Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Sowerby Bridge – Hogs Head Brew House

    Sowerby Bridge – Hogs Head Brew House

    Fortunately it’s not too hot today as I explore the delights of West Yorkshire, with this visit being to the well-reviewed Good Beer Guide listed Hogs Head Brew House in Sowerby Bridge.

    I had already seen what drinks were available as the pub has listed them on their app, so that saved some time when at the bar. Well, saved a few seconds anyway. A range of beer styles there and a decent cask and keg selection of options.

    The bar, which feels bright and modern, and although it’s a little hidden by the lights in the photo, there’s a hog’s head above the counter (there are some other dead animals attached to other walls in the pub as well). The service was warm and welcoming, with the pub having quite a relaxed vibe.

    The cellar is visible through this glass panel in the floor and there’s a well that goes down even further.

    All very on-trend, a mix of the old and the new. The surroundings are comfortable and there’s certainly a lot of decoration and stuff around the place. There was one customer’s dog that spent about five minutes barking and he seemed oblivious to that it was annoying at least one other table. The pub didn’t feel very busy internally, but there were a fair few customers sitting outside in the garden area opposite.

    I went for the Paper Planes from Salopian Brewery, quite a quirky hazy beer, but with a depth of flavour that I liked. Of little relevance to anyone else, that’s the second beer I’ve had from Salopian Brewery in the last couple of weeks (and I’ve never had any from this brewery in Shrewsbury before that), both of which have been really quite acceptable.

    I’m not sure that I have much more to add about this pub, but I liked it and I’m glad that it’s in the Good Beer Guide. I’m not entirely sure how places of this size make money when they don’t offer meals (although they had pork pies), but there are two canals that meet in this town and perhaps they get some revenue from the tourist trade linked to that.

  • Northern Trains : Shipley to Bradford Forster Square

    Northern Trains : Shipley to Bradford Forster Square

    A short rail journey today, from Shipley back into Bradford Forster Square. It’s not possible to go to Shipley to Bradford Interchange without taking a circuitous route via Leeds or something, as the two Bradford railway stations aren’t connected.

    The delights of Shipley railway station’s underground tunnels.

    They’re not very decadent, but at least everything is clearly signed.

    Shipley’s railway station, this is in a different part of the complex to where I left from last week.

    Clicking on this image makes it larger and it’s the Network Rail map of the railway station. Platform 5 is on the left, platforms 3 and 4 at the base and platforms 1 and 2 at the top. Dead simple….

    Here’s the Northern Trains Thunderbolt speeding into the station.

    The seating and it was busier than this, but I took the photos when disembarking. There were no ticket checks, although there was a passenger watching TikTok videos loudly, but I can manage to ignore those when the rail journey only lasts for a few minutes.

    Into Bradford Forster railway station, which has ticket barriers and staff members available to help customers (or at least check they’ve got tickets which I think is the priority here). The journey took all of seven minutes, arriving on time when it should have done.

    Walking to the road, that building to the left is where the old railway station used to stand until the early 1990s, when it was known as Bradford Midland.

    The current railway station is located where School Street is now located, with Bradford Midland having been entirely demolished. That was a mistake as far as I can see, the facilities at Forster Square are inadequate and there needs to be a bigger railway station here. It will though mean demolishing the HMRC building that’s in the way.

  • Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    I very rarely go into McDonald’s in the UK, they’re usually a little superfluous for me given that there are those wonderful things called pubs. However, it’s the McDonald’s monopoly season and I thought I’d see what I could get.

    Anyway, food, drink and stickers aside, I do feel sorry for the staff here. The upstairs of the restaurant was closed off, which really wasn’t ideal for customers, although they had a few seats free downstairs. In came a yell of children (or whatever the collective noun is) who were showing off which was the rudest, all aged around 10 or 11. Fortunately they were nowhere near me, but two of them were vaping in the corner and one of the crew members asked a manager to deal with the situation, which he begrudgingly did. One kid had also managed to pinch an entire cup of ketchup, which ended up being thrown on the floor outside. The crew member battled on though trying to clean the mess up the group had left, but he remained endlessly polite as if this was just another repeat occurrence of annoying customers.

    Then a group of younger women, probably aged around 16, came in and were abusive to the crew members. The same manager went over and threw them out as well, telling them he didn’t want customers like that in the restaurant. He certainly wasn’t in the mood for debate and I quite liked that confidence and authority. It certainly made for a tense atmosphere though, especially as then another customer was rude to a crew member, just what you want at 15:00 on a Sunday afternoon.

    There’s no real point to this post and I’m not going to go down the line about how there are problems with this younger generation, as it’s a small minority and it’s been the same for every other generation. It is though a reminder about just how hard so many staff in hospitality work, often in trying and difficult circumstances and provocation from customers.

    On a more important matter, I got a free coffee from the Monopoly stickers, so that was handy, although I’ll collect that when kids are at school, it’ll be more sedate. That’s the key message, be kind to hospitality workers and there are prizes galore with McDonald’s Monopoly….

  • Barnsley – Sod the Pedestrians

    Barnsley – Sod the Pedestrians

    I haven’t complained about anything for a few hours, so this seems like a good moment. This is an example of how pedestrians are really not well cared for sometimes and they wonder why accidents take place. On the left of this road junction is the Ibis Styles Barnsley and Toby Carvery, on the right is the road into Barnsley town centre. On both sides are residential areas and plenty of people need to walk between them, as I noticed when doing this walk myself, this is a busy crossing area for pedestrians. In the middle of all this is the M1 motorway.

    And this is what pedestrians have to cross, the entrance to the bloody M1. Just as cars really want to start speeding up to join the M1, there are pedestrians trying to cross here. No warnings for car drivers, nothing to help pedestrians. The appropriate flooring is there to help disabled people get across and know there’s a crossing, but they’d be very brave to try and cross here. I hated this crossing, and there’s one on the other side which is no better. The path does carry on and is protected after this point with a crash barrier, but then pedestrians have to cross the other side as well, where cars are coming off the M1. That’s slightly easier though, as there are traffic lights controlling that, although nothing for pedestrians, they just have to notice when they’re red for the cars.

    There’s the M1 and the slip road (or whatever they’re called) onto it is to the left behind the trees. I don’t know who is responsible for sorting out this crossing, but I think the lack of care here is irresponsible and I hope that no-one is ever injured on this crossing.

    Anyway, moan over….

  • Barnsley – New Central Library

    Barnsley – New Central Library

    The council demolished the town’s central library a few years ago and they promised they would replace it, which they’ve now done and the new building opened in 2019 in the heart of Barnsley’s Light Box regeneration area. I normally cringe when I see that a new library has been constructed, as too often they’re worse than what they replaced, but the arrangement here wasn’t as bad as I feared.

    As is partly visible here, I was impressed at how much seating there was, with power sockets readily available.

    Everything felt modern, although it’s not the most inspiring of buildings given that it looks like an office block.

    The maps collection, probably not used that much, but it’s a very useful resource for a library to have, especially when it’s presented neatly like this.

    I don’t know how true this is, but a member of library staff told a visitor that this chair made out of cardboard cost the council £750 and they’ve put it in the corner so that no-one sits in it. I have no further comment to add about this.

    Clever, use an environmental reason to justify just leaving the exposed concrete on the stairways. The signage in the building is appalling though, I’m not sure why they need to keep it a secret of where things are located. However, the fiction section is on the first floor and the reference section is on the second floor, that’s the main divide.

    I was suitably impressed by the entire set-up, with the staff being friendly, although there seemed to be a lot of them and they frequently looked bored. There’s plenty of space, lots of seats, a decent selection of local history books and a clean environment which was quiet. I say quiet, the public were quiet, the staff seemed to want to create an atmosphere more akin to a busy pub, but it’s easy to be critical…… Having written that, I went to look at the reviews of the library and this seems to be a common problem, so I think someone’s suggestion of a quiet area for the staff to sit in might be a useful benefit.

    I can’t imagine that this library came cheap, but these things should perhaps always be a little expensive to do properly (although I’d rather they spent more money on books rather than decadent furniture).

  • Shipley / Saltaire – SALT Bar and Kitchen

    Shipley / Saltaire – SALT Bar and Kitchen

    I visited the SALT Bar & Kitchen last week, although I’m now back in the area and it’s a reminder to myself I never wrote about my little excursion to this venue which is now owned by Ossett Brewery. It’s a short walk from the Saltaire UNESCO World Heritage site, so anyone going there might be interested in walking here as well to enjoy the history of this building. And the beer obviously.

    The bar is located in a former tramshed, it’s an impressive set-up and it was popular when I was there, with plenty of customers sitting outside with the wasps, seagulls and other dangerous animals that exist in this country.

    The whole set-up is modern and on-trend, with a central bar area.

    I wasn’t sure what food they did, but it transpired to be pretty much just pizzas. This is an entirely agreeable set-up to me and although this wasn’t the cheapest, it had some of the best toppings that I’ve had a pizza in terms of the quality of the ingredients. I was suitably impressed with this and it went well with my Hessian coffee stout from their own brewery.

    I went through a few third pints of beer, all of which were decent options, although I particularly liked this one, the Risk & Reward imperial stout from their own brewery. Also available at the bar were the Rat beers, which I saw at the Rat and Ratchet pub in Huddersfield this week, and they also sold all of the SALT beers.

    At the rear of the bar is the SALT Beer Factory that they said I could have a little look at. That wasn’t a special gesture, it’s open to everyone on weekends, but I did enjoy having a meander around their brewery set-up.

    I was impressed at this entire arrangement, the service was friendly, the staff were knowledgeable, the location was clean and modern, it’s definitely a destination venue. It’s also a marvellous advertisement for the brewery, quite different from the perhaps slightly less exciting set-up that Magic Rock have in Huddersfield. I’d also say that this should be listed in the Good Beer Guide, as they have cask and keg options, and this is a magnificent example of how to run a venue professionally.

  • Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Hotel prices at weekends are at the highest levels I’ve seen them in the UK at the moment, which has required me to be quite creative. There’s near 100% occupancy in chain hotels across the north of the country, a result of people wanting to have some weekends away. For my Saturday night stay the Mercure at Bradford Bankfield was showing at £45 for a double room, which was very cheap compared to everywhere else and seems to be a quirk, perhaps someone just cancelling. I also have a heap of Accor rewards points, so paid for most of it with that.

    I walked for twenty minutes from Bingley to get here and it’s an impressive building and I tried to ensure that I didn’t include the wedding party in my photo who were having photos taken outside the front of the main entrance. Unfortunately, Mercures in country locations in the UK generally have a poor reputation, and I had low expectations of this one, usually the grand frontages hide some dated rooms in cheap extensions.

    “Set in a Gothic style mansion house surrounded by landscaped gardens, the Mecure Bradford, Bankfield Hotel is a peaceful retreat and a short stroll from the banks of the River Aire.”

    The above is what the hotel has written, and ignoring the issue they can’t spell the hotel name, they’ve probably set up expectations here of a grand country house that they clearly can’t deliver on. Most of the hotel isn’t in a Gothic style mansion house, it’s in more modern extensions that are quite rickety. That means guests expecting they’ll be in lovely historic rooms won’t get what they hoped for.

    I also only realised after leaving that the hotel has been dumping inventory on Groupon, which in nearly all circumstances I’ve ever encountered is a sign that there are huge problems in getting customers and it’s almost always a last resort. They’d perhaps be better just reducing their prices on Accor’s web-site rather than handing over a big cut to Groupon, but there we go….. It could be claimed that it’s great marketing, but it doesn’t look like that, they’ve got some devastating reviews because they’ve over-promised a country house luxury stay and haven’t delivered on that to Groupon customers.

    Anyway, I digress.

    The main hall. The welcome at reception was helpful and the staff member apologised that he couldn’t offer me a free upgrade as they were full. To be fair to them, I was aware of that as the hotel filled soon after I booked the room that I did, so they were being entirely honest there. They didn’t bother with the welcome gift though, which they should have done, although the drinks voucher was pro-actively offered. I was nearly charged the wrong amount for the room, but it was soon fixed.

    I was aware that the bedroom was small when I booked, probably too small for two people, but fine for me.

    I think that the bathroom was about the same size as the bedroom….. There were some basic maintenance issues that needed addressing here that the hotel probably should have already fixed, such as the state of that window ledge.

    I took my welcome drink back to the room as I didn’t want to get in the way of the wedding that was taking place. As a drinks option, this Goose Island bottle is perfectly acceptable to me.

    The room wasn’t really clean enough, although it sufficed for me as I have relatively low standards here, otherwise I’d permanently be at receptions complaining. The bedding was clean, but the floor wasn’t and they had left half-used shower gels in the little bottles in the bathroom rather than replace them. That was shoddy and cost-cutting they shouldn’t be engaged with. Those mini bottles are a slight environmental disaster as it is, but they should be thrown away if they’re part-used.

    There’s no air conditioning in the room, although it’s an old building and so that’s not surprising. But, they haven’t bothered with putting fans in the room, and even Travelodge and Premier Inn do that. This to me is an omission, they should be doing this. I was also staying only for one night so this doesn’t affect me, but the hotel is saying it isn’t cleaning rooms for Covid cleanliness reasons. This is a little disingenuous, every other hotel I’ve stayed at recently is now moving back towards the usual housekeeping schedule. If they are short staffed then that’s fair enough, but they shouldn’t be claiming they’re doing it for cleanliness reasons, especially when they’re not properly cleaning the rooms anyway.

    The reviews for the hotel aren’t great and they should perhaps be most alarmed about how they’re doing badly on service looking at Google Reviews, that should usually be around 4.2 to 4.6 out of 5, but it’s down at 3.5 here. It’s easy to assume reviews aren’t reliable, but trends like that usually tell a story. There are a lot of negative reviews, although this one was quite blunt:

    “Worst hotel ever, no staff on reception. No food despite being pre booked my room has no lock and the door can be pushed open easily. The bedding was dirty. The curtains were falling down. The walls are like paper thin. I could go on for days. So instead of staying here give yourself a free upgrade and just sleep in a cardboard box outside the conditions will be much better”

    No lock? That’s not ideal. The walls were quite thin, although this was only evident to me in the morning as I could hear the television next door. The doors probably also need door closers on them as well to try and reduce noise, rather than them slamming shut.

    “Getting my bill right was clearly a major problem for the lady and she didn’t manage it (a subsequent charge to my credit card) as, in her words, she was emotional over the death of a disabled pigeon that morning. Clearly the cycle of nature passed her by. Food was adequate (no pigeon on the menu) but expensive as were the drinks. Bedroom was comfortable but the shower was unadjustable – fiercely hot all the time and unusable. A totally unsatisfactory stay and despite its convenience we shall not return.”

    I don’t want to make light of the disabled pigeon, but that review did amuse me.

    I can’t complain too much because the room rate was one of the cheapest in the area, but they often charge higher rates and I’m not confident they’re offering the standard of service that they should be. For my stay, it was entirely acceptable, but I wouldn’t stay here again.

  • Barnsley – Further Reading

    Barnsley – Further Reading

    And another of my irrelevant posts, but since I’ve ploughed through a fair few books whilst meandering around in Barnsley library this week, here are some of the ones that I rather liked.

    A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – Volume 8 : South and West Yorkshire by David Joy is a detailed, but accessible, history of the railways in the area, part of a much wider series of books covering the rest of the country. Sometimes these books can be a little overly complex and go over my head, but I think I got the information that I wanted. The book’s ISBN is 978-0715377833.

    Aspects of Barnsley are a series of books edited by Brian Elliott which look at specific and narrow elements (some of which were more interesting and relevant to me than others) of the town’s history, but which come together to help give a wider understanding of the town’s evolution and development. The ISBN of the books are 978-1871647198 (volume 1), 978-1871647242 (volume 2), 978-1871647266 (volume 3), 978-1871647310 (volume 4), 978-1871647457 (volume 5) and 978-1871647808 (volume 6).

    Barnsley – Two in One Series edited by Louise Whitworth, Gillian Nixon and Stan Bulmer is a double volume of previously individually printed books, which are mostly old photos of the town. There are over 450 photographs in the book, each with a short description. The book’s ISBN is 978-0752422152.

    Barnsley and Beyond by Mel Dyke is a book about local well-known residents and their lives, with individuals including the chef Brian Turner, the sculptor Graham Ibbeson and the trade unionist Derek Robinson. Although some of the content is a little niche, although it’s a different way of looking at the area I suppose. The book’s ISBN is 978-1845630416.

    Barnsley and District Through Time by Peter Tuffrey is a book mostly of photos, but there is detailed information about each one rather than just a token line or two. The images are mostly from postcards issued between 1905 and 1930, but alongside these are modern photographs of what the area looks like today. The book’s ISBN is 978-1445649894.

    Barnsley at War 1939-1945 by Mark Green is a social and military history of the town and the men who were involved on the front-line, as well as the men and women who made a great contribution to the war effort locally. Quite a lot of content about before the war started, although to be fair, Barnsley was spared a lot of the bombings in the war that other cities had, so there’s less to write about in that area. The ISBN is 978-1526721877.

    Barnsley in the Great War by Geoffrey Howse is a comprehensive look at how the town coped during the First World War, as well as stories about the troops who went off to fight in the conflict. The book is well illustrated and clearly written, all quite sad really given the Barnsley Pals who fought together in the trenches during some very difficult times. The book’s ISBN is 978-1473827387.

    Barnsley’s Best by Nathan Hemmingham is a book by the former assistant sports editor at the Barnsley Chronicle and is about the sports stars of Barnsley with 30 different figures covered. Not entirely riveting for me as I don’t much follow sport or know much about Barnsley, but nonetheless I had a little look through it….. The book’s ISBN is 978-1845630980.

    Changing Barnsley – From Mining Town to University Town edited by Cathy Doggett and Tim Thornton is a look at the changing history of the town from the perspective of the former Mining and Technical College on Church Street, which is now the home to the university. The book is well written and shows the changing way in which education has been viewed in the area. The book’s ISBN is 978-1845631222.

    The History of the Town and Township of Barnsley by Rowland Jackson was published in 1858 and is an interesting account of what the Victorian thought about the heritage of the town and where it was heading. The author had quite high hopes for the future and how things were going, which to be fair, wasn’t unreasonable at the time. The book’s ISBN is 978-0341936800.

    The Making of Barnsley by Brian Elliott is 190 pages long and has some tightly packed text meaning there’s plenty of content which explains the development of the town. The book’s ISBN is 978-1903425909.

    Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South is perhaps the definitive book on architecture and historic buildings, part of the series written by Nikolaus Pevsner. This edition has been updated by Ruth Harman and it contains comprehensive and detailed information about the heritage of buildings. It’s a substantial book at 840 pages long, but there is little else with such detail. I have to add that if a library’s collection of local history books doesn’t have this title (or the equivalent one for their area), then it’s an inadequate section of the library, not that I’m judgemental or anything… The book’s ISBN is 978-0300224689.

  • Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    The Ibis Styles in Barnsley, which is around a 30 minute walk from the centre of the town. I had thought about getting the bus, but I couldn’t be bothered and so just walked there and back every day. Sometimes it’s just easier to walk than try and understand the bus ticketing policy. For those who don’t like walking everywhere or getting the bus, there’s a free car park on the site.

    This hotel wasn’t built as an Ibis Styles, it rebranded a few years ago when it became part of Accor, so it’s a slightly different design to what I’ve seen before from the chain.

    Every Ibis Styles has a theme, sometimes quite quirky, although this hotel seems to have gone for glass which is in fitting with the new Glass Works development in the town centre. The room was spacious, had a modern bathroom and was very clean.

    I quite like the look of all the lights, but I was slightly concerned that I’d break one. Not that I actually break much stuff, but it’s good to have something to worry about. I didn’t break any incidentally….

    The hot drinks arrangements, with a carton of water.

    My view from the window, there’s actually the M1 in there as well, but the railway line is more visible in this photo. I quite like the noise from the road and railway, something a little different. The windows open in this hotel which is quite handy, saves me complaining about sterile rooms.

    The welcome drink, which was satisfactory to me even though it’s from Greene King. I wasn’t given a drinks voucher and had to ask for one, which is never quite ideal. Friendly barman though and there was a choice of around eight different beers across the taps and fridges, which isn’t bad at all.

    The breakfast area, although I didn’t eat at the hotel and went to the neighbouring Toby Carvery on one morning.

    The reviews for the hotel are broadly positive, although the management seema  bit abrupt in their responses to the negative ones. They had a run of complaints about the decor and they responded:

    “The rooms are not dirty, however we have steam marks on most of our bedroom walls as the decorator who did our refurbishment in 2015 used the incorrect paint and we now are unable to remove any marks from the walls and the steam marks have stained the walls, we have tried our hardest to remove the marks. All our bedrooms now require a full re paint and this will be completed soon.”

    That must have been a bloody nightmare, go through a refurbishment and they end up worse than when they started. Anyway, it all seems fixed now. I really quite liked this hotel, it was all quiet and peaceful with the room cleaned and restocked every day.

  • Bingley – Library Tap

    Bingley – Library Tap

    Unfortunately, the two Good Beer Guide listed pubs in Bingley were closed (one was meant to be open but wasn’t) so I decided that I liked the name of this pub, the Library Tap which is operated by Amber Taverns. I specifically mean the library bit, the tap element seems a little odd in this pub’s instance as I had checked CAMRA’s Whatpub and it didn’t seem to sell anything much that I’d associate with a pub with the word ‘tap’ in it….

    It’s a large building and this floor was once used by the town council with the library downstairs, but then the library took over the entire building.

    There’s an upper area at the rear and it made me think that this would make a really nice library…. The actual library is in a building around the corner and was one of the quirkiest library set-ups that I’ve seen, but I won’t linger on that now.

    Half a pint of Tetley’s bitter and a pack of decadent Scampi Fries were keenly priced and the service was friendly and helpful. There was a fairly relaxed atmosphere and this is quite a substantially sized pub, although they don’t do food and I’m surprised that this is financially viable given that and the cheap prices for drink. They do show a lot of sport, perhaps they get a chunk of money from that.

    Anyway, clean and organised, although a limited real ale selection of the very average Wainwright from Marstons and the acceptable Tetley’s bitter.