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. Saltaire. Bradford. Shame on you for thinking we’d abandon the Cask Camino within a month.# No, we are true pilgrims, committed to the cause of bringing you exciting pub stops along the Leeds-Liverpool canal, which we resume...
July 2026. Sawley. Derbyshire. The pint of Abbot in Pub 5 was a mistake. I sensed a dash to the station and a return to the warm embrace of the Sang Lung was called for. But our last pub was just across from the trains, and I ought to...
July 2026. Sawley. You left me in the Steamboat (Pub 5), unaware that the queue averse crawlers had skipped Pub 4 due to a surge in demand for calamari and Madri. Back at the Trent Lock, it transpired that Bass was indeed on, but being...
July 2026, Sawley. Derbyshire. Well I clearly wasn’t taking proper notes last Friday as I can’t remember what we talked about, but since Oxford Nick was there it must have been very intellectual or c oncerned obscure pysch-pop. I’m...
July 2026. Sawley. Derbyshire. A really great day’s pubbing organised by Super Shawn of Leicester; half a dozen stops in suburban Derby close to the Trent. The only issue is the anti-social inclinations of some pub crawlers surveyors....
July 2026. Sawley. Derbyshire. A fair few pubs for the 6,629 good folk of Sawley, most of them in the Good Beer this century. I’d started at the smart allrounder and GBG perennial White Lion, by which time the breakaway group had already...
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...