Spoons…. And a trip to Liverpool on...
July 2026. Sheffield. As you’ll know by now, I care little about beer, but much about beer quality in pubs. Perhaps only someone who’s had an NBSS 5 Doom Bar and an NBSS 2 Harvey’s Sussex will understand the distinction. In truth, I...
Late with the highlights, but at least the blog is now virtually up-to-date, or was before this week’s Proper Day Out in Sawley. Always best to start the month with a Dalek. A typical looking June map, lots of Lancashire, Yorkshire,...
June 2026. Holme. Cambridgeshire. We popped down early on Tuesday to see Dad on his 91st birthday with card and chocolate. He barely stirred from sleep, at least until the Salvation Army band turned up after lunch to play for him. I...
June 2026. Shipley. Despite the lure of a pint in Shipley’s top-rated pub, and a chance for Mrs RM to use David Hockney for a boost in views like I did with Humphrey, we called it a night after that curry. But as we headed back to the...
June 2026. Shipley. West Yorkshire. Well, I know two (2) readers who’ll want to see pictures of Bradford curry. We called it a day at Gallows Bridge, a memorable place from which to restart the Cask Camino, and headed to the £29.99...
June 2026. Bradford. You left us outside the George & Dragon in Apperley Bridge, where a couple of pedestrians had just used the horsey crossing rather than the human one in contravention of some ancient by-law or other, which was...
June 2026. Apperley Bridge. West Yorkshire. Back on the Cask Camino last Sunday, which seems to be the regular date solely on account of the Travelodges on the way being £30 rather than £189 that day, at least till we get to Skipton. We...
June 2026. Sheffield. An actual day at home in Sheffield last Saturday. It was torture. I was so sleepy I needed a cool drink, so why I ended up drinking cider at the New Barrack is a mystery. This was of the the famous ale houses a...
June 2026. Sheffield. Thursday morning saw a bit of tension in the dining room at Tunbridge Wells’s Russell Hotel, which had kindly found Mrs RM a fan while I was out melting in London. You’ll remember Mrs RM had ordered the Full English...
June 2026. London. A bit hot for a gig last Wednesday, but after a week in Armenia I really needed a night of cask and chaos in central London, and you won’t easily beat that Harp/Cock combo for a reintroduction to the joys of the...
June 2026. London. In central London on the hottest day of the year, I had that joy of an aimless pre-gig wander through the capital, now so freed of traffic you can cross roads without looking and stand in the middle of busy streets...