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Andy Ven
17-05-2010, 20:49
There are quite a few ideas for crawls already posted to this forum.

I’m looking for ideas that would fit with certain criteria. The annual outing with the 5 other chaps from the office involves taking whatever money we have won and saved up from our punts on the football fixed-odds coupons throughout the year (about £300-£400, although this is normally less than we stake) and spending it on a novel crawl.

Our previous outings (some of which I have added to this forum) include a Severn Valley Railway crawl, Thames Clippers, Midland Metro and the Trans-Pennine Real Ale Trail. You may spot a transport theme here but it’s not obligatory, although it does provide variety.

I’ve done some local Black Country crawls, the last one involved hiring a local minibus driver for the day: http://www.theme-tours.co.uk/ and I did the Black Country Beer Bus for my stag do: http://www.blackcountrytours.co.uk/

A couple of years back I also did a helicopter pub crawl from Sydney. I can highly recommend it but our usual budget won’t stretch to that, let alone a flight to the other side of the world!
http://www.sydneyhelicopters.com.au/Tours/Full-Day-Tours/Pub-Tours-with-Altitude!/l2_8/

It’s just a day out but overnight stays are not out of the question although preferably within the UK. Something more imaginative than a walk around a town centre would fit our complicated self-imposed rules. At least half a dozen real ale pubs should keep us happy.

Grateful for any suggestions please :confused:

Strongers
17-05-2010, 22:59
How about by tram?

http://www.sheffieldcamra.org.uk/ShfCAMRA/articlesep05_tramcrawl.htm

I didn't know these beer tours existed - You've opened my eyes to some great possibilities!!!

Also found this one, if you've not already visited the area: http://www.cotswoldpubtours.com/about.html

Andy Ven
18-05-2010, 13:54
Yes, that's just the sort of thing. Thanks.

We like the ones we can tailor ourselves, to fit the best real ale pubs. The ones I have listed above have involved my own planning and execution (which is what I like to do). Severn Valley Railway was one of my personal favourites - you may have seen Soup Dragon drooling over the Railwayman's Arms in Bridgnorth - steam trains, real ale and countryside. Ooooh yes!

The Sheffield Valley of Beer sounds attractive because we can spend less money on transport and more on beer. On the other hand, having a readily available driver saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent waiting for public transport to arrive.

If anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to bring them to the party.

My 101st post - I've now grown up into a fully fledged Real Ale Drinker. It's a proud and emotional moment for me.

(Up the Saddlers, by the way!)

aleandhearty
18-05-2010, 17:05
Two possibilities spring to mind. Firstly, York is a fantastic beer city, steeped in history. I'm sure you could pretty much write your own theme there, as long as it had some historical twist. Existing trails being pushed by the tourist board are based on 'historical pubs' or 'haunted pubs'. Just google to see more.

What about the Circle Line crawl, in London? Originally,with limited opening hours, it was based on the nearest pub to each station. With all day opening, it could be the nearest decent real ale pub. Now there's a challenge.

ROBCamra
18-05-2010, 17:19
How about a crawl of Brew Pubs and Brewery Taps?

You could chose somewhere with a lot of breweries e.g. Derbyshire or West Yorkshire

For Derbyshire you could visit Flowerpot (Headless), Derby Brewery Tap, Falstaff, Brunswick in Derby itself.

Brewery taps for Spire(Chesterfield), Blue Monkey (Ilkeston), Amber (Ripley), Thornbridge et al.

All could be done in a weekend with an overnight stay.

Oggwyn Trench
18-05-2010, 18:58
A few years back we did a crawl along the route of the old A5 (tame driver) through Shropshire , starting just outside Shrewsbury and working our way to Penkridge , there are some decent pubs on the way , allways planned to do the whole lenth one day but that will take a couple of weeks .
A river Severn crawl would be good for a weekend , start in Shrewsbury then Ironbridge , night in Bridgnorth finish in Bewdley

trainman
18-05-2010, 19:36
What about the Circle Line crawl, in London? Originally,with limited opening hours, it was based on the nearest pub to each station. With all day opening, it could be the nearest decent real ale pub. Now there's a challenge.

Wow! That's an odd idea from a recent visitor daaarn 'ere who managed a naff pint even in t'Market Porter (which, as I mentioned in Gill's thread, can sometimes be the case these days). Gotta bear in mind that many of London's better ale houses (Edgar Wallace, Olde Mitre, Old Fountain, Castle, Jerusalem, even Speaker) are closed on weekends & also that limiting destinations to those within a short walk of specific lines (eg circle) will prove disappointing.

oldboots
18-05-2010, 19:46
Pub crawls and various forms of transport do go together very well, I've done bus routes, trains, and trams, still got tube lines, canal barges, and bicycles :eek: to go. Where there's a good number of pubs there are the old favourites of animals, colours, aristocrats (collect a set of of King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Duke, Earl, Marquis, knight etc) or a pub from different brewer's tied houses without repetition (deviation or hesitation), which is much more difficult nowadays than pre-beer orders days.

You could do an "animal, mineral or vegetable" crawl but there's not many pubs named after minerals so you'd need to be creative, anything with Golden in would do I suppose. Some places offer single street crawls - Dale Street in Liverpool is a particular favourite of mine. There's the London themes of Jack the Ripper or pubs Dr Johnson drank in or pubs mentioned by Charles Dickens or other authors.

As Ogwyn and on another thread Farway mention, riverside pubs is a good one with the added frisson of the risk of drowning:D.

I think the most common, and most enjoyable, crawls I do are every Good Beer Guide pub in a locality.

gillhalfpint
19-05-2010, 10:41
We did a bus trip out of Manchester to Greenfield, Uppermill, Dobcross and Diggle a couple of years back, then a bus back via a GBG pub in Oldham. The pubs are still in 2010 GBG. We then headed back to Manchester then on to Bury where we were staying to do Trackside for a nightcap.

arwkrite
19-05-2010, 11:02
Its a pity Concord got pensioned off. Imagine the weekend crawl you could have in the Big Apple complete with those big breakfasts you see in the orange juice adverts. How much real ale you would find I dont know. Probably more than the eastern destination they used, Dubai or Saudi , I forget which.
This post is just a bit of cloud gathering...I would probably enjoy Ogwyn's Severnside ramble much better. No air travel and plenty of decent beer. The added incentive of of only the occasional Yank...I here New York is full of them.

trainman
19-05-2010, 11:51
Not themed, as such, but I've always intended taking (but not yet done so) the Watercress Line from Alton to New Alresford, then bussing it down to Cheriton. From there, you could re-trace your route or take bus to Winchester then, if staying over, go on to Southampton.

Alton: Railway Arms, Eight Bells, bus to Selborne (~14mins)
Selborne: Selborne Arms, rtn bus to Alton, Watercress line to New Alresford
Alresford: Maybe The Bell?, Option of The Ship (Bishops Sutton, 1.3m), bus to Cheriton
Cheriton: Flowerpots Inn, Hinton Arms, bus to Winchester
Winchester: (from memory) Black Boy, St James' Tavern, Hyde Tavern, maybe Fulflood & Wykeham Arms, train to S'ton
Southampton: Wellington Arms, Guide Dog, Waterloo Arms, Red Lion, maybe Duke of Wellington, South Western (next to St Denys station), transport to... Betty Ford clinic

trainman
19-05-2010, 12:17
We did the 3 DarkStar owned pubs last year, plus selected neighbours - was easy in a day, but from a London start-point.

Shoreham-by-Sea: Duke of Wellington, added Lazy Toad & Buckingham Arms, train to Fishersgate
Fishersgate (/Portslade): Stanley Arms, back to train for Brighton
Brighton: Evening Star, Lord Nelson, many other options if the crawl is reversed (started in Lindfield), such as Great Eastern, Basketmakers, Lion & Lobster... train to Lindfield
Lindfield: Stand Up Inn, Red Lion

Other options may be more jumps on/off along south coast, & remember it's only 15mins Brighton to Lewes (where Gardeners is essential).

Nearer to you, Shrewsbury (as a whole) is a big tm target, along with missions from there on the request-stop line to Wrenbury for Bhurtpore Inn, Aston, & Railway Inn, Yorton.

aleandhearty
20-05-2010, 00:03
Wow! That's an odd idea from a recent visitor daaarn 'ere who managed a naff pint even in t'Market Porter (which, as I mentioned in Gill's thread, can sometimes be the case these days).

Now, now 't/m', less of your Manc spleen. :) I always feel like Paul Whitehouse's character 'Unlucky Alf' whenever I come to London, I never seem to get it qute right! Regarding the Circle Line crawl, I had two stabs at student life, in London, in the eighties and it was always held up to be the holy grail. Never quite managed it though, in my time in the smoke.

Andy Ven
20-05-2010, 20:18
Pub crawls and various forms of transport do go together very well, I've done bus routes, trains, and trams, still got tube lines, canal barges, and bicycles :eek: to go.

One of our group lives on a canal boat so to do it by narrowboat would just be a, er, boatman's holiday for him .... unless we can find someone else to steer the boat. Other passenger boats are a possibility I suppose - we looked at Bristol Harbour but it's probably just as easy to walk around

Circle line we have considered before - the world is your Oyster-card. We opted for the Thames Clippers on that occasion instead

Bikes - that's quite energetic for a day on the beer

I think I'll look at some of the metro systems to see how they fit in with the GBG.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Millay
20-05-2010, 21:53
The next crazy idea for me is the next Bank Holiday when London Midland trains are doing a £10 go anywhere deal. I’m thinking of doing a pub crawl taking in as many counties as possible. If I get the first train North I reckon I can do five or six maybe more. It does depend on me catching the 5:53 train out of Watford and the JDW’s in Milton Keynes and Rugby opening on time. From there to Birmingham and Worcester, maybe Gloucester or Ledbury then Northampton and Herts on the way back. Haven’t decided for definite that I’m going to embark on this yet but hoping that a mate may join me if I do.

RogerB
21-05-2010, 08:57
The next crazy idea for me is the next Bank Holiday when London Midland trains are doing a £10 go anywhere deal.

I wish people wouldn't keep telling me about these deals - it makes me go scurrying to my diary every time!

gillhalfpint
21-05-2010, 09:55
If I remember right, the London Midland "go anywhere for £10" deal is just for 1 week from the Bank Holiday to about 6 June.

RogerB
21-05-2010, 10:43
If I remember right, the London Midland "go anywhere for £10" deal is just for 1 week from the Bank Holiday to about 6 June.

It is - I'm currently piecing together various Birmingham pubs for a potential Bank Holiday Monday trip!