July 2026. Whitley Bay. Tyne and Wear ticked for another year, I thought I’d best visit the Bay bit of Whitley, as I seem to be the only person not heading to the coast this summer. Will the water be warm enough to swim in by September ? Oddly, more adults than children on the sand, apparently sifting through...

July 2026. Whitley Bay. A Monday night on the Toon gives an unencumbered man many options. Though not, sadly, the micro pub in Seaton Delavel, which would have been a nice tick on the Northumberland line if open. I drop my bag at the easyHotel, which has impressive tiling, but some technical issues. A lady asks me...

July 2026. Newcastle. Mrs RM’s sporting injury (pics only available to Patronised readers) precluding a return to the Cask Camino, I set off alone in search of blog material. You can get a return to Newcastle for £33 from Sheffield, and outside the heady stag/hen weekends the Toon has bargain central rooms, as you...

July 2026. Sheffield. I drove down with the boys to see Dad a week ago, and back the same day. Dad didn’t recognise us, but was enjoying the company and the fishcakes, which is what matters. Now Sunnyside is sold I’ve no need to stay in Waterbeach, and the boys have no fondness for Cambridge, though I can’t imagine...

July 2026. Sheffield. The boys wanted to visit Dad with me, so we all popped down Saturday after a night of fringe fun. Tramlines “proper” is Sheffield’s equivalent of Latitude (ugh), without the pashminas and laughing gas and dangerous proximity to Southwold. 3 days (no camping) of heritage (ugh) bands living off...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. A short post to end Whitchurch on a high. A 4pm opener, 12 minutes walk to the station, train to Crewe at 16:44. Perfect. And the Crafty Dragon, which I am going to call the Magic Dragon, opened a minute early. I like that in a pub. Opening half an hour early and not telling folk...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. Two to go, before a dash to the station and a series of gaps between trains that weren’t quite long enough to fit in more “research” in Crewe and Stockport. The Black Bear is the pub in that Visit Shropshire guide, mainly because it’s a restaurant. A chap barges past me to win the...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. You can generate a mass of blog material in a 4 hour visit, even with 5 pubs and a 10 minute indecision about cheese purchase to interrupt your cultural exploration. As with pork pies, cheese is best heated up. Don’t @ me. I wondered what else the internet would reveal about...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. I picked up that Whitchurch pub trail leaflet at the Heritage Centre, thinking I could send it to Stafford’s Paul Mudge for his collection. One thing though; it seems to bear no relation to the actual pubs. And not just because of daft name changes. No Wheatsheaf, no Old Eagles,...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Salop. Apart from visiting (spoiler) five pubs in Whitchurch, what is there to actually do in this compact little borders town of 10,000 if the award winning pie maker is unexpectedly closed ? Well, I could have got my hair cut at a barbers with the best window display in decades, and a...

July 2026. Dodington. Whitchurch. “Ain’t that just lil ‘ol England” is a line said to me by (wait for it) an American tourist in Haddenham (Oxon) a few years back as she stared at a street of coloured timber. Several Haddenhams, and many Whitchurches. Our Shropshire one has all the usual features of a Borders town;...

July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. By law all blog posts must show where the subject of your writing is in relation to Wrexham. Well, Whitchurch must be close, as I had Magic Dragon’s beers in three (3) pubs last Thursday. A fourth was Joules from Market Drayton, practically the next town down, and the nap hand...