Drinking and crawling around Ashover

Eh oop,

    myself and Christingpher recently bought a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket ( from the station, because the Interchange doesn't bother selling them anymore) and caught the train to Chesterfield, then walked past numerous closed pubs to New Beetwell Street to catch the bus to Higham. Here we set off to walk to Ashover.

We tried this about five years ago and with no map I managed to get us lost and I think we ended up in Tansley instead. This time I had done the walk before with Davefromtshop and so knew the way. We set off towards the railway line in a very muddy and slippy field, with low cloud and persistent drizzle. We made rather slow progress. This was to be a feature of the walk. Having spent 15 minutes attempting to clamber down, and in my case slip arse first down a muddy bank which we then realised wasn't even part of the path, it took us a while to get to Brackenfield, and even longer to slip and slide and dodge pools of sucking mud out onto the main road.

Soon we were on Stonerows lane and heading through the hamlets in the valley down to Milltown. We went into the Miners Arms - the first time for either of us. Bedraggled and mud covered, this was a noticeable entrance into what is essentially a restaurant with a tiny bar serving one real ale. I went to the loo to get cleaned up and left Christingpher at the bar to order two pints of Marstons Old Empire. A decent start to our drinking at 5.7%.

I am sure the Miners is a lovely place to go and eat but we did feel slightly out of place and once we had dried off a little and finished our pints we walked into Ashover and the welcoming sight of the Old Poets Corner. Inside were about seven real ales, real fires, hearty conversation and comfortable seating. Had we the time, or the money, or means of escape, we could easily have stayed here all day. Christingpher had a pint of Ashover Littlemoor Citra and I a pint of a Blackjack and Hawkshead collab called Manuka, 5% and described as  a Belgian Ale. Both were delicious, and dispatched quickly.

Next up I had a pint of the Oakham Citra which was better still, whilst Christingpher tried a pint of the Manuka - pork scratchings were bought and Mr C dried his feet in the fire before returning for a third round. This time I had another Manuka and Christingpher a pint of the Shiny Sorachi dark, with a catchy marmite design for the word Sorachi. I actually like Sorachi, and this was a fantastic beer.

Off next to the Black Swan where a 70th birthday meant only half the pub was available. We went in the room with the dart board and a pint each of the Peak Ales Bakewell best bitter. It was good to get  in for the first time in a while, but alas our visit was short as we had to head up to Kelstedge.

I think the last part of the walk gets shorter every time we do it but we were there half an hour before the bus so opted to pop in the Kelstedge Inn. Only three real ales on this time, and if am honest I can't remember what we had a half of each. A very kind lady sat at the bar did however find us somewhere to sit and advised where we should catch the bus.

Soon in Matlock we headed straight for MoCa bar and had a pint each from Blue Monkey. The pub was busy but we still managed to get sat down, initially near the bar and later up the top sat in the window. This was Christingpher's first visit and he really enjoyed the atmosphere, and we spent a goodly amount of time drinking and catching up (possibly buying another beer) before realising we had missed the bus to Derby. There was a two hour wait for the next one so we caught the train to Duffield and went to the Pattenmakers.

The pub still serves Bass from the jug and guests, so we had a pint of Bass each and sat down in the room at the end to eat more pork scratchings and try and work out when the next bus was. The pub was not quite as busy as previously and I didn't fancy any of the guests but it is still a great place to enjoy Bass from the jug.

We finally got out to catch the bus and when in Derby walked round to the Alexandra to have a pint each of the Elland 1872 porter at 6.8%. Alas, in an unrelated event, the beefdozer cometh. In fact, later, when I rose from my chair, there was muted applause, since many thought I had died. Luckily I was compus mentus enough to finish my enjoyable drink.

Alas this snooze meant we missed the very early last train so had to call in a huge favour from Wee Fatha who picked us up about half midnight. Thanks! Despite this somnabulistic  hiccup, this was still an excellent day out walking and drinking in some fine Derbyshire pubs, and another great example of why Ashover is such a brilliant place to go drinking.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Ecclesbourne Amber - five unspoilt Derbyshire pubs.

Hello,

      I returned late last night from a trip to the Derbyshire. The idea was to head for Buxton, and then out to Elton and finally into Derby. Only one of those destinations was achieved. Luckily, a Derbyshire Wayfarer meant that it was still possible to visit some very good pubs.

Wayfarer to hand myself and Miss N caught the train to Derby and then the Swift to Ashbourne. Ashbourne is now missing the Green Man and Black's Head, since its being turned into a clothes shop. How vital. Mind you, it appears there are plans to install a bar in another part of the premises. Quite what was wrong with retaining the old bar on the right and turning the newer side over to retail is beyond me. Luckily up the road is the Smiths Tavern.

A good range of beers were available and having found ourselves somewhat hungover from a Friday night out at Shakespeares we discussed having halves. Obviously all thoughts of this went out the window when we realised the magnitude of our having to seem like lightweights, and two very agreeable pints of Castle Rock Harvest Pale at £3.10 were purchased. We repaired to the upstairs room to the strains of classical music and slowly started to adjust to the reintroduction of alcohol. The tone was set for the day ahead.

Catching the bus to Kirk Ireton involves comprehending the Cretan style Ashbourne bus station in joke - that is, all buses arrive and leave at exactly the same time. Most buses arrive and change destination, thus leading to "an hilarious" back and forth sprint from one end of the line of five vehicles to the other, many of which don't have numbers or destinations on. Eventually we found the 103 to Kirk Ireton and hopped on board. This bus serves two places, and basically covers most of the same part of the route a bus that leaves at the same time does. Except now there are two buses doing one route with an extra leg. That's called public transport planning that is. Well done.

The Barley Mow was quite full when we arrived, and there were six beers to choose from. We started on pints of Storm Bosley Cloud, and it was OK, £2.80 a pint, but a little tired. Next we had pints of Whim Hartington IPA, until time was called - at 13.50. Gripped by fear I rushed into grab two more pints of IPA. Excellent beer, which considering we had two pints in 25 minutes, was probably a good job.

We walked down to the main road and through Idridgehay past the closed Black Swan (note - turning a pub into a restaurant means you have to be really ace at being a restaurant - since you lose your drinkers trade). From here we went and caught the train from Idridgehay to Wirksworth, for a much needed bite to eat, and then finally back down the Ecclesbourne Valley railway to Duffield. Not a bad price for a restored railway, and a relaxing, gently rocking, scenic journey.

Duffield saw us in the Pattenmakers. They still serve Bass form the jug but their guest ale range seems to have increased slightly since I was there last year. I had a pint of the Nutbrook Black Beauty and Miss N a Magpie IPA, from a range that also included Leadmill and Springhead.

A short hop on the bus and we were crossing the Derwent and walking up to the Holly Bush at Makeney. This National Inventory of unspoilt pub interiors listed pub features a magnificent walk in snug comprising two huge settles which gives access to the bar. Anyone can sit in this small snug but to all intents and purposes its like being sat in a private bar, a little like the one at the Bridge in Topsham, Devon. Here we both had fantastic pints of Pedigree from the jug, and settled down to watch the dark, cosy bar fill up, and to get chatting to some locals. We soon realised that waiting three hours for the next bus to Buxton, having secured nowhere to stay, was probably a bad idea. Having decided that accommodation could be secured in  nearby Milford or Belper, we chose to throw caution to the wind and have a couple more rounds.

Usually my every visit to the Holly Bush requires a clock watching race, but now I was afforded the opportunity to  have a good few beers. So whilst Miss N studiously kept to Pedigree, I went for a pint of the 7.0% Blue Monkey Fat Ape, at a rather reasonable £3.40 a pint. Not an especially subtle beer (unsurprisingly), but it was worryingly easy to drink. Our final round saw more Pedigree and my drinking Thornbridge Raven at 6.6% - and £3.80 a pint. I hadn't realised it was on Keykeg to be honest, but given the mark up the containers seem to attract I don't think that's a bad price.

Down the hill and the King William was doing accommodation, so having secured that we headed over the river to the Mill House which, mercifully, does food til 22.00. Slightly tired after a pint or two the food was just what we needed - obviously accompanied by more beer. Two halves of Pedigree came to £3.10.

Our final beers were in the long homely bar of the King William in Milford, pints of the Whim Flower Power, a lovely hoppy beer to cleanse the palate at the end of a very long day. Details of day two to follow.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Ecclesbourne valley pub crawl

Hello,

  the title references the fact that almost all of the pubs in my recent pub ramble with Christingpher were at one end or the other of the Ecclesbourne Valley, but as so often happens with such things, you have to get there and home again, so before you read on I must confess that there are a few sneakily inserted Derwent valley pubs as well....

We were due to set off at 10.00 from Sheffield Interchange last Sunday, and according to the poster in the entrance there was no disruption to the route despite the Race for life event taking place. Fairly puzzling then that Stagecoach, obviously too busy concentrating on their multinational concerns to think things through properly, decided to run the service 15 minutes later, thus handily missing the 2 connections in and following Matlock. Well done.

Luckily, I noticed the 215 was headed Matlock way, and that was leaving late (but not as much as the X17), due to it being filled with passengers presumably also missing vital connections, so we hopped on that and arrived in Matlock with 6 minutes to spare - AKA, the time the X17 had been due to arrive.

We were in Wirksworth before Noon and walked slowly round to North End to eagerly anticipate the opening of the venerable and admirable enterprise which is the Royal Oak.

This was my first daylight visit (they only open during the day on a Sunday, 12-15.00) and my companion's first, and weren't disappointed. Ales on offer were Rudgate Viking, Timothy Taylors Landlord, Bass, Whim Flower Power and Wincle Sir Phillip. Not noticing its strength (5.3%), I opted for a pint of the Whim and Christingpher the Wincle, and we sat down to enjoy our pre walk refreshments.

Sat in the cool air of the pub, with quiet chatter at the bar, with the sun blazing outside, this was a perilously good start - I think that we could easily have stayed here til 15.00 then gone to Derby, and the cobs and pork pie bought pushed us towards abandonment. Instead, we enjoyed another pint (our choices now the other way round), as well as taking a pic or two and chatting to the friendly landlord. I highly recommend a visit.

Next we were in the Market Place catching the 6.1 towards Belper, the knowledgeable driver pinpointing the exact country lane junction we needed to get off at near Blackbrook, so we could set off up onto the ridge overlooking Belper. Unfortunately, testing of my camera and the warm sunshine made this a slightly slower walk than I planned, and it was gone 14.00 before we arrived at the Bulls Head at Belper Lane Ends.

Having never been before, I can't say how its changed, but it certainly appears to have been recently refurbished and boasts comfy seating, a pristine beer garden and four real ales. On the bar were Bass, a Springhead beer,  and the local Shottle Farm Brewery Shottle Gold and 8/- (yes, you read that right). the latter being served on gravity from the cellar.

Both beers were £2.80 a pint and we enjoyed them sat in the garden taking the opportunity to soak up some rare sunshine. The gold had a very traditional lightly hoped flavour and the 8/- was malty and fruity and darkish brown. Both went down really well. And next we were to walk to the brewery.

Well, I say "were", we had to be at Cowers Lane to get on the Ecclesbourne Valley railway at Shottle station by 16.30 so it would only have been a look, but it didn't look far, and we had 1 hour 40 minutes to get there. What could go wrong?

Well, I could bring far too large a scale map for a start, and after rejoining then leaving the safety of the Midshires way, almost without exception, there were no waymark arrows. The map helpfully instructed us that the path went right then followed a wall into the valley and up the other side into Shottle. We went the wrong side of the wall for starters, then back up in a loop, and even when we found the path again it was overgrown or difficult to see, leading eventually to a stream that wasn't on the map, after which the path disappeared entirely.

After 15 minutes puzzling and looking for signs of stiles/gates (half of the stiles were collapsed walls so that wasn't easy) we decided to paddle across the stream and keep straight on. The other side of the hill heralded waist high grass that was arduous to traipse through, and we finally reached Shottle at the time we were meant to be reaching Cowers Lane. Still, we made it there in time to catch the last bus (at 17.15, for crying out loud) and got off at Milford past Belper and visited the King William.

This former Leadmill brewery pub had 4 ales on including Pedigree from the jug. I plumped for that, and Christingpher the Oldershaw Newtons Drop, and we settled down at the left hand end of the long room as sunshine streamed in and across our table.

Next we walked up the hill to the Holly Bush at Makeney, a terrific unspoilt pub with an amazing Bar snug, dispensing Pedigree and Ruddles by the jug plus guests. Christingpher had the Thornbridge Colorado Red, and I a pint of the Buxton Blonde. This was accompanied by one of the Holly Bush's pork pies - I asked for one, and was told there was a choice of small and a medium. "How big's the small?" I enquired, as the barmaid showed me a pastry case the size of a haggis. " I'll have the small I think", and at £1.60 it was a decent price for a filling carbohydrate hit. The only slight downside here was the Colorado Red - not badly kept or even expensive, just not a well balanced Thornbridge beer.

The final part of our walk was to wander along Duffield Bank in glorious sunshine into Duffield, crossing the Derwent at the Bridge Inn and making our way up King Street to the Pattenmakers Arms.

Here it was a no brainer as to what to have -  two pints of Bass form the jug was the only plan we were interested in and the beers didn't disappoint. Sitting in the arts and crafts homeliness of the right hand room this could have been a perfect visit had it not been for an unfortunate public toilet roll incident which would be too tiresome and pointless to explain.

Finally we were in Derby and noting there were plenty of buses to the Station we headed for  a centre pub, this being the Exeter Arms. Here the beer had taken a hammering and no more was coming on it seemed so we both had a half of the deliciously creamy mild Dark Drake from the on site Dancing Duck Brewery, which then promptly ran out as well.

Our penultimate pub was the Brunswick, where we had underwhelming but inexpensive halves of their Caramild and Station porter, before a quick visit to the Alex round the corner, where I had a pint and Christingpher a half of the excellent Welbeck Abbey Portland Black.

This was a great selection of pubs even if the walk was frustrating, and bar the Bass in the Pattenmakers all offered a sensibly priced beer selection - ale in the Royal Oak, Bulls Head, King William and Exeter Arms was less than £3.00 a pint, not bad these days for Derbyshire.

There are of course also many other pubs in the Ecclesbourne Valley so that may have to be a trip for another time, but those that we visited were excellent, with The Royal Oak in Wirksworth easily standing out as the best.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy.