Blog Tracker
22-12-2023, 13:40
Visit The Pub Curmudgeon site (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-of-year-2023-part-1.html)
2023 was the first full year since 2019 that the pub trade was entirely free of Covid restrictions or the threat of them being reimposed. However, the ongoing Covid enquiry is raking over the coals once again, although its purpose seems more to be the attribution of blame than any rational cost-benefit analysis of the response. It also suffers from the ongoing delusion that there could have been some kind of magical super-lockdown that would have sorted everything out.
This resulted in the best trading conditions since 2019, although the cost pressures imposed by high inflation have been an ongoing problem. There has also been continued political turmoil domestically and war in several places on the international stage. The idea that we are eventually going to return to some kind of calmer waters comes across as wishful thinking.
During the course of the year, I have visited 149 different pubs, of which 46 were new to me, with the possibility of adding one or two more to the total in the remaining days of December. This was the highest figure since 2019. As I said last year, obviously I could have visited more new pubs if I’d really set my mind to it, but I didn’t really do more than take the opportunities that were available to me in the course of my travels.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KyIWtFUTBddaaovgvNSTXB0uTw9fTgh2CVt8C_cvc7 CJ3TLVKA1gtVyGHaYf3HIcGauJ-FIkTM28nC5TzmQVNjqGwACpIPXLF30d5qgEdRWovE5YWoUg1br 9LlfPQpdvqNP2EgyO1NINii8n_gp_vC1rxPIaK9JhRSuF8yu_d 0pA7hEOnq-iDS8MHUA/s320/templar%20leeds.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KyIWtFUTBddaaovgvNSTXB0uTw9fTgh2CVt8C_cvc7 CJ3TLVKA1gtVyGHaYf3HIcGauJ-FIkTM28nC5TzmQVNjqGwACpIPXLF30d5qgEdRWovE5YWoUg1br 9LlfPQpdvqNP2EgyO1NINii8n_gp_vC1rxPIaK9JhRSuF8yu_d 0pA7hEOnq-iDS8MHUA/s668/templar%20leeds.jpg)
The best new pub I visited was undoubtedly the Templar (https://whatpub.com/pubs/LEE/49/templar-leeds), a bustling, atmospheric pub in Leeds city centre that preserves many original internal features. I had heard good things about it from various people, which were confirmed.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-6Vu1Jk752ZhBJwW-rikwDFQb5yu-4DpoEjNDKsFx1MF-N4hk13ci8reeni59y1gLOeU1n5jcZoF3epaVZzrr0fL5nAcZye nzwHukCfPFBwwLHMcUagh-sJ6TeBxIjyjD2912Zq4sM4V_WfvMhtCPUNC4EyGRRhCTVQOFau vi1cXeKJHBtGwH8txpw4/s320/blue%20mugge.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-6Vu1Jk752ZhBJwW-rikwDFQb5yu-4DpoEjNDKsFx1MF-N4hk13ci8reeni59y1gLOeU1n5jcZoF3epaVZzrr0fL5nAcZye nzwHukCfPFBwwLHMcUagh-sJ6TeBxIjyjD2912Zq4sM4V_WfvMhtCPUNC4EyGRRhCTVQOFau vi1cXeKJHBtGwH8txpw4/s912/blue%20mugge.jpg)
An honourable mention goes to the Blue Mugge (https://whatpub.com/pubs/POT/1447/blue-mugge-leek) in Leek, a multi-roomed street-corner local just outside the town centre that manages to do a good lunchtime trade when most others in similar locations nowadays would be closed during the week. I also visited the Bridge Inn (https://whatpub.com/pubs/EXE/518/bridge-inn-topsham) at Topsham in Devon, a well-known National Inventory classic although, while it undoubtedly has a wonderfully unspoilt interior, for some reason, possibly related to the time of day when I called, it failed to click with me in terms of pub atmosphere.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRo93B5z3afVsVI-JPMDPKwf6J1UpAL8WqOZ2KGk-DUkwdXZMOEmdafcv9eO73SracHK7syY_E13qQm4T7EifGKCRRB oeE0nCDolptcbqLHIBzftJ0yC-uTrNosM3pSIUPHhTUSc0UzBm-atTN2iMqA16yOr5VtWP2ReH_soKaHJ7tfRY9pgESatkr7Ds/s320/IMG_1078.JPG (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRo93B5z3afVsVI-JPMDPKwf6J1UpAL8WqOZ2KGk-DUkwdXZMOEmdafcv9eO73SracHK7syY_E13qQm4T7EifGKCRRB oeE0nCDolptcbqLHIBzftJ0yC-uTrNosM3pSIUPHhTUSc0UzBm-atTN2iMqA16yOr5VtWP2ReH_soKaHJ7tfRY9pgESatkr7Ds/s3024/IMG_1078.JPG)
I revisited a couple of Cheshire classics that I hadn’t been to for too long. The Traveller’s Rest (https://whatpub.com/pubs/CHS/561/travellers-rest-alpraham) at Alpraham had recently been severely damaged by impact from a heavy lorry, confining drinkers to one room at the back, although the licensee was hopeful of being able to claim on insurance and restore it to its former glory.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2dPI10zMo9It5ObS4fTp4T_LFMX6HQrICeYwcpCrr8 gdQbfWspL1Jq-Oqwyhn2Y2cN5Ycvj4MZIUrPr7pLGiYGyo65dfKMMJBYiTi_Ed5 Vw7pNqk-JYDoqghS8plNQO-G1NUOr6ugvUrsRhrnkV3ndvNbxAKsNrfaDJ8ej8y9jNHLpgSzx MaGz_74Zg/s320/harp%20inn%20little%20neston.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2dPI10zMo9It5ObS4fTp4T_LFMX6HQrICeYwcpCrr8 gdQbfWspL1Jq-Oqwyhn2Y2cN5Ycvj4MZIUrPr7pLGiYGyo65dfKMMJBYiTi_Ed5 Vw7pNqk-JYDoqghS8plNQO-G1NUOr6ugvUrsRhrnkV3ndvNbxAKsNrfaDJ8ej8y9jNHLpgSzx MaGz_74Zg/s1024/harp%20inn%20little%20neston.jpg)
The Harp (https://whatpub.com/pubs/WIR/100/harp-little-neston) at Little Neston, looking out over the marshes of the silted-up Dee estuary, was pretty much the same as I remembered it. I managed to pay my first visit since before Covid to the Black Horse (https://whatpub.com/pubs/AVN/387/black-horse-clapton-in-gordano) at Clapton-in-Gordano in Somerset, which lived up to my recollection that it is hard to find a better example of a characterful rural or village pub, although on this occasion their signature beer Courage Best was not available.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jdUmGXSdLaW9PO1tEnmQYSKoOo8BMgptKFn0GLf0d5 76FpibO7ZN7OABUt_BK4bd71Di4ClEPYcHB3gJP3fh6v_8yRE5 TgQmQb3XLocHofEmP2MoAHa7o2ce09Lq-4DTEbGFUl23AksTmL4lNVQfzc27XW6VYppkQZxiJxScwZ9Eeji BfSD0vTT_Jq0/s320/golden%20lion.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jdUmGXSdLaW9PO1tEnmQYSKoOo8BMgptKFn0GLf0d5 76FpibO7ZN7OABUt_BK4bd71Di4ClEPYcHB3gJP3fh6v_8yRE5 TgQmQb3XLocHofEmP2MoAHa7o2ce09Lq-4DTEbGFUl23AksTmL4lNVQfzc27XW6VYppkQZxiJxScwZ9Eeji BfSD0vTT_Jq0/s388/golden%20lion.jpg)
Five years ago, I wrote about how my father had enjoyed his last pint (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-last-pint.html) in a pub in the Golden Lion (https://realpubsuk.blogspot.com/2011/10/golden-lion.html) in Frodsham in the Autumn of 2009. I had not been back since I called in shortly after he did to tell the other customers who knew him that he was no longer with us, but I managed to get in there again this year. It’s a Sam Smith’s pub and has now lost its cask OBB, but I had a good drop of their reformulated XXXX Best light mild. It was given a tasteful refurbishment a few years ago and, with a blazing fire in the grate, it was easy to imagine escaping from the world there for a few hours on a dark November day.
I haven’t encountered a single pub cat on my travels, although I am assured there are plenty of them out there. I did call in to the Olde Cottage (https://whatpub.com/pubs/CLW/644/olde-cottage-chester) in Chester where Arty, who turned up unannounced in 2019, has recently celebrated his fourth birthday. However, apparently his routine is to get his beauty sleep around teatime and only venture down to the bar late in the evening.
This year, I have made 51 posts on this blog, including this one and its sequel, which is a slight increase on the 45 of 2022. Realistically, the heady days of 294 in 2011 are never coming back, as all of the brief thoughts have migrated to Twitter, but I’ve managed to keep up a steady output, with a particular rush of blood to the head in November, when I achieved 7.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLRX8HP80U_8KbaIFZeZt8N0FQNQtMGsRFpDq4cefmO e0de_hzGNl7SfelfUS2bypXHE2mN59LP8E9QggFSV_ePPoAw1z OpuiRmKFNZ6tmu_2NT5FS4SrwunLvfrHUVJZA68XvAYx1QR1a4 EWryiWVHoAAt3Xh_8WjPgaYWFPZq3bgpoieRnOt_rLoHs/s320/pass%20no%20solids.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLRX8HP80U_8KbaIFZeZt8N0FQNQtMGsRFpDq4cefmO e0de_hzGNl7SfelfUS2bypXHE2mN59LP8E9QggFSV_ePPoAw1z OpuiRmKFNZ6tmu_2NT5FS4SrwunLvfrHUVJZA68XvAYx1QR1a4 EWryiWVHoAAt3Xh_8WjPgaYWFPZq3bgpoieRnOt_rLoHs/s800/pass%20no%20solids.jpg)
The most views were for this one (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/07/i-see-no-slops.html) on why beer writers and commentators get a distorted view of cask beer quality, which ended up being widely shared. Also well-read were my thoughts on the likely outcome of the 3.4% beer duty cut-off (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-34-solution.html), which is of ongoing relevance, and my post on the inadequacies of micropub toilets (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/02/hold-it-in.html) also proved popular for its scatological implications.
A particularly salient post was At the Sign of the Dead Horse (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/11/at-sign-of-dead-horse.html), where I made the point that many “save-the-pub” campaigners fail to acknowledge the extent to which social and legislative changes over the years have combined to undermine the demand for pubgoing, and also reminded them that you can’t force commercial companies to keep pubs open if they do not see them as viable.
The blog continues to attract a healthy volume of comments, but sadly some fall into the category of “low-grade snark” and can’t really be said to add anything constructive, so I’ve been inclined not to approve some that are either offensive or irrelevant.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5RmRzvZNlcjfG1bRfEyzfXjIBWQhZsinCOQa7qB67nz wzUIEluxKi8JJ4DGlKJtxuNLimapdbReTkW16k3IAFbTB23BDO SJ3Urg9uI3MsEscp7z2u-H3mH6W6IdJgST-3V2boTlEJDdV1wBX1tgIUJaqmLyhBaiuc6Fq0hVPil1nmgZeJU 1Hg2nc51P4/s320/pagefield%20wigan.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5RmRzvZNlcjfG1bRfEyzfXjIBWQhZsinCOQa7qB67nz wzUIEluxKi8JJ4DGlKJtxuNLimapdbReTkW16k3IAFbTB23BDO SJ3Urg9uI3MsEscp7z2u-H3mH6W6IdJgST-3V2boTlEJDdV1wBX1tgIUJaqmLyhBaiuc6Fq0hVPil1nmgZeJU 1Hg2nc51P4/s862/pagefield%20wigan.jpg)
My Closed Pubs (https://closedpubs.blogspot.com/) blog saw a sad milestone in its 1000th entry, the rather magnificent Pagefield Hotel (https://closedpubs.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-pagefield.html) in Wigan. A total of 81 pubs (there are two still to be uploaded between now and New Year) is a little below last year, but still the second-highest annual total since the early days of shooting fish in a barrel. The demise of the Fullpint news aggregration Twitter account closed off a useful source of leads, but I have continued to receive a steady stream of suggestions from Leeds resident Kyle Reed, which explains why Yorkshire has overtaken Staffordshire as the county with the second-highest number of entries, and is now hot on the heels of Lancashire.
I have also continued to add pubs from time to time to my Campaign for Real Pubs (https://realpubsuk.blogspot.com/) blog, including both the Templar and the Blue Mugge which I mentioned earlier.
One of the highlights of other blogs was this rather poignant piece (https://thepubman.blogspot.com/2023/09/hillgate.html) from Cooking Lager looking back to the days of his youth while visiting the remaining pubs of Hillgate on a Sunday afternoon. He really does need to do more blogging!
I walked home happier than I began. My melancholy shifted with a few pints drank slowly over an afternoon. Smiling over a memory of a time 4 lads liked a drink, walked around some pubs because we were told those were the pubs you should go round and laughed a lot and enjoyed themselves and had hope and excitement at the prospect of leaving home and going to universities. Something to keep and treasure and remind myself of. The gift of still being here. That extra time I’ve been given, they were denied. There’s more to do, more to see, more memories to make. Of places, of people, of good times, of bad times, and time to enjoy a drink. Play until the whistle. Play every moment. The whistle is coming.To be continued…
More... (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-of-year-2023-part-1.html)
2023 was the first full year since 2019 that the pub trade was entirely free of Covid restrictions or the threat of them being reimposed. However, the ongoing Covid enquiry is raking over the coals once again, although its purpose seems more to be the attribution of blame than any rational cost-benefit analysis of the response. It also suffers from the ongoing delusion that there could have been some kind of magical super-lockdown that would have sorted everything out.
This resulted in the best trading conditions since 2019, although the cost pressures imposed by high inflation have been an ongoing problem. There has also been continued political turmoil domestically and war in several places on the international stage. The idea that we are eventually going to return to some kind of calmer waters comes across as wishful thinking.
During the course of the year, I have visited 149 different pubs, of which 46 were new to me, with the possibility of adding one or two more to the total in the remaining days of December. This was the highest figure since 2019. As I said last year, obviously I could have visited more new pubs if I’d really set my mind to it, but I didn’t really do more than take the opportunities that were available to me in the course of my travels.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KyIWtFUTBddaaovgvNSTXB0uTw9fTgh2CVt8C_cvc7 CJ3TLVKA1gtVyGHaYf3HIcGauJ-FIkTM28nC5TzmQVNjqGwACpIPXLF30d5qgEdRWovE5YWoUg1br 9LlfPQpdvqNP2EgyO1NINii8n_gp_vC1rxPIaK9JhRSuF8yu_d 0pA7hEOnq-iDS8MHUA/s320/templar%20leeds.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KyIWtFUTBddaaovgvNSTXB0uTw9fTgh2CVt8C_cvc7 CJ3TLVKA1gtVyGHaYf3HIcGauJ-FIkTM28nC5TzmQVNjqGwACpIPXLF30d5qgEdRWovE5YWoUg1br 9LlfPQpdvqNP2EgyO1NINii8n_gp_vC1rxPIaK9JhRSuF8yu_d 0pA7hEOnq-iDS8MHUA/s668/templar%20leeds.jpg)
The best new pub I visited was undoubtedly the Templar (https://whatpub.com/pubs/LEE/49/templar-leeds), a bustling, atmospheric pub in Leeds city centre that preserves many original internal features. I had heard good things about it from various people, which were confirmed.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-6Vu1Jk752ZhBJwW-rikwDFQb5yu-4DpoEjNDKsFx1MF-N4hk13ci8reeni59y1gLOeU1n5jcZoF3epaVZzrr0fL5nAcZye nzwHukCfPFBwwLHMcUagh-sJ6TeBxIjyjD2912Zq4sM4V_WfvMhtCPUNC4EyGRRhCTVQOFau vi1cXeKJHBtGwH8txpw4/s320/blue%20mugge.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-6Vu1Jk752ZhBJwW-rikwDFQb5yu-4DpoEjNDKsFx1MF-N4hk13ci8reeni59y1gLOeU1n5jcZoF3epaVZzrr0fL5nAcZye nzwHukCfPFBwwLHMcUagh-sJ6TeBxIjyjD2912Zq4sM4V_WfvMhtCPUNC4EyGRRhCTVQOFau vi1cXeKJHBtGwH8txpw4/s912/blue%20mugge.jpg)
An honourable mention goes to the Blue Mugge (https://whatpub.com/pubs/POT/1447/blue-mugge-leek) in Leek, a multi-roomed street-corner local just outside the town centre that manages to do a good lunchtime trade when most others in similar locations nowadays would be closed during the week. I also visited the Bridge Inn (https://whatpub.com/pubs/EXE/518/bridge-inn-topsham) at Topsham in Devon, a well-known National Inventory classic although, while it undoubtedly has a wonderfully unspoilt interior, for some reason, possibly related to the time of day when I called, it failed to click with me in terms of pub atmosphere.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRo93B5z3afVsVI-JPMDPKwf6J1UpAL8WqOZ2KGk-DUkwdXZMOEmdafcv9eO73SracHK7syY_E13qQm4T7EifGKCRRB oeE0nCDolptcbqLHIBzftJ0yC-uTrNosM3pSIUPHhTUSc0UzBm-atTN2iMqA16yOr5VtWP2ReH_soKaHJ7tfRY9pgESatkr7Ds/s320/IMG_1078.JPG (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRo93B5z3afVsVI-JPMDPKwf6J1UpAL8WqOZ2KGk-DUkwdXZMOEmdafcv9eO73SracHK7syY_E13qQm4T7EifGKCRRB oeE0nCDolptcbqLHIBzftJ0yC-uTrNosM3pSIUPHhTUSc0UzBm-atTN2iMqA16yOr5VtWP2ReH_soKaHJ7tfRY9pgESatkr7Ds/s3024/IMG_1078.JPG)
I revisited a couple of Cheshire classics that I hadn’t been to for too long. The Traveller’s Rest (https://whatpub.com/pubs/CHS/561/travellers-rest-alpraham) at Alpraham had recently been severely damaged by impact from a heavy lorry, confining drinkers to one room at the back, although the licensee was hopeful of being able to claim on insurance and restore it to its former glory.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2dPI10zMo9It5ObS4fTp4T_LFMX6HQrICeYwcpCrr8 gdQbfWspL1Jq-Oqwyhn2Y2cN5Ycvj4MZIUrPr7pLGiYGyo65dfKMMJBYiTi_Ed5 Vw7pNqk-JYDoqghS8plNQO-G1NUOr6ugvUrsRhrnkV3ndvNbxAKsNrfaDJ8ej8y9jNHLpgSzx MaGz_74Zg/s320/harp%20inn%20little%20neston.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2dPI10zMo9It5ObS4fTp4T_LFMX6HQrICeYwcpCrr8 gdQbfWspL1Jq-Oqwyhn2Y2cN5Ycvj4MZIUrPr7pLGiYGyo65dfKMMJBYiTi_Ed5 Vw7pNqk-JYDoqghS8plNQO-G1NUOr6ugvUrsRhrnkV3ndvNbxAKsNrfaDJ8ej8y9jNHLpgSzx MaGz_74Zg/s1024/harp%20inn%20little%20neston.jpg)
The Harp (https://whatpub.com/pubs/WIR/100/harp-little-neston) at Little Neston, looking out over the marshes of the silted-up Dee estuary, was pretty much the same as I remembered it. I managed to pay my first visit since before Covid to the Black Horse (https://whatpub.com/pubs/AVN/387/black-horse-clapton-in-gordano) at Clapton-in-Gordano in Somerset, which lived up to my recollection that it is hard to find a better example of a characterful rural or village pub, although on this occasion their signature beer Courage Best was not available.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jdUmGXSdLaW9PO1tEnmQYSKoOo8BMgptKFn0GLf0d5 76FpibO7ZN7OABUt_BK4bd71Di4ClEPYcHB3gJP3fh6v_8yRE5 TgQmQb3XLocHofEmP2MoAHa7o2ce09Lq-4DTEbGFUl23AksTmL4lNVQfzc27XW6VYppkQZxiJxScwZ9Eeji BfSD0vTT_Jq0/s320/golden%20lion.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jdUmGXSdLaW9PO1tEnmQYSKoOo8BMgptKFn0GLf0d5 76FpibO7ZN7OABUt_BK4bd71Di4ClEPYcHB3gJP3fh6v_8yRE5 TgQmQb3XLocHofEmP2MoAHa7o2ce09Lq-4DTEbGFUl23AksTmL4lNVQfzc27XW6VYppkQZxiJxScwZ9Eeji BfSD0vTT_Jq0/s388/golden%20lion.jpg)
Five years ago, I wrote about how my father had enjoyed his last pint (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-last-pint.html) in a pub in the Golden Lion (https://realpubsuk.blogspot.com/2011/10/golden-lion.html) in Frodsham in the Autumn of 2009. I had not been back since I called in shortly after he did to tell the other customers who knew him that he was no longer with us, but I managed to get in there again this year. It’s a Sam Smith’s pub and has now lost its cask OBB, but I had a good drop of their reformulated XXXX Best light mild. It was given a tasteful refurbishment a few years ago and, with a blazing fire in the grate, it was easy to imagine escaping from the world there for a few hours on a dark November day.
I haven’t encountered a single pub cat on my travels, although I am assured there are plenty of them out there. I did call in to the Olde Cottage (https://whatpub.com/pubs/CLW/644/olde-cottage-chester) in Chester where Arty, who turned up unannounced in 2019, has recently celebrated his fourth birthday. However, apparently his routine is to get his beauty sleep around teatime and only venture down to the bar late in the evening.
This year, I have made 51 posts on this blog, including this one and its sequel, which is a slight increase on the 45 of 2022. Realistically, the heady days of 294 in 2011 are never coming back, as all of the brief thoughts have migrated to Twitter, but I’ve managed to keep up a steady output, with a particular rush of blood to the head in November, when I achieved 7.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLRX8HP80U_8KbaIFZeZt8N0FQNQtMGsRFpDq4cefmO e0de_hzGNl7SfelfUS2bypXHE2mN59LP8E9QggFSV_ePPoAw1z OpuiRmKFNZ6tmu_2NT5FS4SrwunLvfrHUVJZA68XvAYx1QR1a4 EWryiWVHoAAt3Xh_8WjPgaYWFPZq3bgpoieRnOt_rLoHs/s320/pass%20no%20solids.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLRX8HP80U_8KbaIFZeZt8N0FQNQtMGsRFpDq4cefmO e0de_hzGNl7SfelfUS2bypXHE2mN59LP8E9QggFSV_ePPoAw1z OpuiRmKFNZ6tmu_2NT5FS4SrwunLvfrHUVJZA68XvAYx1QR1a4 EWryiWVHoAAt3Xh_8WjPgaYWFPZq3bgpoieRnOt_rLoHs/s800/pass%20no%20solids.jpg)
The most views were for this one (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/07/i-see-no-slops.html) on why beer writers and commentators get a distorted view of cask beer quality, which ended up being widely shared. Also well-read were my thoughts on the likely outcome of the 3.4% beer duty cut-off (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-34-solution.html), which is of ongoing relevance, and my post on the inadequacies of micropub toilets (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/02/hold-it-in.html) also proved popular for its scatological implications.
A particularly salient post was At the Sign of the Dead Horse (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/11/at-sign-of-dead-horse.html), where I made the point that many “save-the-pub” campaigners fail to acknowledge the extent to which social and legislative changes over the years have combined to undermine the demand for pubgoing, and also reminded them that you can’t force commercial companies to keep pubs open if they do not see them as viable.
The blog continues to attract a healthy volume of comments, but sadly some fall into the category of “low-grade snark” and can’t really be said to add anything constructive, so I’ve been inclined not to approve some that are either offensive or irrelevant.
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My Closed Pubs (https://closedpubs.blogspot.com/) blog saw a sad milestone in its 1000th entry, the rather magnificent Pagefield Hotel (https://closedpubs.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-pagefield.html) in Wigan. A total of 81 pubs (there are two still to be uploaded between now and New Year) is a little below last year, but still the second-highest annual total since the early days of shooting fish in a barrel. The demise of the Fullpint news aggregration Twitter account closed off a useful source of leads, but I have continued to receive a steady stream of suggestions from Leeds resident Kyle Reed, which explains why Yorkshire has overtaken Staffordshire as the county with the second-highest number of entries, and is now hot on the heels of Lancashire.
I have also continued to add pubs from time to time to my Campaign for Real Pubs (https://realpubsuk.blogspot.com/) blog, including both the Templar and the Blue Mugge which I mentioned earlier.
One of the highlights of other blogs was this rather poignant piece (https://thepubman.blogspot.com/2023/09/hillgate.html) from Cooking Lager looking back to the days of his youth while visiting the remaining pubs of Hillgate on a Sunday afternoon. He really does need to do more blogging!
I walked home happier than I began. My melancholy shifted with a few pints drank slowly over an afternoon. Smiling over a memory of a time 4 lads liked a drink, walked around some pubs because we were told those were the pubs you should go round and laughed a lot and enjoyed themselves and had hope and excitement at the prospect of leaving home and going to universities. Something to keep and treasure and remind myself of. The gift of still being here. That extra time I’ve been given, they were denied. There’s more to do, more to see, more memories to make. Of places, of people, of good times, of bad times, and time to enjoy a drink. Play until the whistle. Play every moment. The whistle is coming.To be continued…
More... (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-of-year-2023-part-1.html)