A week long tour by train and bus of the North East of England (if you include Chesterfield in the North East!) meant that with previous knowledge and the Good Beer Guide we visited at least 26 pubs. I am not going to review them all!
The tour started by a train journey to London and then on to York. The meant a quick visit to what I take to be a new pub in Kings Cross being the Parcel Yard run by Fullers. Our time scale was rather short but time for a good pint of Fullers ESB and a quick look round this huge area.
We have been to York many times – a wonderful city – with a wide range of excellent pubs. In order to visit some new ones we missed out on classic hostelries such as the historic Blue Bell. The Golden Ball, The Maltings and the Phoenix were very good but I particularly wanted to go to the York Tap and Pivni – run by the same company as the Sheffield Tap which I commented on previously. The Pivni is a small city centre bar – took us a while to find it – but was worth the effort. Angela was not that impressed by the Chocolate Orange Stout – the flavour that is but I had a very good pint of Thornbridge White Swan. In contrast the York Tap is a super conversion – as you would expect – of a former tea room and latterly a model railway. Fine range of beers, of which we tasted Yorkshire Pale and Tapped Brew Co Rodeo.
Interior of the York Tap
Finally one of the best pubs of the trip was the Brigantes in Micklegate. I don’t think it has been around for that long -but it will be.
As usual we just had the beer, but came back later in the evening for another. Excellent range, excellent quality,
Although we had visited Scarborough before, we had never stayed there, and so apart from the Wetherspoons this was new territory. 7 pubs visited, 5 in town and 2 which were bars conveniently situated next to our hotel – Scarborough Travel and Holiday Lodge. We have to mention the Scholars Bar which had a quiz night on when we went. Of course we entered but were defeated by 80’ music! I drew a ticket to enter a ‘Play Your Cards Right’ but an immediate failure to call correctly kept me away from any chance of the £340 jackpot. Good beer though. A long walk out to the North Riding Brew Pub was justified as was a visit to the Alma.
The Cellars Bar next to the hotel had a very good range of ales.
Apart from a short visit a few years ago I had not been to Robin Hoods Bay since I was 17 – when the pub of choice was the Laurel – not yet open for the day when we were there. 
I relived fossil hunting on the beach by finding a small ammonite and a cockle shell fossil. The long walk back up to the bus stop was eased by a beer in the Victoria Hotel.
View from near the Victoria
Nice place – great views.
Durham was another return trip from our last visit a few years ago. This time we stayed in the Bridge where we had eaten a good meal on our last visit. A pleasant stay and 3 good real ales on tap. We couldn’t resist a return trip to the Colpitts Hotel.
. A Sam Smiths pub where the Old Brewery Bitter was still good and only £1.80 a pint. Seems a real local as well. We visited the John Duck and the Old Elm Tree. The former had Durham Brewery White Velvet which was one of my favourite beers of the week.
Two place we visited from our base in Durham were a return trip to Beamish Museum and an evening trip to the Tap and Spile pub on Framwellgate Moor. Beamish has its own pub – the Sun Inn – with its own beers. The only disappointment this time was the absence of pork pies at lunchtime. There had been no delivery from the baker !
A former Blackpool Tram at Beamish
And so back to Chesterfield. Again we spent some time in the Chesterfield Arms where Angela’s beer of the week was Whim Ales Flower Power. I particularly enjoyed the Newby Wyke HMS Warrior.
We also visited one new pub and one refurbishment. The new (micro)pub is the Chesterfield Ale House which you could pass by if not careful.
Old shop converted into a 2 floor pub with an excellent range of ales. Tuesday is cheese night where locals bring in bread, biscuits and cheese for all to share. Thankyou –I did!
After calling in again at the Tramway we walked up to the former Brampton Ale house which is now the Barlow Brewery Tap House. “ of there own brews went down very well.
An excellent if tiring 8 days – travelling a lot of the way by bus may be free to us old farts, but not so relaxing as the train! Over 50 beers tasted and no really bad ones. Pays to rely on the Good Beer Guide.
Beer, Steam and Toasted Tea-cakes 