ALL ABOARD BRIAN’S FUN BUS On Sunday 11th September our party of nineteen embarked on our penultimate survey trip of the year visiting pubs in Hornsea and surrounding villages. Our first stop was Old Ellerby and the quintessential village pub Blue Bell run for many years by Dave & Shirley Diamond. Now, anyone who has ever visited this pub will tell you indeed that this pub is a real diamond and is a fantastic community resource to the nearby villages. It proved to be a fine starting point as our party enjoyed two beers from Cottage Brewery, Honey Bunny plus Red & Ruth both contrasting styles and very well kept. Also on the bar were local favourite from Great Newsome, Sleck Dust plus 24 Tetley’s Cask, again declared on great form. As time passed by too quickly the party hopped aboard the bus just in time for the first bottled beer raffle as we made our way to Cross Keys in Cowden. Now we’re not suggesting a fix but it was our branch Chair Stewart who won the first prize at which time he made his selection and declared ‘I’ve got a small one, it’s easy to handle’ (ooo err)! Cross Keys awaited and the looks on the faces of the diners was a fine sight as we made our way into the bar areas to make our selection from Whitby Brewery’s Whitby Whaler, Isaac Poad’s No86 & Great Newsome Ploughman’s Pride and so good they were that a further swift half was
enjoyed by all whilst Beefy became snap happy with the CAMRA camera. JD however was not too impressed that despite posing for several photos never actually made any of them…..We wonder why?
Hornsea was our next port of call with three pubs in the town to be surveyed, the first of which being the recently refurbished Greene King pub Marine Hotel which has lovely sea views and is very popular with families, locals and day trippers. Unfortunately our driver missed the entrance to the car park and had to do a small detour of the town. A coincidence that there was no ‘Sat-Nav’ on this trip or just too many voices in his ear? We suspect the latter! A few minutes later we arrived with the driver doing a fine job swerving the numerous Pokemon hunters in the town, A certain member of our party got very excited at the prospect of joining them to find any rarities for his kids (Yeah right!). Our ale choices today were Greene King’s IPA & Marine’s Maiden Voyage (a house beer) plus Great Newome Sleck Dust. Sadly the Theakston Best had ran dry as we arrived however our party enjoyed
Hull and East Yorkshire CAMRA
those on offer and appreciated the CAMRA discount offered. Next destination just up the road in the main part of the town was New Inn. This pub has had a recent makeover under licensee Ryan Whitehead who’s first job was to increase the number of real ales on offer to three….Good job Ryan! Our choices today were Black Sheep Bighorn, Saltaire Blonde and a house beer from Caledonian, East Coast Pale which was enjoyed so much by our party that it soon ran out and was replaced by Black Sheep’s Monty Python and Holy Grail. With the leader of our party Brian frantically checking his watch it was time to move across the road to Stackhouse Bar that has been receiving rave reviews in recent time and judging by the quality of today’s offerings of Brass Castle Hazelnut Mild, Treboom’s Mr Tambourine Man & Hop Britannia plus Great Newsome Frothingham Best we can easily see why. Also taking place across the road in the museum grounds was the first Hornsea beer, cider & music festival. Although this was not to be surveyed a couple of our party were smart enough to undertake a pre-survey survey of the aforementioned pubs and managed a flying visit for one or two of the seventeen ales on offer. Although it was the final day the festival was still busy & the quality of ales superb. A great job done by all involved!
New Branch Website - www.hull.camra.org.uk