Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire.

I don't like to talk about it, but in April last year I had to have emergency surgery to remove a severely infected and inflamed appendix. It was during my three week convalescence that I conceived this blog. In my head, I was slightly more strict with the 'branches' part. This wouldn't have been a problem 60 years ago, but is actually quite limiting these days. Anyway, knowing Henley on Thames was at the end of a fairly local branch, this seemed like a natural place to start. So nearly a year later myself, Andy and the infamous BGC changed at Twyford and wound our way to an already wet Henley on Thames.

There's not a great deal of Henley on Thames station. Why should there be? It's the terminus of a single track branchline. Despite this, it's a busy little station if not the most architecturally pleasing, rather smacking of late 80s/early 90s NSE design. 

The 4.5 mile 'Regatta line' runs between Twyford and Henley on Thames, stopping at Wargrave and Shiplake on the way. Services are run by First Great Western using 165 and 166 units. I'm led to believe during the regatta specials have been known to traverse the branch.

There's little in the way of infrastructure to interest the hardcore railway geek like me. This view looking back up the branch shows a solitary signal, glowing red through the January gloom. Colour light signalling might seem a bit unnecessary on a single track branch, but I imagine this is to allow for a bit of flexibility during busier times (ie the Regatta week).

Time for a pint.

On a green opposite the station entrance is this nice plant arrangement celebrating the opening of the branch in 1856. I imagine it represents some manner of broad gauge locomotive.

Being quite a touristy place, a lot of the pubs in Henley on Thames are run in an appropriate way. Expect meal deals and national beer brands as the norm. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what we're here for

However, you can still find a 'proper' pub, and the Bird in Hand on Greys Road is just that. 

Tucked away in a more residential area of the town, the Bird in Hand caters more for the local drinker, though food is available in the week. 

Beers from Oxfordshire were available in the form of Loddon Hoppit, Brakspear Bitter and Hook. Norton Hooky Mild. Always nice to see a mild on. Pints of the Loddon and Hook Norton were duly ordered and found to be in fine order. 

On the wall was this rather nice collection of steam engine cigarette cards. Now we're talking, smashing.

As well as a friendly landlady, the Bird in Hand boasts a friendly pub dog. BGC begged me to take this picture.

In town, and at the opposite end of the pub spectrum can be found the relatively new Henley Brewhouse. Built in a converted police station, this pub was recommended by an actual brewer, so we expected much.

Upon entering, we weren't disappointed. Interestingly, the two guest beers were from Berkshire, West Berkshire Brewery and Windsor and Eton. More interesting than that were the three on offer from the Henley Brewing Company, brewed in the pub. See, 'Henley Brewhouse' wasn't just a clever marketing trick!

Between us we managed a combination of all the Henley Brewhouse beers, as well as the Windsor and Eton Conquerer, an excellent 5% black IPA. There wasn't a duff one among them, Old Bill's being a particular favourite of mine. As much as we all love Good Old Boy from West Berkshire Brewery, we've had it a few times so stuck to the new stuff.

On the bar is a handy clipboard detailing the various house beers, as well as guests that are on offer. There's a good selection of bottled beers in the fridges too.

Behind the glass at the back of the pub can be found the Henley Brewing Company's brewing equipment. 

To my mind though, the real star of the Henley Brewhouse was the black pudding scotch egg. A scotch egg the size of a tennis ball for £3.50 is pretty good value if you ask me and I'm pretty sure Andy agreed.

Two very different, but equally brilliant pubs in Henley on Thames. Both are worth a look if you're in the town, as well as a host of other pubs doing good quality beer.

There's also one of these to find!

Bye!

Find out more:

The Bird in Hand

Henley Brewhouse

The BGC

Paddington, London. Part I.

Christmas is a time to justify excess. Eating, drinking, spending, it's all fine because it's that time of year. With a bit of festive time off in the bank, I decided it was far from my place to argue. So with that in mind, it was off to the big smoke.

Paddington is my favorite station (we all have one, I don't care what you say). It's a bustling, workmanlike modern station, but one that recognises and remembers it's glamorous past as the London terminus of Brunel's Great Western Railway.

These days First Great Western, Heathrow Connect, Heathrow Express and Chilterm share the 14 platforms, with FGW making up the vast majority of services. The grand station clock overlooks platform one, as do the former GWR, and current Network Rail and FGW offices.

Further down platform one sits the man himself, Isambaard Kingdom Brunel. Today he sits among information outlining the Crossrail works, I like to think he'd approve of his location.

This impressive statue serves as a memorial to all  GWR men and women who lost their lives in the First World War. The statue was unveiled on armistice day, 1922.

Above the doors either side of the statue can be seen two coats of arms. Those on the right are the GWR, representing Bristol and London, the left being that of the Royal Family. The left door was at one time the royal waiting room, but is now slightly less exclusive as a first class lounge.

If you come down to platform one late on a week night, you might just see the Night Riviera sleeper service. This train is one of two sleeper services currently operating in the UK (the other is the Caledonian Sleeper) and runs between Paddington and Penzance, one train in each direction. 57603 Tintagel Castle is pictured at the head of a Riviera train above, 57604 Pendennis Castle brings up the rear below.

The services use a fleet of four Class 57 locomotives that run top and tailed, all named after castles in GWR tradition. The train is made up of a mixture of sleeper, standard and buffet carriages.

That's a lot of train geekyness, so apologies for that. How about some beer now?

Thought so. Going through the ticket barriers, across the concourse and past the statue of Paddington bear we find ourselves in an area of known as 'The Lawn'. Going up all the escalators we come to the Fuller's house, The Mad Bishop and Bear.

There's an interesting story behind the name. Dreamt up by a member of the public for a competition, the 'mad bishop' refers to the former owners of the land Paddington station is built upon: the Church of England. When the GWR came a-calling looking to purchase the land, the church let them have it for a song. If you haven't figured out where the 'bear' bit comes from at this stage of the post, well, I don't know what to tell you.

The interior is tastefully done, giving the impression of somewhere much older than it actually is. High ceilings and semi-booths are the order of the day in the main bar and seating area and this chandelier makes for an impressive centrepiece. I bet this is on Instagram a hell of a lot, so I thought I'd better join in. Information screens mean you needn't miss your train. 

Beer wise, the focus is unsurprisingly on Fuller's. As a country boy, is nice to see the likes of Bengal Lancer, HSB and Chiswick in draught, as well as some of the more specialist bottles. The Mad Bishop & Bear also stocks Fuller's new(ish) craft lager, Frontier. If you're stuck for a bit of last minute Christmas shopping, there's always the gift shop!

It's not all about Fuller's though, as the pub has changing guests. St Austell Tribute was on the bar during my most recent visit. 

The pub has shown an impressive commitment to serving good beer. They've hosted a beer festival, a beer and food matching event and a beer book launch in the past few months alone. Commendable considering they could probably quite easily pay the bills selling lager and a basic range of ales to commuter types.

 

I love a pub breakfast (who doesn't?) and the Mad Bishop & Bear do a cracker. The 'Fuller Breakfast' is served until noon and for the record, I matched it nicely with a nice pint of Jack Frost. Granted it wasn't particularly scientific, but it worked for me.

The Mad Bishop & Bear is a great place to wait for a train, maybe even miss one on purpose!

Happy New Year!

Find out more:
London Paddington
The Mad Bishop & Bear

Inverness, Highlands

We're back in Scotland! But this is no hour over the border jaunt, this is hardcore. This is hours on end through the beautiful Cairngorms. This is the highlands.

The PGA European Tour Race to Doubi finished recently, which got me thinking about my summer of working on golf jobs, including a couple of tour events. One of these was the Scottish Open in Inverness. Further thinking prompted me that I'd done all the legwork for an Inverness episode of Beer Branches, but never got around to writing it up. 

So here we are, Inverness: Capital of the Highlands.

Inverness is bit of a tourist hot spot. You've got Loch Ness just down the road, some fascinating history and some beautiful architecture. Sadly, Inverness Station does not fall into this last category having had the original buildings replaced in the 1960s. To be honest it could almost be a non descript office block.

Nipping inside is a different story, and there's plenty to interest a rail geek.

This plaque is on the concourse and commemorates the completion of a continuous railway link between London and Inverness in 1858. There's also a commerative bell.

Heading to end of the platform (where the cool kids go) you get a good view of the rest of the triangle.

Look at that. Engine sheds, a lever frame, the Caledonian Sleeper, a Blue Circle Cement silo. If you look just under the silo you'll see some Tesco shipping containers. These are delivered by rail into Inverness to have their contents onward shipped by road to various Highland branches.

'Parliamentary Trains' have a had a bit of press recently, and Inverness station sees fairly strange move around the triangle to make up one of these services.

Mmmmm, infrastructure.

Looking back towards the concourse.

There are a few pubs nearer the station than our first stop, but it's not often you get to visit the capital of the Highlands, so it's off to the Blackfriars.

Those of you with good eyes will be able to read the handy information board. For the rest, the pub has been a coffee house and a temperance bar in previous years. In recent years the Blackfriars has been given Cask Marque status and is a Good Beer Guide regular.

On the bar there's a fine selection of beers from Scotland and England. There's also a few ciders and a fair few whiskies. Beer mats are available for putting on top of pint glasses. The staff and locals were friendly and the pub seems to be a popular music venue. Food is also served.

Our second stop is a bit further out of town, but worth the walk. 

The Castle Tavern is more than a clever name, overlooking as it does the tourist hot spot that is Inverness Castle. The pub has a nice little front beer garden. Inside is small and bustling on a Sunday evening, with a another nice friendly atmosphere to enjoy. The pub does good food, so expect it to be busy.

At the front door, good old Johnnie Walker stands sentinel, proudly supporting the blackboard displaying the real ale selection. We like a blackboard. As you can see, there are six on offer, the Scapa Special being my personal favourite.

I particularly enjoyed this display of erstwhile Inverness pubs. Train!

Granted, Inverness isn't exactly a day trip for most. But, if you're in the area it's a nice city with some great pubs.

Trah!

Find out more:

Blackfriars

Castle Tavern

Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Ahh, the old university town. Funny to think that when I was here as a student a few years ago I wasn't a fan of ale, instead drawn like a moth to light to the cheapest pint of lager I could find. How times change. In fairness, the pub we're visiting today wasn't there when I was but that's no excuse. Sheffield is a great city for the beer drinker, but we'll cover that later.

For now, the station.

Sheffield has had some serious redevelopment money thrown at it of late, and some of it has been spent on the approach to the station. A nice vista of stone, metal and water welcome you into the city, with fountains aplenty providing the soundtrack. The station building is a grand Victorian structure, and the last of five built in the city, formerly being called Sheffield Midland. It's now the only one. Last in, last out.

Inside the mighty glass ceiling gives the station a light and airy atmosphere. The concourse is well laid out with a mighty departures board. The BBC set up a snooker table here for the World Snooker Championships a few years ago.

On a Sunday, the sidings between platforms are stacked up with units not required for the reduced service. Look at all those weeds.

At the southern end of the station you can see the small depot, used for light maintenance of DMUs. The McDonalds is on the other side of the boundary fence.

As you might have seen in the news before, Sheffield is an area prone to flooding. This big log on one of the platforms is testament to the rain this country can deliver.

Enough trainery, lets get out of here and find a pub. 

As it happens, we don't have to go far. The Sheffield Tap opened on Platform 1B in 2009 having started life as a first class buffet way back in 1904, but spending the 35 years up to reopening as a store room. Access is via Platform 1B or Sheaf Square.

At the Sheaf Square entrance is a plaque presented to the Sheffield Tap by the National Railway Heritage Awards in recognition of the excellent restoration job. 

As you walk through the entrance, you start to see why the pub picked up this award. The first few steps see smartly panelled walls adorned with railwayana, including this rather smart Great Western Railway locomotive nameplate. Thornbridge Hall is a local manor house and now home to the Thornbridge Brewery, famous for their rather nice Jaipur among others.

It's when you come into the bar that the majesty of place really hits you. Tiled walls, high ceilings and an ornate rear bar really give the place a feel of a time when first class rail travel was the place to be seen. There's 12 hand pumps on that bar (including regular Thornbridge), and plenty of keg too. The fridges of bottles need to be seen to be believed.

I ordered a pint of Mojo Crystal Pale by the Tapped Brewing Co. and sat down. It was at this point my good friend Ross said to me "you know they brew that here?". I very much did not know that, and Ross showed me to the room adjoining the bar.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better...

Now that is a lounge area. And what's that to the left?

Oh it's just a 4 Brewers Barrel brew plant turning out 16 x 9 gallon casks of beer per run. You'll excuse the ghost train, it's hard to photograph something that's pretty much entirely reflective. It does highlight the Tap's prime railway location though.

The beer brewed here finds it's way around Yorkshire and as far as the Euston Tap on Euston Station. For more on this check out the Tapped Brew Co. website at the bottom of this post.

A trip to Sheffield is essential for any beer fan. The Kelham Island Brewery is a renowned name in the beer world. Their pubs, The Fat Cat and the Kelham Island Tavern must be two of finest traditional British pubs going, receiving numerous awards from CAMRA and other organisations. The Kelham Island Tavern is the only pub to receive CAMRA's National Pub of the Year two years running, winning in 2008 and 2009.

Enough gushing from me, get to Sheffield and see for yourself. You won't regret it. Just be careful not to kick the table and spill beer everywhere, eh Mrs BB?

Bye!

Find out more:

Thornbridge Brewery

Sheffield Tap

Tapped Brew Co.

Kelham Island Brewery

Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

It's holiday time!

For some years now, Mrs BB has been pestering me to go to Chatsworth (don't worry, she doesn't read this), so finding a nearby town with a railway station was a no brainer.

Matlock Bath is a classic Victorian resort town, with a surprising amount of fish and chip shops for a town nearly 100 miles away from the coast.

Whilst a certain amount of this Victorian splendour has been retained along the banks of the Derwent, the same can't be said of Matlock Bath's railway station.

The nice buildings still stand on the one platform left, but don't serve a railway purpose. In fact there's little to suggest there were ever any more than one platform as the former up platform has become a footpath leading to the Heights of Abraham cable cars (good fun). This is accessible via the foot crossing at the southern end of the platform.

There's an approximately hourly branch shuttle Monday to Saturday, originating from either Derby or Nottingham depending on the time of day, and terminating at Matlock. At the time of writing, Nottingham is in the middle of a monster re-signalling scheme so things are obviously subject to change. Sunday sees a reduced service in operation.

As you come out of the station and cross the River Derwent, you'll instantly see the two pubs we'll be visiting.

First up, the Midland.

Now I know what you're thinking, pubs in tourist centric areas sometimes leave the beer drinker a little disappointed. Well rest assured, the Midland will satisfy your lust for ale as well as feed you and the family. The riverside beer garden is great on a sunny day.

Inside, there's the feel of a 'proper' pub. I'm not really sure what that is, but Mrs BB agreed. The walls have framed railwayana in the form of old timetables and publicity literature from the age of the Midland Railway. The staff are friendly and know the beer well, which is reflected in the quality.

On the bar for my visit were beers from Shepherd Neame, Salamander, Robinsons and local brewery Peak Ales. 

I'd heard a lot of noise about the Robinsons Trooper, so I went with that to start. It's brewed in partnership with Iron Maiden, hence the pump clip. At 4.8% it's a good quality premium beer, with nicely balanced citrus and malt flavours. Something I'd certainly recommend. 

I finished with a Peak Ales Swift Nick, a nice 3.8% bitter which would be great for a session.

Coming out of the Midland and crossing the road we find our second pub, the County and Station. As with the Midland the County and Station caters for tourists, but again there's something for the beer drinker.

Being the thoughtful type, I suggested to Mrs BB that we only stopped for a swift one, so I had a pint of Cumberland Ale from Jennings in the Lake District, who also brew the rather nice Sneck Lifter. The Cumberland Ale was in good condition and nice and refreshing after a day treating Mrs BB to a preserved railway. Also on the bar was Mastons Pedigree.

There's plenty to do in the Peak District, and some fine pubs to visit.

Bye!

Find out more:

Derwent Valley Line

Midland Hotel

County & Station

Peak Distrct Tourism