Loughborough & North Leicestershire CAMRA

Southwell & Nottingham Trip - December 2019

On Saturday 7th December we had the branch Christmas trip to Southwell and Nottingham. Originally the plan had been to visit Newark after Southwell, but after a previous experience of travelling at this time of year, with Christmas shopping and markets at Lincoln and Birmingham, we thought the trains would be too busy so decided to return via Nottingham instead.
Nine members met at Loughborough railway station for a 09:48 Ivanhoe to Lowdham costing £10, or £6.60 with a railcard (return ticket). This train was going to Lincoln and was already busy, but we just managed to get a seat. After leaving the train at Lowdham, I was glad we weren't travelling on to Lincoln as the train would have been rammed judging by the large number of people waiting at the station.
From Lowdham station it was just a short walk to the centre of village for a 26 Nottingham City Transport Pathfinder bus (costing £6.50 for Network Rider ticket valid on Nottingham City Transport buses) to the small delightful Minster town of Southwell.
After getting off the bus it was just a short walk to the Minster which I'm now informed is a Cathedral and has been so since 1984 but Southwell is still a town and not a city.
After visiting this great building, the group made our way up Kings Street with its many independent shops, to the Admiral Rodney, our first pub of day where four beers were on offer, with most members going for the Dancing Duck and the Purity beers.

Then on to the Final Whistle, an Everards Project William pub (which basically only has to sell one of the Everards beers, the rest of the beers come from near and far afield). There was a good range of 10 beers from light beers, bitters to a stout, all strengths plus 6 real ciders. The pub is a lovely multi room railway themed pub. The nearby rail station and line closed in 1964 and the railway is now a cycleway and you can cycle well into the Sherwood Forest area.

Our final pub in Southwell, just a short walk away, was The Old Coach House with 6 great beers on offer in this nice cosy pub.

Just outside was the bus stop for our Journey to Nottingham where we made a halfway stop at The Old Volunteer at Carlton. This is the Tap for the nearby Flipside Brewery offering 10 beers with around 6 Flipside and the rest guest beers. Entering the pub I realised there was one member missing. Where was Fred? I rang his mobile to find he had got off at the next stop and walked back. Fred has lost a number of items on trips over the years and managed to get the items returned but this is the first time he has lost himself. After being reunited and enjoying the beer, it was time to move on to Nottingham. The bus terminated at Queens Street with just a short walk to the Barrel Drop micropub, easy to miss down a alleyway known as Hurst Yard. As always 6 great beers were on offer.

Next onto Derby Road to the Room with a Brew, a Scibblers brewery micropub where we decided to try the outstanding Beyond Reasonable Stout at 6%. A total of 8 beers on offer with 6 from Scibblers.
Just across the road, up a little, was the Hand & Heart (Nottingham's other pub sunk into the sandstone). 8 beers were available in the impressive surroundings of the multiroomed caves.

The last pub of the day was the Castle Rock brewery pub, the Canal Boat, on the way back to the station. On entering there is a moored canal barge floating on water. A good range of Castle Rock beers and guests are available at this warehouse type building. I understand it was home to British Waterways and also a museum before becoming a pub.

Finally it was back to the railway station, just round the corner, for our journey to Loughborough.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

 

 

 

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