An attitude started in 1984.

I can be precise with the date as its the year that I moved back from Newcastle to Leeds and my last contract in Newcastle was the refurbishment of a quayside warehouse into a Tetleys pub, an act that was remarkable for several reasons...

1. Tetleys were almost unheard of in the North East at the time, I only knew of one Tetleys pub on Tyneside and that was The Queen Vic in Felling and that my friends, is another, completely different story



2. Opening a pub on the Newcastle Quayside was considered to be an act of madness at the time for the Quayside was an area of abandoned semi derelict warehouses from an era of several decades prior, if you went on the quayside of a Saturday night in 1984 then you were either looking for a prostitute or committing suicide, or both, probably in that order actually.

3. There's probably other reasons...

Anyway, at the first site meeting the architects came up from Leeds and were subjected to a lot of Geordie -taking about how much money they were wasting on this project, and then they explained why it was that they had leased this five-storey, but very narrow frontage, warehouse.

The design of the place was such that it was laid out for the punters to come in through the front door, be shepherded upstairs to one of four differently themed floors, served, and then ushered down the back stairs and outside, preferably being relieved of the maximum amount of money possible in as quick a time as possibly and then disposed of, the architect actually used the words "Old men who sit in pubs with one pint all night are no use to us at all".

And they had another surprise on launch night, when the bars were fitted out by their own contractors they wouldn't tell anyone what beer was being served, it was a big surprise, a new beer for Tetleys and one that would change the drinking habits of the North East, we got an invite to the opening night.

The surprise was that it was the first Tetleys pub to serve Castlemaine XXXX.

The day the beer died - October 1984.

My brother did the "ale train" from Leeds to Marsden on Saturday with his workmates. He loved it as you stop off at real ale pubs on route (he works at the Coors brewery at Tadcaster).

Anybody else done this?

I went out to see a band last week in the company of my regular drinking partner, a Geordie who goes by the name of Sparky, an irrelevant fact that adds nothing to this tale other than to explain why we were drinking Newcastle Brown.

He walks up to the bar, looks up and down for a hand pump, sighs, and orders a couple of bottles of Newcastle. The barman picks two up, opens them and puts them in front of us. Sparky looks at the barman, the barman looks back expectantly. Sparky asks for a couple of glasses. Shocked, the barman grabs a couple of pint glasses. Sparky puts him right, and asks for a pair of half glasses.
The barman then utters the immortal line....

"Would you like ice?"

You couldn't make it up.

To traditionalists, the terms "perry" and "pear cider" are not interchangeable.

Perry is made from perry pears, these contain high amounts of sorbitol - a natural sweetener that doesn't convert to alcohol.

Pear cider is usually made from concentrated (dessert) pear juice, although up to 25% apple juice is also included. A real perry has a natural sweetness but sorbitol also has other properties, giving rise to the saying: “Perry goes down like velvet, round like thunder and out like lightning.”

Many times. It's suffering due to it's own popularity though. It's utter chaos March through to October.
Indeed, did a few stops last weekend. One table in Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden had a bunch of 7 lads sat round it all supping lager, which is kind of missing the point.

This is true, I live in one of the villages en route and it's got ridiculous. It's a great day out and a lot of fun but it's now got to the stage that if I get the train to Manchester on a Saturday afternoon it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll see several groups of largered up lads spewing, wanging bottles of WKD on the tracks, p[ii[/issing in the street and getting their shrivelled walnut cocks out.

Don't worry, Parliament will resume before you know it.

He would love proper beer, bearing in mind he can't get it where he works!

Batley to Stalybridge is the route.
Not much walking needed, and thus more supping time as you don't need to leave the platforms

, at Dewsbury, Huddersfield (x2) and Stalybridge.
Pubs at Batley, Slaithwaite, Marsden, Greenfield and Mossley only a cock stride away also

Funnily enough the group dragged a couple of their bosses along, and they kept asking them why couldn't they make more ale like this at work

From the state of many Salford fans last Good Friday, it was equally enjoyed.
(I think I remember

)

I have been planning a similar trip from Salford Central to Clitheroe (the train goes via Bolton) and it seems quite viable with a decision yet to be made for Blackburn.

We play at Wakefield on Sunday and so there's the visit to that gem: the King's Arms at Heath: walking distance to and from the ground.

You are correct, it is an absolute gem.
It hasn't changed materially in all my adult life ... and that's a considerable period of time.