Buffet Bar Crawl - Dewsbury, Huddersfield & Stalybridge

Norm, JH and me caught the train to Huddersfield at about 10:40 from Manchester Piccadilly. JP should have been there but Sue fell over the night before after a 'trip' to the Tunnes the night before so a visit to Stepping Hill put paid to his day out.
Forty minutes later we arrived in Huddersfield. After a short detour to the bookies, we made our way to the Grove. This fantastic pub is only about a five minute walk from the train station (it's just behind the bus station over the Ring road). Alas it was shut - it doesn't open until 12 on Saturday.
Stuck for somewhere to go, we popped into The PlumbersArms next to the bus station. I'm not sure what stunk most - the locals, the beer or the toilets. Ten minutes later after a very unsatisfactory pint of John Smiths we headed back to the train station to The Head of Steam. http://www.headofsteam.co.uk/default.aspx?tabid=10270 This is one of two bars at the station. Two excellent pints of 'Summer View - Rail Ale' later JH told us about a great pub called the Dog and Gun. After 10 minutes of fruitless walking we discovered that it had shut down about 7 years ago and was now a cafe.
With the day rapidly going downhill it needed an uplift so we decided to trek back to the Grove. http://www.groveinn.co.uk/index.htm
What a great pub. It is a two roomed pub with 8 regular and about 10 guest beers. Two pints of Springhead and a pint of RCH Steam Silver later we were in a better mood. There isn't much choice of food in this pub although there are loads of unusual bar snacks such as flavoured insect larvae worms and smoked elk and salami we decided on a quite marvelous herby pork pie, had a swift pint of Sprinhead and headed back to the station.
Ten minutes later we were in Dewsbury at the West Riding Licensed Refreshment rooms. This bar is set in the old waiting room and is full of old railway memorabilia. Yet again the choice of beer was fantastic, including the regular Black Sheep and Timothy Taylor. We tried a pint of High House Sundancer and another RCH beer. We could have stayed longer but the music was bit too loud so we hopped on the next train to Huddersfield.
This time we went into The Kings Head which is the other of the two bars at the station. Yet again the choice of beers was first class, Timothy Taylor Landlord and best bitter, Farmers Blonde, Golcar dark mild, Oakhams JHB plus numerous others. We had two pints although not surprisingly I can't remember what they were.
We then junped on a train to Stalybridge to visit the Stalybridge Buffet Bar. This is exactly what it says on the tin. The conservatory has been updated and as it was such a sunny day, there was a good crew both inside and outside the bar. The beer choice was again extensive, Millstone, Copper Dragon, Castle Rock amongst others. The pub consists of four rooms, again full of railway posters, stained glass, railway memorabilia. It is famous for it's black peas and pies although we didn't bother as we just stuck to supping. Three more pints were enjoyed in the evening sun and alas soon it was time to get the 8:44 train back to Piccadilly.
A great day and we'll be doing it again soon.
19/12/09
Well we did it again! This time JP joined us and on a cold snowy day what better than a visit to the Head of Steam.
The first pint was a simply marvellous pint of Old Bear from the Empire Brewery in Halifax. A light zippy hoppy ale of 3.9% at a reasonable price of £2.40. We followed this with a quick walk to The Grove again and had another Empire beer - The Grove grog at £2.20 a pint. Another hoppy 3.9% beer. Beautiful. This was swiftly followed by a 4.2% Brighton Rocks from the White Brewery. This was a malty beer at a cost of £2.30. It seems they charge an extra 10p for a stronger beer. Norm, JH and I then tried a York beer called Nook. Another hoppy 3.7% at £2.20 a pint while JP tried the trusted Tomithy Taylor Landlord (4.34 at £2.30).
We were getting into the swing of things now and tried a Kirkham Island (Sheffield) beer - Santas Little Helper. A dark treacle, caramel flavour at 5.2% for £2.50. This didn't stay in the glass long so we decided to go for a stronger beer - Brewdog Hardcore. This cost £1.30 for a 33cl glass. It was a massive 9.0%. Really strong and nutty and a taste of marmalade. Although JH likened it to jet engines.
Not content with this stronger beer we tried a 56% vodka and a 70odd% Japanese whiskey before having our final pint in the Grove - a stoutish Stout from Thornbridge Brock. 4.1% at £2.30.
We bid a beery farewell and headed for the train. What seemed like minutes later we were in Greenfield and heading for The Railway. We needed food so had a pie for £1.30. Excellent and another hoppy beer - Golden Pippin. £2.48 - the most expensive so far (3.9%). This was followed by a couple of pints of Tiger Rut from the Millstone brewery. Again this was £2.48 for a lovely 4.0% ale. Back on the train to Victoria and a visit to the Marble and The Angel on Rochdale Road. I know we tried a 5.9% Dobber for £2.50 but by then I had almost lost the plot.
Good Day.