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.
July 2026. Ouseburn. Newcastle. Back from Cramlington by mid morning, with 5 hours till the bargain advance fare return to Sheffield. Not quite enough time to head west to Haltwhistle, or south to Seaton Carew, for another tick. But...
July 2026. Cramlington. Northumberland. When you say “Northumberland” these days you think Harry Potter, posh Cambridgeshire families at the beach, and a small island covered in bird muck. But there’s an awful lot of old mining towns...
July 2026. Newcastle. Trips to Newcastle produce a wealth of blog material, even when the pace of new pubs dry up and you start to feel you’ve seen Grey Street just a few too many times. That picture from the top of one of the UK’s great...
July 2026. Newcastle. Last week my son told me I had “mainstream music taste“. Let that sink in. “Matthew has to be contrary” says Mrs RM. “I suspect your son enjoys winding you up” says ChatGPT. And you can rely on ChatGPT, folks; it...
July 2026. Monkseaston. Tyne & Wear. Whitley Bay ticked, Spanish City gelato licked, I headed for the metro back to the Toon. It’s a problematic map, every stop the gateway to a classic pub that distracts you from culture. I really...
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 ?...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...