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
December 2025. Horsforth. Leeds. Visiting these last few West Yorkshire Beer Guide newbies, like Sir Geoff tickling singles off the Australian attach at Headingley in ’64, I head for Horsforth. Actually, I head for Kirkstall Forge, a...
December 2025. Leeds. There’s no point running this blog as a diary if it’s not honest. So, a week after boasting about my athleticism, brought on impatience, I need to confess to my clumsiness, as in my dash to edge past two folk...
December 2025. Sheffield. Perhaps only Will the Sheffield Hatter is as passionate about beer quality in the pub as I am, starting many a scrap reasoned debate on CAMRA Discourse of late. Like Will, I reckon that quality can vary by the...
Dave mentioning the brilliant Lola Young reminds me I’ve still to delight you with my Top 10 albums for 2025, so you can start playing them and get your “Spotify age” down from 64 to 24 next year. Goodness know what my actual 24 year old...
December 2025. Bolsover. We’d ticked the last new entry in Derbyshire, Mrs RM had expressed complete disinterest in walking the bounds to Snipe Bogg and Carr Vale Flash, so all that was left of Bolsover was a trip to B & M bargains to...
December 2025. Bolsover. From folk debating the Beast of Bolsover in Wakefield to the actual town where Dennis Skinner was MP for 49 years. Sometimes this blog doesn’t feel completely random A last tick in Derbyshire for GBG26....
December 2025. Wakefield. I mean, who waits patiently at a station between connections ? 20 minutes, or 45 in Wakefield Kirgate on the way back from Todmorden, is the ideal time for stretching your legs to explore regal street art,...
“Man cannot live by The Word alone“. He also needs pints of Bass and a balanced diet, like the one in Wigan’s Swan and Railway (above). Rushing between 3 homes, Mrs RM has done miracles with a slow cooker, but rarely spending 3 days in a...
Almost forgot ! I wrote the annual awards edition so promptly I missed the monthly round-up that’s part of your contractual entitlement. And who can forget December ? A month of magic and Martin’s birthday, if short on trips to Merthyr...
December 2025. Todmorden. “Look after yourself” says the Old Boy in the Fox with whom I’ve bonded over 5 minutes of dissing trad media, which says a lot about the joy of pubs. My state of mind will depend largely on whether Nan Moor’s is...
December 2025. Todmorden. I’d really needed to get away, anywhere, after the boredom of the Christmas visits, and Todmorden (via Mirfield) provided the perfect day trip. Two hours, two changes of train, perfect winter Calderdale scenery,...
December 2025. Mirfield. Enough of this “Christmas” nonsense scuppering rail plans, the 27th brings a chance to escape Sheffield and gets some steps in. My route skips Leeds for a change, with a stop in Wakefield Kirkgate’s artistic...
You’ve had the pub awards, now it’s time for Retired Martin’s highlights in travel, food and music. And possibly fashion. Though possibly not. Two maps for you, domestic, and international, with a heavy emphasis on countries nervously...
December 26th 2025. Tonbridge. Our boys were keen to get the grandparent visits done early on Boxing Day and head back North, and with no Christmas night entertainment in Waterbeach (they play charades and whist in Histon) we found...
December 25th 2025. Cambridge. Up until COVID we’d try to be away every Christmas, as far from turkey dinners as possible. 10 years ago it was Cuba, one year we were in a Travelodge in Workington. This year, duty calls. As you’ve already...