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
January 2026. Waverley. Rotherham. “What’s new and shiny in Sheff ?” is the Eternal Question asked by beery tourists, and truth is the central “scene” (ugh) has settled down a bit since the Old Shoe, though we’ve now got an upmarket...
January 2026. Waverley. Rotherham. I knew it would take something new and exciting to persuade Mrs RM to stop refining her Sarajevo blog and come out for a walk on the remains of Orgreave pits, and that something new and exciting was a...
January 2026. Bradford. 2.9 miles in 37 minutes from the Crown down to the Alhambra, and a sorry tale of pub death awaits, despite a year as the UK’s Capital of Culture (and it IS a cultural giant). This is the extract from CAMRA’s...
January 2026. Waterbeach. It takes great resolve to take the train to Bradford and only have one pint; no-one ever completed the GBG like that. But the Crown out on the western suburbs was the totality of my toping that Monday, partly...
January 2026. South Blackpool. Another 20 minutes wait for a tram at Blackpool Tower (I’m not making this up); I’d have walked the mile to the Tipsy Seagull quicker. Not only were we meeting Blackpool Jane, in actual Blackpool, we were...
January 2026. Blackpool. If in doubt, tell the truth. I was wiped out by the time I’d finished that pint of Acorn Blonde in Bispham, fit only to head back to the warm embrace St Annes Travelodge with a cup of M & S instant coffee and an...
January 2026. Bispham. Blackpool. I like this Blackpool tram map so much I’m going to use it in my Rotherham post. None of you will notice. Ah, Bispham. How do you even pronounce it ? And why is Little Bispham so far from Bispham proper,...
January 2026. Cleveleys. Blackpool. This Blackpool tram map is getting some use. More use than the actual trams that Friday, anyway. Two uncoventional new pubs in the GBG in Cleveleys, but the Wobblinn has one thing that might attract...
January 2026. Cleveleys. Blackpool. Dashing from the Beer Shed, I made the Fisherman’s Walk tram stop with 20 seconds to spare. Or actually, 20 minutes, as the trams north seemed to head into Fleetwood and disappear. “Trams every 10...
January 2026. Fleetwood. I’d travelled the length of Blackpool’s tram network for some photos of a noble if faded seaside town and a GBG tick. And, while the Beer Shed looks a bit plain micropub, it’s another exemplar of the model,...
January 2026. Fleetwood. Not really a cut-out-and-keep guide, and I’d struggle to sell you Fleetwood (pop. 26,232, plus a Football League team) as a holiday destination, but it’s better than Clacton, so there’s that. I had half an hour...
January 2026. Blackpool. When you left us Mrs RM was in St Annes Spoons, resisting the onion rings but succumbing to Chardonnay and Cointreau after that Imperial Stout. It may be her only relapse during an otherwise impeccably observed...
January 2026. St Annes. Mrs RM decided to leave the Fifteen at Seventeen Twenty-Three. I have no idea why. “A walk along the bracing sea front, Mrs RM ?“ “No, Mr RM. Tea and back to that nice warm room at the Travelodge“. St Annes was...
January 2026. St Annes. Two nights in St Annes, with Friday designated as “Tick Blackpool Day”, so we went local on Thursday. St. Tanz is the sort of genius pun that BRAPA would be proud of, in a seaside retirement town that lacks trad...
January 2026. Lytham St. Annes. A confession. The things that stress me aren’t the things that should stress an approaching middle-age boomer. I detest cars. Last Autumn (America – “Fall”) our Citroen’s gears started playing up, the main...