York

[gillhalfpint]

I go along with all the pubs mentioned. We caravan near the Swan, and go again in August (can't wait) then again for New Year - brill time to visit.

[Rex_Rattus]

Back from York now, following three days of being a tourist. Mrs R had said that I hadn't been visiting and reviewing sufficient pubs recently, and that I would have to up my game while in York. No, that was a dream; I was probably in the same dreamworld where Maldenman's brother-in-law buys a round! I'm afraid that quite a bit of valuable drinking time was wasted by visits to Minsters, museums, churches and the like. But it was not all doom and gloom. I did manage to poke my whiskery snout into a number of pubs: Blue Bell; Last Drop Inn; Coach House Hotel; Minster Inn; Ye Olde Starre Inn; Judges Lodgings; Bay Horse; Three-Legged Mare; Royal Oak; King's Arms; Maltings; Old White Swan; Guy Fawkes Inn; Three Cranes; Yorkshire Terrier; and The punch Bowl. I would have liked to have visited all the excellent recommendations ROBcamra, trainman, and others gave me, but it just couldn't be done. Nonetheless I think I clocked up some of the better pubs in York, plus a few others that were on nobody's radar, but just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I wasn't surprised by the presence of all the decent pubs and decent ales, but I wasn't prepared (although perhaps I should have been) for the fact that every beer tap in every pub I went in had a sparkler on it. The first couple of times I went along with it in an effort to blend in and try to feel like a local - when in Rome and all that - but I suspect that I didn't fool anyone, perhaps because I was wearing a blazer and slacks, and the absence of clothe cap and whippet was probably also a giveaway! After a couple of pints of froth I took to asking the bar staff to remove the sparkler before pouring my pint, causing some bemusement and consternation ("you're not really going to drink it like that", "from somewhere down south then?"). One barmaid even said that men had asked her to do lots of strange things, but none had ever asked her do THAT before.

Anyway, it was a super trip, and thanks again for the recommendations.

[aleandhearty]

I wasn't surprised by the presence of all the decent pubs and decent ales, but I wasn't prepared (although perhaps I should have been) for the fact that every beer tap in every pub I went in had a sparkler on it. The first couple of times I went along with it in an effort to blend in and try to feel like a local - when in Rome and all that - but I suspect that I didn't fool anyone, perhaps because I was wearing a blazer and slacks, and the absence of clothe cap and whippet was probably also a giveaway! After a couple of pints of froth I took to asking the bar staff to remove the sparkler before pouring my pint, causing some bemusement and consternation ("you're not really going to drink it like that", "from somewhere down south then?"). One barmaid even said that men had asked her to do lots of strange things, but none had ever asked her do THAT before.

Anyway, it was a super trip, and thanks again for the recommendations.

Sorry Rex, I'm not biting.

[ROBCamra]

Rex, I noticed you've reviewed the 3 Legged Mare. Did you pop out into the beer garden at the back?

If so you'd have seen a 3 Legged Mare there. They had one built for the pub from some old drawings.

It was used to hang three people at once, nice.

Most of them were southerners who asked for the sparkler to be removed.

[Rex_Rattus]

Actually, I missed that one. Mind you it was raining pretty well all the time we were there, so missed out on all the beer gardens. Bar staff invariably took the sparkler thing in good humour. I suppose they expect southerners to ask for strange things; but one or two did look askance at the "flat" beer that I was happy to drink!

I suppose the three-legged mare is the Yorkshire version of the Tyburn Tree. Then there was John Derrick who invented the current apparatus (the derrick) so that hangings could be speeded up by "dropping" several at once. You wonder what some people think about in the bath!