Category: TravALEogues

Penistone line train

Posted on by Guest

An attempt at an Ale Trail on the Penistone Rail Line which runs between Barnsley and Huddersfield. The first part of the line opened in 1850 between Huddersfield and Penistone, with the other part following later. It is designated as a “Community Rail Line” and covers a 27 Mile Route (from Sheffield to Huddersfield).

Dodworth – Dodworth Tap

After changing trains at Barnsley and hopping om board the train to Huddersfield, the first stop on the Penistone Line was Dodworth. The village is known as being a former coal mining village and the memorial stands in the centre of the village with some great history about nearby pits.

The pub I called into here is called “Dodworth Tap”, formerly known as the Station Inn, but opened in July 2020 after the amazing renovation work which makes the pub look so good. A large inside area with a huge stone fireplace along the back wall, alongside a great sized outdoor area.

A great choice of 5 real ales on the bar here to choose from, “White Rat” from Ossett Brewery was my choice, one of my favourite beers which never disappoints. Was great to meet up with the couple being The Great British Pub Crawl aswell here. Check out their adventures HERE.

Can also try Thorneley Arms further down the road if you want more time in Dodworth.

Silkstone Common – The Station Inn

The next station on the line was Silkstone Common. This one is a literal walk off the platform and into the pub, “The Station Inn”. A really warm and welcoming village pub full of locals when I entered. Sunday Lunches are served aswell as other food events during the week.

A choice of 2 real ales on the bar here, Timothy Taylor “Landlord” and Bradfield “Farmers Blonde”. I went with “Farmers Blonde” from Bradfield Brewery. A great easy drinking blonde beer.

A huge outdoor beer garden to the left of the pub (next to the train station entrance), which includes some small wooden cabins so lots of seating for the summer months,

Penistone – Penistone Tap and Brewhouse

Back on the train again, getting off this time at Penistone. Penistone station used to be the junction for the Woodhead Line which was a line linking Sheffield, Penistone and Manchester. The old part of the station can still be seen.

Around an 8 minute uphill walk brings me to the town centre where the pub “Penistone Tap and Brewhouse” is located. This micropub opened in 2021 and also acts as the brewery tap for “Woodland Brewing” which was formerly known as Whitefaced, the brewery being located on the rear of the ground floor.

A choice of 2 cask ales and 8 keg beers here. I started off with “Eternal Summer” from the in house brewery Woodland Brewing. A delicious easy drinking golden ale. Followed by “Catharina Strawberry and Guava Sour”, a tasty and tart sour beer from Triple Point Brewing in Sheffield.

Penistone – Penistone Beer Shop

A few doors up is “Penistone Beer Shop”, a great place to drop into to get a few drinks for the train journey home. Packed full of bottles and cans from local Yorkshire breweries plus ones from further afield.

If you want to jump off at Shepley there are two local pubs The Black Bull and The Farmers Boy that are worth calling into both selling real ale.

Denby Dale – The White Hart

Next stop on the line is Denby Dale, on coming into Denby Dale Station you go over a large viaduct which is Grade II Listed. It was originally built of wood but replaced by the current structure in 1880.

A short 7/8 minute walk downhill from the station and through the small village brings me to “The White Hart”, a pub which looks fantastic on the main road through the village, with lots of outdoor seating to enjoy the sunshine (although it was quite clouded over today).

A choice of 3 real ales on the bar here, 2 from Timothy Taylors Brewery and the other from Theakston Brewery. I went with “Landlord” from Timothy Taylors Brewery in Keighley. An award winning beer.

Stocksmoor – Clothiers Arms

The next stop along the line is Stocksmoor. Its claim to fame being it was the birthplace of Ben Swift Chambers, the church minister who, in Liverpool, founded St Domingo’s parish football team, which became Everton Football Club. A picturesque small country village.

“The Clothiers Arms” is located next to the station, a large country inn style pub, with outdoor seating on decking at the entrance to the pub. It offers food a number of days a week. A very traditional style pub inside.

A choice of 2 cask ales on here, Bradfield Brewery “Farmers Blonde” and Tetleys Cask. I went with the “Farmers Blonde”, a favourite of mine and always tastes great.

Brockholes – Rock Inn

Next call is to Brockholes, another small village along the line. A 7/8 minute walk downhill brings me to “Rock Inn”, a Thwaites pub situated on the banks of the River Holme. It was refurbished in 2014 and is full of character and charm of a village inn.

Really busy local pub, a number of cask beers available here including Wainwrights and Bombardier. I went with a pint of “Wainwrights” a lovely golden beer from Marston’s Brewery. Enjoyed overlooking the river in the rear beer garden.

Berry Brow – The Railway

Last call on the Penistone Line before getting back into Huddersfield. This time its Berry Brow. A short 4 minute walk downhill from the station brings me to “The Railway”, a very popular pub, and a very warm welcome on entering the pub. Lots of outdoor seating here being a front and a side beer garden. Also has food offerings at certain times.

Five cask beers available on the bar today. Bradfield Brewery, Moorhouses Brewery, Abbeydale Brewery, Recoil Brewing and Ossett Brewery. I went with “Upbeat” a special beer from Moorhouses Brewery based in Lancashire.

A walk back up to the station to head to Huddersfield on the train to finish off the Penistone Line Ale Trail.

The Golden Fleece is the opposite way from the railway station if you have longer to spend here.

Huddersfield – Kings Head

Two pubs located on Huddersfield Station. Started with the “Kings Head”. Always a busy place with lots of beer choices (both cask and keg). Huddersfield is covered in more detail as part of the “Transpennine Ale Trail“

Went with “Piccadilly Gold” from Cloudwater Brew Co in Manchester. A great classic beer, easy drinking.

Huddersfield – The Head of Steam

Located on the opposite side of the station is “The Head of Steam”, a 2 roomed pub which also offers food. Huddersfield is covered in more detail as part of the “Transpennine Ale Trail“

A great range of cask and keg beers in here. 14 cask and 8 Keg. Went with “Pork Scratchings – Best Bitter” from Northern Monk. A really interesting beer, a smoky tasting English Bitter. Really enjoyed this.

Scott Spencer – Micropub adventures

Micropub Adventures

Baseball & beer

Posted on by Paul Manning

Our vice chair, Paul Manning and his wife, Bev went on a baseball and beer trip to London in late June.

After travelling down on National Express we booked into our hotel which was the Hayden Pub and Rooms in Bayswater – a great base for our 3 day trip which was in 30C + temperatures (great timing before the July washout)!

The Hayden’s on tap beers were Meantime Anytime IPA (4.7%) and Salt Loom pale (4%) both very drinkable. The first evening we headed over to Brixton and after a pint of London Pride each in the Beehive Wetherspoons (cheapest pint we had all weekend at £2.49)

We visited London Beer labs in a railway arch in nearby Nursery rd. We joined another 12 or so drinkers for a 10 tap beer tasting mostly brewed by the London beer lab co. The company was set up in 2012 and to date have brewed over 9000 different recipes. The beers went from a Kaiser Pils at 4.6% to Brixton Haze NEIPA, Saison DuPont, Russia Coloda Whitbeir and Black lab stout. A great start to our weekend and a quirky place to seek out if in London.

The next day we had booked on a London Craft Beer cruise which ran for 2 and a half hours along the Thames from Millbank to Greenwich and back. We each had 6 craft beers in very generous portions along with a take home commemorative glass. The beers included close to home Thornbridge Jaipur and am/pm and Siren brews DDH Calypso and Soundwave.

We then had another couple of hours sat outside at the Morpeth Arms, a Youngs pub which had great views of the river opposite the MI6 building. We both stayed on Peckham Ale from London’s Brick Brewery which was a superb brew.

A visit to a Greene king The Kings head in Bayswater for a pint of Level Head pale preceded a number of fantastic cocktails back at the Hayden (Buy a Guardian and banana old fashioned being our favourites). 

The next day we journeyed to the London stadium home of West Ham Utd to watch MLB baseball where the Chicago Cubs played the St Louis Cardinals. The game was excellent with the Cardinals winning in front of 56000 fans. A great surprise was to find two craft beers brewed for the event being London Series Pale and The Birds and the Bears Tart ale both at 4.5%. The MLB returns to London next year in June and we will be back. We finished our trip with a trip to Portobello market and had a fabulous brunch with gins at Portobello Road Gin distillery. 

Trip to Torrside

Posted on by Andy Cullen

15 July saw a branch social trip to Torrside brewery in New Mills, a town just a 45 minute train ride from Sheffield (less from Dore & Totley station where I got on!).

The brewery is a 10 minute walk from New Mills Central station, next to the canal marina. The easiest walking route is actually via the main road, however just for the experience we decided to walk down there via the more scenic route using the Millenium walkway, with the river running an absolute torrent below us! I learned the hard way this choice wasn’t ideal for those that suffer from vertigo!

The tap session at the brewery was already quite busy when we got there with a friendly crowd but no queue at the bar, making it easy to ask about the beer.

Torrside brew quite a broad, interesting range of beers and the choice on the bar included session pales, smoked stouts, traditional bitter, wheat beers and even a Belgian style quad.

Complimenting the beer was a Japanese food trailer and I can confirm the pork Okonomiyaki was delicious.

A number of people from areas around New Mills and Stockport that I knew from various beer festivals were there offering a great opportunity for a catch up and time flew as various beers were sampled.

After walking back into the town centre there was about 20 minutes until the train back to Sheffield so a visit to the Beer Shed micropub near Central station was fitted in where a mild from Torrside brewery that wasn’t on at the tap session was enjoyed!

If you fancy a trip there yourself, the brewery open for tap events on selected weekends through the summer, check their Facebook page or website for details. The train service from Sheffield to New Mills Central is operated by Northern and runs hourly throughout the afternoon and into the evening, a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket covers the journey there and back for £14.

The brewery is actually just across the road from New Mills Newtown station, unfortunately Sheffield trains don’t go there as it is on the Buxton-Manchester line.

Festival volunteers social

Posted on by Paul Crofts

Volunteers from the 2022 Steel City Beer Festival had a summer get-together in the city recently. The day began with brewery tours courtesy of Triple Point Brewery and Heist Brew Co. Volunteers then set off from each brewery visiting a variety of pubs before all meeting up in the Kelham Island Tavern. Pubs visited included Rutland Arms, Sheffield Tap, Dorothy Pax, The Crow, Gardeners Rest, Alder Bar, Shakespeares and the Wellington, among others. A very enjoyable day, it gave everyone the chance to renew friendships made at the festival, and at last year’s volunteer’s trip to Halifax.

For anyone interested in volunteering for this year’s festival, the staffing form will be live on our website shortly.

Pubs by open top bus

Posted on by Andy Cullen

This summer has seen two open top bus services introduced offering scenic rides around the Peak District National Park not far from Sheffield. Your editor had a ride round on the 1 July launch day and started thinking about the pubs and breweries along the route!

The afternoon began by catching the TM Travel bus 218 (Sheffield to Bakewell via Totley) as far as Baslow, where both the open top bus services call at the same stop. Baslow has a number of pubs, although most appear to be hotels with a public bar and restaurant.

Within just a few minutes of arriving at Baslow’s Nether End bus stop, one of the Stagecoach “Peak Sightseer” open top tour buses appeared. This operates on a circular route between Chatsworth House and Bakewell at 30 minutes intervals. Leaving Baslow, it is routed via Curbar to Calver, passing the Eyre Arms then doing a loop manoeuvre around the cross roads to then change direction and climbing up hill a little for the longer, mostly rural run to Bakewell, where I alighted.

In Bakewell I decided to spend half an hour before the next “Peak Sightseer” came through by enjoying a pint in the Joiners Arms. This small bar, which offers a range of craft beers on both cask and keg is under the same ownership as the Dronfield Arms which is home to Temper Brewing and it is one of their beers I chose. The day of my trip coincided with Bakewell Carnival so the town was busy and people had got their spots outside ready for the procession to come through later!

Boarding the other one of the two vehicles on the “Peak Sightseer” service, the bus left Bakewell via the A6 Buxton Road and passed the business park that is home to Thornbridge Brewery, where if I had more time I could have gone to visit their tap room to sample a few beers and order a pizza!

The next location along the route is Ashford in the Water where we passed two pubs across the road from one another, although one was closed with the now familiar pub company sign advertising it as available to lease. The Bulls Head however was open, this is an old coaching Inn owned by Robinsons Brewery.

The next landmark along the route is at Hassop where the bus crosses over the Monsal Trail, this used to be a railway running from London to Manchester via Matlock and Buxton but is now a popular walking and cycling trail and the old Hassop station is now a cafe. The bus continues via Pilsley and stops by the Chatsworth farm shop before turning off the main road and onto the Chatsworth estate, up the drive to the house.

The bus has a short 5 minute break at the Chatsworth House stop before setting off around the circular route again and heading down to Baslow, passing Peak Ales brewery as it heads down the hill!

Having completed the Peak Sightseer route, I wanted to try the other open top bus service, “The Breezer” operated by local independent bus company Hulleys of Baslow. This is a more traditional bus service rather than a circular tour, running from Baslow to Castleton via Calver Sough, Grindleford, Longshaw, Hathersage and Hope then returning the same way. Most people in Sheffield know about Surprise view before heading downhill into Hathersage and this offers the opportunity to enjoy it on an open top bus!

Unfortunately there was a good hour or so until the next “Breezer” leaving Baslow and was keen to get to the Hope Valley to do my Beer Matters magazine deliveries to a couple of pubs there so I joined the regular bus 257 after a wait of less than 10 minutes for a scenic ride on a modern single decker. The departure I joined was the one a day which goes a different route to normal, after Eyam if went via Foolow, Great Hucklow, Bradwell and Hope where it dropped me off.

There are three pubs in Hope. I had a pint and delivered Beer Matters magazines at the Old Hall Hotel which is known for hosting beer festivals most bank holiday weekends as well as the pub having a restaurant, tea room and accommodation. Just across the road is the Woodroffe Arms, owned by Greene King and a short walk down the Edale road will bring you to the Cheshire Cheese Inn, a classic rural pub with a good beer garden!

From Hope I joined “The Breezer” open top bus which had left Castleton a few minutes previous bound for Baslow and enjoyed a short run down the Hope Valley as far as Hathersage.

In Hathersage it was a visit to the Little John Hotel to deliver their Beer Matters magazine as well as enjoy a pint and a bite to eat.

There are a number of other venues in Hathersage including the George and Scotsman’s Pack in the village and the Plough Inn a little bit of a walk down the road to Leadmill Bridge, I could also have joined the final “Breezer” open top bus trip of the day back down to Baslow, however time was running out and I needed to be home to get ready for evening plans so joined a Sheffield bound train back from Hathersage!

BUS TICKETS

The Stagecoach “Peak Sightseer” open top bus tour costs £6 for adults and £4 for concessions with a ticket allowing you to hop on and hop off as much as you like during the day.

All the other normal local buses in the area, including the Hulleys “Breezer” open top service currently cost £2 per ride and also accept English National Concession Senior Citizen and disabled passes. Alternatively you can buy a “Derbyshire Wayfarer” pass for the day offering unlimited travel on most local buses in Derbyshire (including direct links from Sheffield) for £8, or there is an option also including trains for £14. With the Wayfarer pass you can buy the Peak Sightseer ticket at the discounted price of £4.

DAYS OF OPERATION

  • The “Peak Sightseer” runs daily until 30 September then weekends only up to Christmas Eve.
  • “The Breezer” runs on Saturdays and Sundays, plus weekdays during the school holidays, with the last day of operation 3 September. Please be aware that Hulleys only have one open top vehicle so from time to time this may be substituted with a regular bus.

MORE INFORMATION

Finally back to Bruges

Posted on by Dave Pickersgill

After a considerable delay, I recently celebrated a significant birthday in Bruges. The first visit since 2019. A Eurostar deal gave us with an excellent ‘room with a view’ – top floor at Martin’s Bruges, a few hundred metres from the Belfort, a short walk from both Brugs Beertje and De Garre.

The main focus of the weekend was the 16th Bruges Beer Festival. Located at the recently completed, Meeting & Convention Centre, this saw some 80 breweries providing over 500 beers. Included were 16 breweries new to this festival, including the, perhaps inappropriately named, Misery Co. – a reference to the Stephen King book. Their New England IPA (6.9%) was one of several beers sampled from the 12.5 cl customised glass. Among many highlights was the first appearance of Terrest with their 8% Golden Triple, brewed with both grain and hops from the family farm at Houthulst. Also available was, the rarely seen,  Westvleteren 12  (10.2%).

We had many conversations with other visitors – one memorable exchange was with the reserve mascot for Charleroi FC (‘the Zebras’).  Sheffield, ‘the home of football’ was a common topic of conversation, a theme which has world-wide resonance, a theme which Sheffield should extensively utilise.

We also visited several bars, some return visits, but also new experiences: Halve Mann provided the (almost) obligatory Bruges Zot (the only bar which serves this 6% beer unfiltered from the tap), Bauhaus gave us Brussels Beer Project Juice Junkie (5.4%) while old favourite, St. Bernardus 12 (10%), was sampled at Yesterday’s World. The latter is a quirky bar, or, more accurately, a two-floor antiques shop which serves a selection of beers: well worth a visit.

After sampling the excellent camerise sour, Cantillon Sang Bleu (6%), we were about to leave Brugs Beertje when De Struise Black Damnation XXVI (‘Freddy’), an excellent, but rarely seen barrel-aged Belgian Royal Stout, appeared on the bar. This 13% beer is an epic, not to be missed. Suffice to say, our visit to De Garre, and their 11% house tripel, was slightly delayed.

Fort Lapin Brewery was also visited on their Saturday tap day. Since my last visit, the brewery has expanded (four new fermentation vessels). In November, they are relocating to a nearby industrial estate in order to gain more space. Their 8% Triple was a good start to the day. Good to hear that the elder son of the owners, Tristan Vandenbussche, is now a sprint canoe European Champion.

In short, Bruges provided a much-needed break, good company, good bars and good beer.

Great British Beer Garden

Posted on by Guest

If you are looking to enjoy a summer of pub and need inspiration, you could do well to check out the new “Great British Beer Garden” Facebook page and blog started by former Dronfield CAMRA chairman and keen home brewer Rob Barwell.

He kicked off by enjoying a Friday evening sunset chasing whilst enjoying a nice beer in Hathersage and Fox House.

Sat outside the Plough in Hathersage as the sun begins to set
Admiring the sunset sat outside the Fox House Inn

The next day saw Rob head out around Dronfield on the day of the One Valley Festival, which sees many pubs and clubs in the area add outside bars, music stages, food stalls and more and this year the weather was perfect. Some of his photographs were from before opening time when the venues were still setting up, others once the party got started!

Manor House hotel – setting up for One Valley festival which here featured an outside bar with cask ale from Abbeydale, a food van and a stage with live music followed by a DJ.
Green Dragon before opening on One Valley Festival day, which here featured an outside bar with cask ales, a gin trailer, fish and chip stall and performance area for live singers.
Dronfield Arms on One Valley festival day, which here featured an outside bar, pizza stall, stage for live music and later on a sunset disco outdoors.

Of course it is worth noting that the Manor House and Green Dragon have their outdoor areas open all the time with a DJ on Friday evenings at both venues with the Dragon having live entertainment on Saturday evenings.

New Zealand

Posted on by Paul Manning

A fabulous trip to New Zealand by our vice chairman Paul and his wife Bev.

We started on Harvey’s brewery IPA at the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 2 with some great runway views. Singapore airlines took us to Auckland via a lengthy stop at Singapore due to cyclone Gabrielle but time for a few beers including Archipelago brewery’s Summer IPA.

Auckland was very blowy but our 1 night stay allowed samplings of Emerson’s Hazed and Confused IPA and an excellent Black Duck dark ale from Hawkes bay together with Tuatara hazy pale ale and Speights gold medal ale.

We moved onto Mount Manganui for a 6 night stay for the first test. A lovely sunny and hot seaside resort. Canned beers included Puha road IPA and the Island’s Dawn Daze IPA.

We enjoyed hospitality at the cricket, met England legends Mike Gatting and Gladstone Small. It meant all our drinks were included with the beer offering being Boundary Road brewery’s Haze of our Lives Hazy IPA. An England win in 4 days allowed time for a spectacular wild life boat trip.

We then flew to Wellington after a short visit to a Maori thermal village for a Haka ceremony. Wellington was different again being very hilly and windy. Trips to see the Pinnacles famous for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and wine tasting at Martinborough a great little town set up by an English settler with streets in a Union Jack flag orientation. Many beers were sampled including Fortune Favours brewery Optimist and a bean to beer double chocolate stout.

A Wellington craft breweries tour started at Garage Project brewery for Pernicious weed (8% IPA) and Garagista (5.8% bitter). Next stop was Baylands brewery taproom for a taster flight of Esplanade, Woodrow Vero, Rail Slider and Hop Enforcer. Highlight was then a visit to Brewtown in Upper Hutt. This was a craft brewery Mecca in an old Dunlop tyre factory with numerous breweries including Panhead and Boneface . More taster flights followed with a favourite being Unf*ck the world 8% double IPA.

The second test match was very exciting but England lost by just 1 run. We drowned our sorrows in a great little dive bar sampling Wired Wireless brewery’s Black IPA, Garage Projects Leeds street rye ale and a Birdseye hazy IPA from Parrot Dog brewery.

A super trip for the beer and cricket with many fabulous memories.

Sorry I haven’t a Cluj

Posted on by Guest

My previous visit to Cluj Napoca was in November 2017, when my research found little of interest beerwise (both in Romania in general, and especially in Cluj) and on arrival became even less as the one independent brewpub was closed for repairs! Return flights procured for under £20 (out from L**ds, back to Liverpool, both with Wizz and as it turned out both with the same plane), and a decent enough ‘pension’ booked for around £35 for the Saturday night made for a cheap weekend. My research this time (including Dom’s ‘Hopping Around’ report in this august publication) yielded much better results including breweries and multitap bars. I won’t repeat the bars Dom reported but I found two others which proved well worth a visit.

First call was Beer Wall Cafe, a small bar next to a stream, featuring around 8 draught beers and four large fridges of cans and bottles. If you’d told me in 2017 that I’d be drinking wild sours with grapes in Cluj I’d have laughed, but what I had to start in the form of Red My Mind from Addictive brewery, followed by Threesome (fnarr) fruit sour from One Two, and various IPAs.

I then turned to the smallpack… it was like a kid in a sweetshop, I restricted myself to ‘only’ 11 cans and bottles to take away, oblivious to the fact I’d need to drink them before a lunchtime flight home next day.

Later I visited Brewhouse, another small bar in the old town, with 16 draught lines and a small fridge selection. A couple of beers were repeats of ones in Beer Wall, but mostly different. The bar is associated with Blackout brewery and naturally featured several of their beers, including Infochemicals Double NEIPA and Enter Vim West Coast IPA. I also tried their Ragequit chocolate porter, and several guests including Bere a la Cluj Rosetta raspberry hefeweizen, Acan E01 wild farmhouse ale and Ultima Here for the Hype fruit sour. I finished on the 10% Dystopian Future (not sure if it’s named after the current state of the UK…) imperial dessert stout collab from One Two & Metanoia.

By this stage I realised I’d missed the last tram back, as all public transport pretty much stops at around 2300, so a walk back to my pension and a nightcap of two of my cans purchased earlier.

In both bars smaller measures are available with Beer Wall offering 0.5l, 0.4l and 0.33l for most beers and Brewhouse offering 0.4l and 0.2l. The former unfortunately has ‘ticker tax’ with 0.33l being c80% of the 0.5l price, while the latter is more linear with only around 20p surcharge for the smaller glass… it’s not often I wish to see UK culture abroad, but I really wish everywhere correctly pro-rated smaller measures like here!

The staff in both bars spoke excellent English and were happy to talk about the various beers on offer, as well as craft beer in Romania in general.

Next morning I had a bit of a wander, drank a couple of my cans, then caught a train to Cluj Napoca Est and walked the mile to the airport rather than walk to get the airport bus… at least now you can pay for buses and trams on board by tapping a contactless card, previously you had to traipse round looking for a stop with a ticket machine or a shop selling them.

I then had five beers to drink at the airport(!) before I could go through security, I’ll be very glad when the new scanners are rolled out and the pathetic ban on liquids in hand luggage is lifted! Uneventful flight to Liverpool then a ridiculous train-train-train-bus journey home taking 4 hours instead of under 2 thanks to engineering work on the Hope(less) Valley line and a CBA attitude from certain train companies.

Never did get round to trying the brewpub I’d been denied in 2017…

Dave Szwejkowski

Festival staff go to Halifax

Posted on by Paul Crofts

Each year the Steel City festival committee arrange a free day trip for the volunteers, as a thank you for their hard work.

This year’s destination was Halifax, so on a Saturday morning, a few weeks after the festival, a packed 52-seater coach set off to see what the West Yorkshire town had to offer.

First stop was Cock o’ the North, the tap room for Halifax Steam Brewery, just on the outskirts of town. The brewery had experienced some difficulty getting staff for the day, so two of our committee ended up acting as temporary barmen to ensure everyone got served without too much of a wait. They seemed to enjoy themselves, no doubt helped by the free pint they received for their efforts.

An hour later and everyone made their way back to the coach, only to find out that the driver wasn’t able to start it! A mechanic was apparently being despatched to sort it out, but in the meantime we all had to make our own way into Halifax. Some chose to book taxis, some took a short walk to the nearest bus stop and a few others walked into the centre.

Once in town, there were plenty of excellent venues to choose from. A particular favourite was the Grayston Unity, a Grade II listed building advertising itself as the smallest live music venue in the UK. By a coincidence of timing they had just had a Sheffield breweries event, so the pumps featured beers from Abbeydale and Little Critters.

Guided by a local CAMRA member, a small group of us got on a bus and left the town centre in search of the (almost) legendary Big Six. A short ride and a myriad of tight streets later, we arrived at the award-winning building. Dating from 1857, this pub has an unmade road on its garden side and is set within a row of terraced houses. Erected as a purpose-built beer house with its own brewhouse, it has an unusual layout and retains many of its internal fittings. These include oak-framed fitted seating, wood-panelling and a fine bar back-fitting, all probably dating from soon after its 1928 acquisition by local brewers Ramsden’s. The layout consists of a central corridor with two partly opened-up rooms, plus a bar-lounge and an excellent cosy snug. In addition, four cask beers were available. An excellent interlude in a packed day.

Back in town, the Meandering Bear, Victorian Craft Beer Café and the Square Chapel Café & Bar were all visited and found to have a good range of well-kept beers. All have won recent awards from Halifax & Calderdale branch. Slightly out of town at Dean Clough Mills was the Stod Fold brewery tap, also a recent award winner, and a large number of the volunteers all met up in the final pub of the day, Kobenhavn, the Halifax & Calderdale Pub of the Season Autumn 2021. Six cask lines and 24 keg lines gave us plenty of choice for a last drink.

Finally, a quick walk through a very festive looking Piece Hall and we were back at the coach, now thankfully working again. Overall a great day out, with a good range of top-quality pubs, which it was pleasing to note were very busy. If anyone fancies taking a day out to sample Halifax’s drinking establishments, a copy of the pubs list and map that was produced for the trip is available from our website.

Halifax-Pubs-trip-SBF46Download