April 2026. Bradford. I miss Richard Coldwell. A funny, intelligent, opinionated man, he would have had interesting things to say about pork pies and pub opening times. He’d have had an opinion on cafes like the Dales Cottage putting their entire menus on blackboards along the wall, too. I’d been putting off a trip...

April 2026. Skipton. I seem to have upset my many esteemed Yorkshire readers, something to do with gravy, so to redeem myself here’s a post on saving yourself £12.80 on your visit to Skipton Castle. OK, you won’t actually get inside the castle by walking round the woods, but there’s no pub inside the walls anyway,...

April 2026. Skipton. Last week we went to Skipton again. Three (3) reasons; a re-opened GBG new entry to tick, a blog post series idea to explore, and a pork pie to audit. In 2022 I had declared Stanforths the best pork pie in England, but a recent change of ownership (if not name) had seen a string of scathing...

One of the most exciting travel months for a while, with a Big Day Out in Tutbury the highlight, as we finally, finally, complete the sale of the family house. Sixty (60) different pubs in a month, that’s nearly two a day, surely ? A few old classics in that list. Sunnyside looked a picture when we left. I wonder...

April 2026. Salford. Greater Manchester’s pubs complete, I headed back to Wigan Wallgate, ignoring the lure of the Bass in the Swan & Railway, and joining a group of bewildered young women on a train heading to Todmorden via Victoria. “Where’s Todmorden ?“ “Never heard of it !“ “Somewhere near Blackburn ?“ What do...

April 2026. Wigan. My final Greater Manchester GBG26 newbie is a good couple of miles west of town, and which man doesn’t want a 45 minute slog through industrial wasteland and retail parks to an industrial estate brewery tap. Despite being in one of the world’s great pub towns, I decided on moderation, and had one...

April 2026. Wigan. Another weekend, another trip to Manchester, but this time for a rare Saturday gig. Not that the lack of football means Piccadilly is any quieter, Platform 14 showcasing the nation’s favourite train beers. Perhaps. A change from a train at Platform 14, toward Blackpool rather than Liverpool,...

April 2026. Guisborough. North Yorkshire. This next “pub” had been irritating me for a year or more with its Friday and Saturday 3pm-7pm hours, but you take the rough with the smooth as a GBG ticker, and Guisborough is a nice little saunter in the sun. The priory grounds are free to wander, and picnic, and flirt,...

April 2026. Skelton-in-Cleveland. North Yorkshire. By noon last Friday I’d clocked up 16k of steps, almost enough to wipe out a third Thursday night’s crispy beef calories, and I still had 3 hours to waste away before my straggler of a GBG “pub” opened. Let’s explore Skelton (pop. 6,535, similar to Waterbeach), one...

April 2026. Saltburn-by-the-Sea. I visited the Cleveland coast in last weekend’s heatwave, or at least that’s what it felt like with the radiant heat stronger than the air temperature. My irritating 3pm GBG opener (go on, guess what it is) meant half a day to kill by the seaside, admiring Saltburn’s floral displays,...

April 2026. Loftus. North Yorkshire. As an old Cleveland mining town with a population about the size of Waterbeach, Loftus didn’t promise much more than a couple of cheery micropubs, and the run of boarded up shops and chippies where the A174 meets the old station road is grim. But walk east up the hill from Mad...

April 2026. Loftus. North Yorkshire. I’d picked unsung Loftus for my campervan overnighter as it was free, a short bus ride to Staithes, and had a new GBG entry to tick. Sadly that was shut on Thursday, but next door Mad Alice’s was just opening, and I wasn’t going anywhere else. I outed myself as a Camra...