A good month pub wise, with 37 new Beer Guide pubs in 15 counties (more if you’re using proper county definition), and finishing off the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Warwicks chapters of the GBG. I didn’t get to the Anchor in Anchor or the Isle of Wight, but an impromptu trip to Thanet compensated for that.  As Erlangen… Continue reading APRIL STOCKTAKE

It’s a rare day I stay at home, but I promised Mrs RM I’d go with her to our local pub’s Beer Festival, just to be unusually sociable.   The Sun is the drinkers pub in a village of about 5,000, recently reduced by the closure of the RAF base.  It’s the first pub I… Continue reading WATERBEACH SUN’S BEER FESTIVAL

Thursday is Bedfordshire day.  Words to strike fear into the heart of any traveller except the estimable Simon Everitt, probably the only other person to have walked the county ticking off the largely dull Beer Guide pubs. I do like to give places a second chance though, and Simon had formed a better impression of… Continue reading SANDY -BIRD SONG,PALE ALE & CLANGERS

I didn’t actually realise Surbiton was a place until I started visiting the Beer Guide pubs in SW London. I’d always thought it was a borough name like Elmbridge or Merton.  The geography around the Kingston/Surrey borders takes some getting used to. I’m still not quite sure what distinguishes it from Long Ditton and Kingston, but I guess… Continue reading SURBITON IN THE SNOW

My sympathies are with the family and friends of the late Doris Jemison, the quite wonderful landlady of the Red Lion in Snargate. Doris’s was on my list for a revisit for many years, so I will now have to treasure the one visit I made in 2000, when the pub made a significant impression… Continue reading SNARGATE’S CLASSIC, BASIC AND UNSPOILT PUB

As I come towards the end of this years new Beer Guide entries for “Greater” London, I’m starting to get full value out my Travelcard by crossing the dangerous border into Surrey when I can. On Tuesday that meant the train to the furthest extremity of Zone 6 at Hampton Court, crossing the road to… Continue reading CONTRASTS IN EAST MOLESEY

Not sure the strong beers in Waterloo Tap were a good way to warm up for the powerboat trip along the Thames, but our stomachs just about survived. Only (!) 35mph along the Thames, but incredibly bumpy and more fun than much of Thorpe Park.  The hail and lightning added to the theatre. Tourist sights… Continue reading THE RESTING HARE, EUSTON