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Newcastle-under-Lyme – Sanctuary Ale House

The Sanctuary Ale House is a Good Beer Guide listed pub on Hartshill Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme, not to be confused with the pub the Sanctuary which was located in the centre of the town and has now closed.

The beer options, a variety of cask and keg were available.

The bar arrangement looked modern and the service was efficient and friendly.

I hadn’t initially noticed the keg options when ordering, although Liam was more observant, I went for the stout from Nightjar which was well kept although unexceptional.

We were left standing as the relatively small pub was full, so they’re obviously doing something right to have plenty of customers. The atmosphere in the pub felt inviting and the decoration was quirky and interesting. We were standing looking at some slightly odd animals which were placed on top of a filing cabinet, it was all a little different. The pub is located on the Hartshill Mile and CAMRA note that it was converted from a former cafe in late 2016. I didn’t notice that there are apparently a couple of car seats for customers to sit on, it all felt innovative and if there had been more seating available when we visited I think we would have lingered here for a little longer. All rather lovely.

June 18, 2023
Newcastle-under-Lyme – Mellards

Most larger towns have a decadent craft beer option where prices might be a little more expensive, but the surroundings are often quieter and the beer selection extensive. After walking past numerous pubs where it almost felt a glass was going to come flying through the door at any moment, somewhere peaceful seemed in order.

Muck Rock is a local street artist and this presents a positive first impression.

The building was an ironmonger’s warehouse, indeed Mellard’s Warehouse which is where the pub name is from, and the restoration process took six years before it finally opened in 2017. This is a very practical use of an historic property and it seemed sensitively transformed.

The beer selection and for those interested in the current selection they are listed on Untappd. The service was prompt and immediate, although they got one of the drinks orders wrong but that didn’t impact me and so I was most forgiving.

A quirky building and it had the peace and calm that I was hoping for on a Saturday night. Not empty, just a little bit refined. I’m not sure if Ross and Liam were quite as pleased with my selection as I was, but they didn’t seem to be disappointed and so that sufficed me.

This is the Lumber Up, Limbo Down from Pomona Island Brew Co, a very agreeable wild cherry and blackcurrant sour IPA.

I was delighted to see that they had a Funky Fluid beer available, my favourite brewery who are located in Warsaw. There was more excitement, and I accept that I need to get out more, when I realised not only was it a beer that I hadn’t tried before, but it was a banana flavoured one. It might sound a slightly odd combination, but a banana stout can work quite well in terms of the flavouring and this was no exception. This 10% ABV beer was smooth, the banana flavour was rich and there were some notes of cocoa in there as well. The banana flavour is perhaps artificial, but it wasn’t cloying and this was a marvellous beer to end the evening on.

This bar is well reviewed on-line and it didn’t let me down, it was just as I expected it would be when I saw it listed on Untappd. It’s located down a back alley that means that they can’t have a great deal of passing pedestrian traffic, but it’s clearly become something of a destination venue over the last few years that it has been open. I can’t quite work out from their Facebook page and they don’t have a web-site, but they seem to serve pizzas during the day as well. Anyway, I’d merrily recommend this bar and would return if I’m back in the delightful town of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

June 18, 2023
Stoke-on-Trent – Trentham Monkey Forest

What better way to spend a warm, indeed too warm, Saturday morning in Stoke-on-Trent than by visiting a forest full of monkeys? There are 140 Barbary macaque monkeys at the Trentham Monkey Forest park with visitors being able to walk freely amongst them, although of course they can’t touch or feed them as that would be a little sub-optimal.

The park is located in the grounds of what was Trentham Hall, one of the most tragic country house losses of the early twentieth century. At least one of the gatehouses has been repurposed to be used as the new ticket office.

I had wondered how easy it would be to spot the monkeys, but that didn’t transpire to be a problem. They congregated in numerous places and were happily minding their own business. The keepers bring out food to certain areas, which of course excites and delights the monkeys and they seem to hang around near those feeding stations out of habit more than anything. I’m sure there were some who had stomped off elsewhere and we saw a couple who had climbed a tree to get some peace, but most were lingering around the path which winded its way around the site.

Some other wildlife has sneaked in.

I kept taking photos of the monkeys, although other than put them in an album on Flickr, it wasn’t clear to me what I was going to do with them all. There’s only breed of monkey here, which lets them life safely in one community, although that does limit a little what there is to see. It was relatively quiet when we went, which was just after 10:00 when they opened, but it looked annoyingly busy as we left so an early start is recommended.

One of the eight babies that have been born so far this year. The park does have to manage this process as they only want between 6 and 10 babies per year, otherwise there might be more monkeys than they could cope with.

And a playful baby.

The younger monkeys seemed to spend their entire time playing.

The nearby adults looked quite exhausted at times.

They’ve quite expressive animals and this one looked a little forlorn.

With some others looking downright angry.

I’ve also discovered that monkeys can eat nettles.

It’s not a bad life to be fair…. The oldest monkey here is 30 years old and it must be quite a luxurious life for them as they don’t have to worry about predators. There’s also plenty of space if they want to be away from people so it doesn’t feel like they’re trapped in here.

Occasionally the monkeys walk out on the path, but there are plenty of rangers about and they just ask visitors to stand still and let them cross. I didn’t see any monkeys lingering on the path, but I suspect they’ve been trained over the years not to hang about and to just move on. I was surprised how many rangers they had at the site, but I imagine it’s essential to stop some badly trained humans from doing things that they’re not meant to be doing. I’m sure that at some stage that someone from a village who has lost its idiot has tried to feed or touch one of the monkeys.

And a ranger supervising the crossing.

And having a little rest after its brave crossing of the path.

There’s a conservation angle to the whole arrangement as well, not least in providing information to visitors about not taking part in any photos where monkeys are used as props.

The park is also well reviewed on-line, although there are of course some people determined to be angry or annoyed. Here are a few of my favourites:

“Went with my 5yr old grand daughter at the weekend and when asked by her mum when we took her home she said her favourite bit was the picnic later.”

To be fair, a lot of children would be excited by the picnic element. I’m excited by the picnic element….

“30 quid for a 15 minute walk of seeing the same monkeys over and over. Bairn was bored in 10 mins and asking too leave.”

Fair play for getting round in 15 minutes, I would have struggled to have run it that time…… The management responded saying that many visitors would spent 3 to 5 hours, which seems quite a long time, but I’m unsure how anyone got around in 15 minutes.

“I can walk round forests for free and see lively animals.”

I’m not sure how many forests in the UK you can see monkeys though….

“I can only go off what I can see and basically its just a field where someone has chucked a load of monkeys in”

A field 🙂

“No touching or feeding allowed.”

Several people complained about this. I’m puzzled why anyone would want to touch the monkeys, but there we go. I think it’s related to the expectation that the animals can be used as a photo props, something the park deliberately warns about.

“Almost all displayed animals on the “walk map” were not in the relative places of the walking tour.”

The monkeys were in the wrong place 🙂

“Monkeys were scaring our children by hissing and waving their private parts into our children’s face.”

Even the park didn’t know how to respond to this….

“You cant take scooters inside”

May as well let in motorbikes….

Anyway, I digress once again by reading reviews.

The external fencing to stop the monkeys from all rushing into the centre of Stoke-on-Trent. I’m sure they would given half a chance.

And here’s Liam just inside the entrance to the park. Also in this area are the toilets, cafe, seating and a playground. You can walk around for as long as you like, although it was hot and we felt once around the main path was enough, especially as we had other places to be. It’s also possible to bring a picnic into this area, although not of course into the part where the monkeys are as that might lead to general havoc. All really rather lovely and it’s best to pre-book as it’s a bit cheaper. We had about 90 minutes here for £10 each, which seemed a reasonable price. The rangers and staff were all friendly and everything seemed well managed to me, so I’d recommend it to others although I’m not sure how often I’d want to return as inevitably the excitement wears off a little.

June 17, 2023
Newcastle-under-Lyme – Greyhound Pub

I’ve wanted to start ticking Titanic pubs off my list for some time, as it’s my favourite UK brewery and it was something that I had planned to do during the relaxed period after total lockdown. This weekend meant that I could start to visit a few of these fabled venues and the Greyhound in Newcastle-under-Lyme was where we started. That’s also appropriate, as I went to the nearby Keele University and remember it with very fond memories, although am moderately annoyed that it was somehow a quarter of a century ago. Anyway, I digress. Unfortunately, Titanic don’t seem to provide much information on the history of their venues, so I can’t add much on this one.

How very lovely. Titanic is known for its Plum Porter, but I rate its Cherry Porter even higher and so that’s what I went for. Not that it’ll interest very many people, but Ross went for a lager and Liam for the Anytime Session IPA. There’s certainly no shortage of choice here and the helpful staff seemed knowledgeable and keen to engage about the beer options.

The beer list and the Greyhound is keg and cask. I’m also delighted to note that it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide. The environment in the pub was laid-back but wasn’t particularly busy even though we were there on a Friday evening.

And the drink. The Cherry Porter was well-kept, at the appropriate temperature and had a sufficient amount of cherry flavouring running through it.

I’m assuming that the bar is designed to look like a ship and very noble and sleek it is. The on-line reviews for the pub are positive, just a couple of outliers including someone who was furious they had to wear a mask during the period after lockdown. The bane of publicans, I’m glad that those times are hopefully over….

The quirky looking clock. Not that we were taking part on it in its entirety, but The Greyhound is one of the pubs which is located on the Hartshill Mile pub crawl.

The bottled selection. I had a plan that I would purchase anything I hadn’t tried before during the brewery tour, which transpired to be a good plan.

A model of the Titanic and I’ll explain why the brewery has this name when I get to the brewery tour post. What a treat….

Anyway, this was a marvellous way to start the weekend and the pub was clean and had an inviting atmosphere. Quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide, the service was friendly and it’s always a delight to have the Cherry Porter.

June 16, 2023
British Airways : Third Brewdog Beer Launched – Speedbird OG

As another of my random posts, I was pleased to see a press release from British Airways stating that third Brewdog partnership beer with them is being launched. This one is called Speedbird OG and follows on from the first Speedbird and then Jet Stream. How marvellous.

Anyway, here’s the text:

“Fasten your seatbelts. Return your seats to their upright position. Avoid the temptation to turn your phone off Airplane mode “just to see what would happen”. Speedbird OG is ready to land.

The Transatlantic IPA first brewed at 40,000 feet to celebrate the British Airways centenary in 2019 is back in the air once again. Designed by the winner of our Air Graphic Control can design competition, we’re delighted to unveil Ross Brock’s can art that our independent panel of creative experts thought was the perfect blend of blue sky thinking and British Airways colour palette compliance. Ross will win a year’s supply of Speedbird OG, along with a VIP trip to our Ellon brewery and a pair of British Airways Euro Traveller flights of their choice. Cheers for your help, Ross. Been a pleasure flying with you.

Pick up your Speedbird OG cans exclusively on board British Airways flights or fly onto the internet, pick some up on our online shop and store them safely in the overhead lockers (or the fridge, whichever you prefer).”

June 15, 2023
Cantley – Cantley Cock (All You Can Eat Ribs and Chicken Wings)

I noticed this pub from their Facebook advertising and after some checking with CAMRA friends it appears to have something of a positive reputation. That was evident when we arrived and their car park was nearly at capacity, something is driving (literally) people to this countryside pub which following normal logic of the trade would have seen it closed and turned into housing.

I’m not quite sure I can articulate why, but this is the most perfect looking of entrances for a country pub. I think it’s the homeliness and cosiness they’ve delivered here, although equally it could be just that they didn’t know where to put the stuff they’ve dumped here. That I can’t tell the difference is what makes it work for me.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever own a country pub, but if I did, I’m not sure that I’d dare hang dangerous agricultural implements from the ceiling. I can imagine I’d get in the local press not because of the wonderful selection of Polish craft beers that I was offering, but because a cart wheel had fallen on an elderly woman as she was eating a slice of Bakewell tart. And although my friend Liam is a civil engineer, I’m not sure I’d entirely trust his hammer skills or however it is they hang things from the ceiling.

Back to the cosiness theme here. And, indeed, the agricultural implements theme. I took these photos as we were leaving as the pub was nearly at capacity. Reserving a table is highly recommended here judging from just how busy it was.

The selection of real ales was strong, Legacy from Lacon’s Brewery, London Pride from Fuller’s, Origins from Lacon’s Brewery, Little Sharpie from Humpty Dumpty and Old Speckled Hen from Greene King. I took this photo as a reminder of the beers they had, but I quite like the colours here.

Page one of the menu.

Page two of the menu. It was the bottom left offer that I had come for, the all you can eat ribs and wings for £18.95. Although rather decadently priced for me, I hadn’t eaten all day (I went to a lunchtime talk at Norfolk Record Office on King Street in Norwich) so I felt that I deserved it. I’d also had the most ridiculous situation with Wordle for the second time in a few days, but I’m only mentioning that in passing as nearly no-one would believe it if I told them, so that needed a private celebration.

I must admit that I was getting nervous about the arrangement as it’s offered from 17:00 until 21:00 and my order hadn’t arrived been taken until just before 20:00 so I was worried about getting my money’s worth. The service was just a little sluggish at first, but was always friendly and helpful. As a spoiler, I needn’t have worried.

Then this arrived. I’m not sure that this photo really shows the amount of food here, the ribs are on the left, the chicken wings and burnt ends on the right, with coleslaw in the middle and a mostly hidden mound of fries underneath. I started off going through this thinking that I could maybe cope with another trough of food, to thinking I’ll just ask for more chicken wings and chips, to thinking I’ll just ask for chips and then deciding I could only just finish what they had given me.

On the quality, this was exceptional, it wasn’t just a quantity thing. The ribs were tender and fell off the bone, the chicken wings were moist and covered in a thick and crispy coating. It was all very moreish and indeed quite messy to eat, but I’m not sure that eating ribs can authentically be done in any other manner. The helpful staff member did ask if I wanted another one, but I thought that would be reckless.

The beer was also decent, I went for the Little Sharpie from Humpty Dumpty that I hadn’t had before and this was well kept, at the appropriate temperature and had a pleasant taste. It was a much better selection of real ales than I had expected, but the popularity of the venue must allow them to get through a fair amount of beer.

Richard, who celebrated another big milestone birthday last weekend (he’s not yet 65, so anyone who knows him can work that one out), ordered the whitebait for starter and the Hunter’s Chicken for main course. He didn’t get close to finishing his main, such was the quantity of food that they served him. He approved of the quality too, but apologies I couldn’t take a photo as I had a fifth of a litre of BBQ sauce on my hands at that time.

It isn’t all about all you can eat of course, but I am tempted to return on a Monday for their unlimited curries as they sound most delightful. This is a venue that doing an excellent job of bringing people into their countryside location and I can see why it’s so busy, the service is friendly, the environment clean, the food keenly priced and the quality of the food high. I’m slightly wondering why this isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, but CAMRA note that it was taken over by new owners in July 2021 so maybe the situation will change as its reputation continues to grow. All really rather lovely, this is a proper country pub.

June 15, 2023
Norwich City of Ale – 2023 and the Moon Gazer Beer Prize

This Norwich City of Ale is getting even better after I managed to win one of the four weekly prizes that was available by filling in a competition entry on the event’s web-site. Very many thanks to Moon Gazer for the beers, which will be much appreciated, they all arrived with me safely at the end of last week.

I’ve now completed three of the trails in their entirety, and I’ll finish off another two over the next few days. Not sure I’ll manage to complete every trail as I initially hoped, but I won’t rule anything out just yet as the festival doesn’t finish until 25 June.

They’ll appear at https://untappd.com/user/julwhite in due course when I’ve worked my way through them 🙂

June 14, 2023
Wordle in One – How Exciting

I feel that this is worthy of a brief mention as it’s the first time it’s happened to me and likely the last time that it’ll ever happen. Guessing Wordle in one go, using a word that I routinely use as my opening guess. What a time to be alive and all that….. It also means that I’ll never use the word ‘GUARD’ again on Wordle on the grounds that it’s unlikely to come up again. My friend Madeleine, who I update regularly on Wordle matters, had a special cup of tea to celebrate this great achievement (or stroke of luck, whichever you prefer).

June 13, 2023
Stoke-on-Trent – Waterworld

Our weekend expedition to Stoke-on-Trent began on Friday with a stop-off of three hours at Waterworld, or at least it did for Liam and me, as Ross walked to the hotel as he couldn’t cope with too much excitement. There aren’t many photos as for obvious reasons, the venue doesn’t want them being taken, although judging from reviews a few people have decided that they would take them anyway.

It’s quite an impressive setup from the outside, but all of this element is a relatively new add-on from a few years ago. There are something like ten water slides in the whole arrangement and we had carefully ensured that we were going off-peak when kids were at school.

Visitors get very different experiences depending on when they go, as it seems to be operating at near capacity during most school holidays and nearly empty during school terms. We didn’t have to wait for any slide at any time, but reviews suggest that there are long queues for every ride during school holidays. There’s also apparently a lack of space in the pools generally, it must all be far more stressful during these busy periods.

We had booked reduced priced tickets in advance, but there’s an extra charge for car parking and also to use a locker. All included, it came to £20 each for us and we were able to spend over three hours in the pool. Again, during busier periods, they do ask people to leave after being there for a certain amount of time.

Liam and I have different styles to things such as this. He likes thrill seeking and throwing himself down slides at the fastest possible speed, whereas I prefer a more leisurely and calm approach to matters. I’ve also somehow forgotten how to swim over the years, which has meant that one slide was off limits to me, although I can’t say that I was that concerned about that. Another slide was off limit to me as it looked far too frightening and that’s the Thunderbolt, which the owners themselves say is an “adrenaline experience”. To Liam, that sounded exciting, whereas to me it sounded like one big stress.

My lack of wanting to go down the slides at a breakneck pace meant that one of the staff at one point had to push me down as I was going so slowly I managed to just stop, not a problem that Liam faced as he went charging down. On that matter, all of the staff were friendly and helpful, with plenty of them on-hand to prevent anyone from drowning. There were lots of whistles being blown throughout the day for anyone transgressing the rules, but nothing looked like it was near to disaster.

The on-line reviews are quite exciting to read through, or at least, as exciting as these things can be. Plenty of people complaining about queueing, overcrowding, too much chlorine and safety issues. I can’t say that I saw anything that I considered unsafe and it all seemed clean to me, although goodness knows how high their water and energy bills must be. Reports of an hour wait to use each slide are perhaps exaggerated, but there are lots of complaints about people pushing in. I must admit, being British that would irritate me.

There is a restaurant area by the side of the pool which we didn’t have any need to use, but the prices looked quite high. I remember going to Aquatica in Florida a few years ago with my friend Rob, and they positively encouraged visitors with low prices to keep them in restaurants and make space in their water park. The outdoor swimming pool was closed during our visit, but everything else was open, although some of the rides opened in rotation to keep staffing levels down.

I decided that my favourite slide was the Stormchaser, which they describe as a thrill ride, so I consider that sufficiently brave. For anyone interested, they have videos of all of the slides at https://www.waterworld.co.uk/rides/. I’d probably go back at some point in the future if the opportunity arose and Liam seems keen to go back with his family later in the year, although I think that’s primarily as he wants to throw himself down the slides again.

June 13, 2023
Food from Every Stall on Norwich Market – Week 10 and Norwich Fresh

I’m pleased to note that my Norwich market series is continuing with some pace, this time with James, my lunch-time dining companion of what is now over 25 years. We’ve managed to stick to the same two places for the bulk of that time, namely Grosvenor and Lucy’s Chips, with few diversions. However, we’ve decided to be brave and branch out using the same randomly selected market stall plan that Nathan and I had been doing.

Above is the double stall setup that Norwich Fresh have at the market, but there’s also a separate juice bar opposite which we may tackle on a separate occasion. I liked the clarity of the menu board, it’s clearly laid out and makes it obvious what is available.

There are 17 different options on the menu, although some of them were marked with small stickers as sold out. There’s a choice between two styles, the Fusion Ramen and the Fusion Rice Bowl. I decided to opt for the Korean Chicken Bowl which is battered fried chicken served with jasmine rice, chicken and vegetable dumplings, boiled broccoli, spring onion and homemade Korean sweet and sour sauce.

The prices are towards the higher end of the scale for Norwich market, with my option coming to £8. However, the food is freshly made and is well presented, as well as being served as a large portion. The service was friendly and efficient, another market stall with an inviting feel to it. They accept credit and debit cards which made matters easier. Customers are given a ticket number and that’s called out when the food is ready, with mine taking around five minutes to prepare.

James and I are completing our second City of Ale trail tomorrow evening, but we needed to tick off Toby’s Beer from the list during the day as it’s not open later, so we took our food to Toby’s market stall to get a drink with it. This is the very agreeable Big Blue Shoe NEIPA from the excellent Three Blind Mice Brewery.

But, back to the food. Served at the appropriate hot temperature, the food looked colourful and appetising. The broccoli retained some bite, but wasn’t overly hard, with the dumplings being fried to give them a firm exterior. The interior of the dumplings was light and the sauce was rich but not overly sweet. There was sufficient sauce to coat the rice and the battered fried chicken was tender inside, all combining to be a filling and satisfying meal.

James had the chicken dumpling ramen which consisted of wheat noodles in a homemade chicken broth topped with chicken dumplings, a boiled egg, broccoli, spring onion and coriander. He thought that the broth was a bit thin and lacking in richness of flavour, slightly jealous that I had picked a better option.

James has a better eye for photography than me so I might get him to take future photos (although he can faff about a bit taking them if I’m being honest), this is his food alongside the IPA Galaxy Ella & Vic Secret from Three Blind Mice Brewery.

Back to the food from Norwich Fresh, I very much enjoyed my food and felt that it was worth the cost. A depth of flavour to the sauce, tender chicken and the fried dumplings added positively to the whole arrangement. The service was friendly, the menus were clear and the stall seemed clean and organised. All very lovely. Oh, and although James tried to rig the random selection of market stall to ensure we did Lucy’s Chips for the next eight visits, I was able to oversee the random number generation and can confirm it was done fairly (and as a spoiler, it’s not Lucy’s next).

June 12, 2023