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
February 2026. Lichfield. Quite a rarity for me to get three new GBG pubs in quick succession these days, on a bus line as well. The number 36 rumbles between Walsall and Lichfield every half hour purely for the benefit of Beer Guide...
February 2026. Stonnall. A rare new GBG pub double, and just a 20 minute stroll from Lazy Hill in the West Midlands down to Stonnall over the Staffs border. I am delighted to find I know nothing about Stonnall (pop. 1,546) so I use AI....
February 2026. Aldridge. Walsall. No railway station in Aldridge (the curse of B******g), but plenty of buses from my secret campervan stop. I still made the schoolboy error of heading for central Aldridge, confused by Lazy Turtles and...
February 2026. Aldridge. Walsall. What can possibly compete with a wet Sunday in Letchworth ? Why, a wet Tuesday in Greater Walsall, of course. Where would I rather be than a shopping arcade in Aldridge, ruminating on my culinary...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. According to the times on my photos, I left my first Letchworth pub of the afternoon at 16:27 and entered my fifth at 17.29, which even by my standards is going some, particular with a detour to the...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. I write my posts almost entirely chronologically (rather than thematically), because, oddly, that’s how my life tends to work. So, from the Arena to the Cinema, Letchworth’s Art Deco gem, “now...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. Just for you, a map showing all the things in Letchworth, a town rather changed from our time there 35 years ago. Notably, Sagar Tandoori where we ended our £40 Friday night splurge with a flaming...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. Not a great day to explore Letchworth on foot, and apart from pubs and “Marty Supreme” at the cinema there’s not a lot to do apart from loiter in pubs, but you can’t visit and not see the old...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. If you can’t be bothered to read the next week’s deluge of posts, here’s the spoiler: Letchworth was really good, with a great variety of drinking establishments (I’ll let CAMRA debate whether...
February 2026. Letchworth Garden City. The weekly visit to see Dad in his Cambridge care home found him in rude health, no doubt in part due to the food at Hatley Court, which is (genuinely) better than anything I eat these days. I’d...
February 2026. Gleadless Townend. Sheffield. I suppose it’s best to accept the inevitable…in 2026 we’re just not going to get any new Victoria/Edwardian multi-room heritage pubs. But there’s an infinite number of one room shop conversion...
February 2026. Banner Cross. A rare trip out to posh (but not snooty, oh no) Banner Cross in Sheffield’s West End, to get Ian his new GBG tick. He wasn’t rushing to leave for the bus back, with the terrifying prospect of a pint with...
February 2026. Banner Cross. Sheffield. Approaching middle-age, I feel less and less inclined to turn down any offers of a pub and a chat, even if it does mean staying in Sheffield rather than a slog to Shetland. And the pub tickers are...
February 2026. West Didsbury. I left Matt back at Piccadilly, no doubt to attend to housework, and added a rare Greater Manchester GBG newbie before City v Fulham. This year’s Manc ticking has been a bit of a slog, with brewery taps in...
February 2026. Stockport. Hah ! Clickbait. Not a new local for me, though Mrs RM is already tired of Sheffield as our house has a garden that she now regrets buying. Why can’t you make an increased offer to buy a property without a...