Hello again
day two dawned with mist and a chill in the air, quickly dispersed by a fantastic breakfast with a huge amount of food options to tempt us. Being the only guests we were free to have a leisurely (well over an hour) munch before heading off out in bright sunshine to walk along the Derwent.
The only downside to this was that we ended up missing the somewhat infrequent 6.1 to Wirksworth - so, dragging my titty lip along the floor, we "had" to storm along the A6 into Belper to plan how we might get to our intended first stop - having already, for a second day running, ditched plans to go to Buxton. Sorry Buxton. The solution was to catch the TP to Cromford and catch the 6.1 coming the other way to Wirksworth. Something of a fanny about but well rewarded with a trip to the Royal Oak.
This redoubtable old pub is tucked away on St John Street near two of Wirksworth's churches. You'd be very unlikely to complete the combination of happening across it by chance, and finding it open - it opens 12-15.00 Sundays and from 20.00 to 23.00 during the week as I understand. Luckily its been in the GBG for many years, which is where I found out about it.
Bass and Landlord are regulars and there is nearly always something from Whim - this time Hartington IPA, complimented by Blue Monkey Ape Ale. Miss N went for the latter and I the Hartington IPA, and we decided to sit in the beer garden. I think yard is a more accurate description - but whichever you use - what a fantastic spot. Sat in glorious sunshine beneath a cloudless sky supping pale hoppy real ale, after all the tribulation of getting there it felt like we'd got chance to relax. First pints quickly dispersed, we got sandwiches and both had a further pint of the Blue Monkey (£2.80, 5.0%). And then we repeated the round, before we set off once again.
Back on the 6.1 we alighted near The Tavern in Belper. I'd never been before but heard it sold real ales often including ones from Shottle Farm Brewery. None on offer this time but there were pints of Bradfield Northern General appeal brew to be supped, from a range that included Grafton brewery Jazz. The Jazz was really poor with almost no taste to it so we were glad of the Bradfield, and once again the drinks came to £5.60. Here we sat in the sunshine in the beer garden before heading up the road to find a bus stop with a timetable on it.
With no Sevens to get us to Openwoodgate, we caught a bus to Ripley. Here we went to the Pear Tree, and from a range of four predominantly Greedy King beers, I went for their mild (it doesn't count if you drink a beer they wish they could discontinue) and Miss N a Pale Ale from Dark Star. Once again the beer was £5.60!
A quick walk took us to the Talbot Tap House where there were five Amber Ales on offer, and a guest. I went for a pint of the Revolution, as did Miss N, which the barman told me was the eighth version brewed, and which the blackboard proclaimed featured Special B Malt. Whatever taste that might impart, the Revolution remains a favourite Amber Ales beer, so when the second round came I had that again, and Miss N something that was about 6.0%. Despite confusion about its name at the time, I didn't think to look at the clip, even when returning the glasses to he bar. There's journalism for yer...
A yomp followed to our penultimate boozer, the rather excellent Thorn Tree at Waingroves. Two good quality beers were sampled after a rather lengthy walk to get to it - 4T's Brewing face the hops, at 5.5%, and a Hopcraft Fleur D'Alsace which was slightly less strong but delicious nonetheless. Alas this was a short visit since we had no idea when the "nines" ran from the bottom of Pease Hill (both phones dead, locals lacking confidence in the idea we'd get home!) so we restricted ourselves to one pint before scaling the hill and walking down past the Beehive - to wait 40 minutes for a bus to Derby. Doh.
Once there we headed for The Station Inn but either it closes early Sunday or doesn't open at all - I probably ought to know this, in fact its probably on my blog. Either way, no amount of standing hopefully outside the door was going to make the lights come on. Round the corner the Brunswick was serving til 23.00 so we had chance for a quick last pint and a half - Railway Porter for Miss N and half for me, along with a pint of Brampton Griffin - and a pork pie.
So ended an at times hectic traipse round many excellent pubs in the Derwent and tributary valleys, memorable for great beer, fantastic scenery and lovely Autumn sunshine. We'll just have to do that ball ache journey to Buxton and Elton another time...
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Royal Oak Wirksworth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal Oak Wirksworth. Show all posts
Monday, 7 October 2013
Thursday, 19 July 2012
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.
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.
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