Ull

     "its spelt Hull, burrits prunarnst Ull, thats what everyone rand ere sez" said Kev, as we sat in a circle of red leather chairs, with classic album covers on the walls whilst music played loudly in the background. We were, in Ull. We we here to celebrate Jobi's birthday. Gawd love her, this involved going on the worlds shortest pub crawl in Ull's Old Town. Here is what happened.

Wee Keefy had picked me and Tash and Matty up and drove us to Ull to meet Jobi and Jambon, and we then went to the William Wilberforce Spoons to meet Kev, Sue, who's birthday celebration it also was, and her friends Lynda and her other half, who alas I have forgotten the name of. Como siempre.

The Double W sells quite inexpensive ales and food and is set in a glorious old building. The beer list was well out o date but I had a pint of the Caledonian and some American brewery Amber ale and Tash some Zulu Pale - both pints came to about £3.45. Upstairs we ordered food for us all, and a few holes started to appear - I thought I had dabs of sour cream on my bowl but they were in fact three missing chunks, and Jobi had a cold cooked chicken burger - which they replaced with 2 pints. Downstairs, I was asked if I had been served, so said yes and turned to the guy next to me to ask if he had been and the person asking ran off! I had to wait five minutes to get two pints of Rhymney Export...

About 10 yards away is the Olde White Hart pub. Accessed down an alley way and through a large courtyard, this is a very old pub which I think is, or at least was, on the National Inventory. In the bar its Theakstons and Caledonian, granted, but the Flying Scotsman as on good form. Most of us had that as we sat in the room on the left near the second of two giant fireplaces. We were joined here by three or four of Jobi's Ull friends - to be honest, I really can't remember their names. I can remember they were great company though. This was a feature of the Old Town boozers.

Another couple of yards away is a modern pub called Walters, named I understand after Walter Wilberforce who ran a barbers there. It has a long narrow layout with loos at the end and about eight handpumps and some kegs and a range of bottles and cocktails. I had a delicious pint of Brass Castle Loco and Tash tried some local Atom Brewery Chamomile, whilst Jambon picked the best ale of the night with a punchy IPA which might have been called Nightflower.

We were sat in the booth as mentioned earlier with most of the party stood up,  mingling and chatting and supping the excellent range of ales. At this point the older part of the group (sorry Kev et al!) moved on to the next pub early as they had a train to catch, and we followed on behind after anther half.

WM Hawkes seems like the oldest pub but am guessing its not - I think the amount of old worlde decoration suggests its trying to be older than it actually is. I had another pint of Atom in here as did Tash but we weren't keeping notes, as its no doubt abundently obvious! Got chatting to a local briefly in here and he was pleased that we had come from Sheffield, which was also part of Yorkshire - neither  of us had any time for Humberside.  We stayed in here for a while soaking up the excellent atmosphere and surroundings - although, one gripe, having been told about its wonderful spirit selection, the two staff didn't seem to know what was on, and there was no spirit list. A missed opportunity methinks....

Virtually over the road is the Lion and Key. Our much smaller paty struggled to sueeze in to this rammed pub. Wee Keefy had the Cathead Brewery mild whilst me and Tash had the Leanside Alexandria IPA and something else form a local brewery. To be honest, the Leamside was lovley, but I also tried the Cathead Blonde and it was dire! Here we sat out the back with a good mix of drinkers and enjoyed people watching, and listening to stories of imbibing.

Our final pub was the Old Black Boy, also a National Inventory candidate, with an interesting long layout of two rooms downstairs and one up, with a terrace upstairs. The beer range was less good in here and I had a very average pint of Oakham JHB, and stood downstairs with Wee Keefy and Jobi and others, whilst Jambon Tash and Matty sat upstairs "enlivening" or potentially ruining some couple's date. The Black |Boy is keen on closing time, and we were outside before midnight.

Getting home via a drugged up paranoid mentalist in a burger joint and a long queue at the station taxi rank really didn't dampen our spirits. In fact, it was just another part in a wonderful jigsaw of experiences and ale and ale houses and people in the Est Yorkshire city. A thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended destination.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy