In this issue: (click
on a title to jump straight to the article)
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The Pub Walker
The official newsletter
of MyFavouritePubWalks.com
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Issue No.6
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In the News ...
Isle of
Wight Pub Walking Festival Continues - October 2008
(Part 2)
As readers of The Pub Walker will know, earlier
this year we linked to the UK's largest walking festival
to create the first
Alternative Isle of Wight Pub Walking Festival.
This was to celebrate the fantastic pub walks boasted by
the island and raise the profile of some of its best pubs
for good food, real ale and friendly service.
Well, as the event was so popular, now the island is having
its first Autumn Walking Festival, we felt we should repeat
this and again make all the Isle of Wight Pub Walks free
from now until the event ends on 27th October. This means
you can download for free all our Isle
of Wight Pub Walks from now until the Pub Walking
Festival ends on 27th October.
So apart from the 47 walking festival walks, you now have
20 pub walks to choose from too! If you think that sounds
like a great excuse to hop over to the island and enjoy
the festivities, visit
Alternative Isle of Wight Pub Walking Festival
to view our checklist for planning your trip. Hope to see
you there!
Pub in
the Park
For the first time, a celebration of all that’s great about
pubs will be staged next year in London. Called Pub
in the Park, the three-day event will showcase pubs’
role in the community as well as highlight pub excellence
in food, drink and entertainment. A national celebration
of such an important element of our British culture is way
overdue and surely has the potential to be a huge success.
According to the leading trade magazine The Morning Advertiser,
this will be held in one of London’s prestige parks next
June and will no doubt attract many thousands of members
of the public, including families.
Visitors will be able to sample the pleasures of pub-going
by visiting show pavilions designed as pubs to eat, drink
and socialise. And they will be able to enjoy pub games,
quizzes and karaoke, as well as hear top bands and other
musical entertainment.
In the months leading up to the show, pubs all round the
country can get their customers involved in Pub
in the Park pool, darts, music and quiz competitions
through a series of local and regional heats. The qualifiers
will compete for the national title over the Friday, Saturday
and Sunday of the event.
Pub trade leaders have welcomed the initiative which is
likely to benefit from industry-wide support. The pub companies
will compete to gain the marketing edge and of course a
bit of healthy competition can only help us pub-goers! Expect
to see a raft of promotions as this is planned as a year
long initiative with the actual Pub
in the Park being a culmination of months of activities.
MyFavouritePubWalks.com
will be giving its full support to this event and you can
find more information at the Pub
in the Park page on our site. This page will be updated
regularly as the event draws nearer.
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Award-Winning Pubs - and where to find them
We continue our regular feature highlighting a selection
of pubs who have demonstrated excellence in an area that
is of interest to pub walkers. This may range from how they
cater for families, the quality of their food or real ale,
or simply their good old customer service. Where the list
is long, we have just included a selection with a link to
the full list on our website.
We hope that by highlighting the winners here, more of us
can try them for ourselves and support the best in our pub
tradition and help them to thrive. Even better, wouldn't
it be great to use this list as a source for ideas for where
to create your next pub walk? Either way, please email us
with your experiences at leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
Which? Good Food Guide 2009
| PUB
NAME |
LOCATION |
CATEGORY
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| Royal Oak |
Paley Street, Berkshire |
Best Pub Chef |
| Yew Tree Inn |
Balfreston, Kent |
Pub Newcomer of the Year |
| Hardwick Arms |
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire |
Best Use of Local Produce |
| Earlier this year The Royal
Oak was also awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin, indicating
good food at moderate prices. |
Nottingham Restaurant Awards
| PUB
NAME |
LOCATION |
CATEGORY
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| Larwood and Voce |
West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire |
Best Pub, Best Local Produce
Menu and Best Young Chef |
| A gastropub perhaps but with
three awards to its name even traditionalists may be
tempted to give it a try. |
Fullers Inaugural Hampshire Dining Month Competition
| PUB NAME |
LOCATION |
CATEGORY
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| Still and West |
Old Portsmouth, Hampshire |
First place - Hampshire line-caught
mackerel and samphire salad |
| Wyvern |
Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire |
Second place - All Hampshire
Lavender and Honey Panna Cotta |
| The competition challenged
managers of Fuller's pubs to create a dish using local
ingredients. |
If you try any of these award-winning pubs and would like
to give feedback, please send any comments to Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
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New Pub Walks to Enjoy
Recent
Additions
Since our last newsletter, we have found many more pub
walks and are working hard to get these published as fast
as we can. In the last two months we have added more pub
walks in the following areas:
We will shortly be adding more walks for Hampshire,
Suffolk, South Glamorgan, Kent and
Cornwall to name but a few. However we are always
looking for more so please keep them coming. It's easy to
add
a pub walk to the database! With more than 60% of England's
counties already represented, we want to expand this to
the remaining ones as well as get many more for Wales. So
far Scotland is untouched so we hope for our first landmark
pub walk there soon! As always, we really appreciate your
help as we work towards achieving a national network of
pub walks with as many for everyone to choose from as possible.
QuickSearch
for a Pub Walk
You can do an instant search for a pub walk simply by entering
your search term into the box below. If you cannot find one
in your area, you can now get some help by posting a comment
on The Pub Walker blog
- if we have some nearly ready for publishing then we'll see
if we can bring them forward in the queue; and if we don't
have any yet then we'll do our best to track some down for
you!
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Special
Offers - Latest!
Here's my latest list of special offers that caught my eye
and which I hope you find interesting too in your pursuit
of pub walks! If you know of any other sources of 2-for-1
vouchers off pub meals or other special offers worth sharing
with fellow pub walkers then please do send them in to me
at Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
Free Binoculars
from The National Trust
The National Trust are giving away free
binoculars (yes FREE!) and 3 months free membership (12
months for the price of 9) when you join
online and pay be DD. Having been a member for the past
20 years, I think the National Trust is already great value
for anyone who loves our countryside, our coastline and our
historical houses. For full details of the offer just click
on National
Trust Offer.
Money Off
Vouchers - Pub Meals in Kent
We've recently added some Faversham
pub walks to the site and as well as being in a beautiful
area of Kent, they also offer a series of downloadable vouchers
offering discounts on various establishments that you pass
en route, including a number of the pubs. These range from
10% off your total food and drinks bill
to a "Special Local 3 Course Walkers' Menu" for
£10. We are adding a few more Faversham
pub walks in the next couple of
weeks so if you choose a pub offer with no walk yet you can
rest assured it's on its way!
OS Maps
- Over 1/3 Off
The Explorer OS maps are my favourite ones for walking as
the 1:25,000 scale shows up the footpaths most clearly. Best
of all are the laminated "Active" versions which
are both waterproof and far more long-lasting for regular
walkers. So it's great to see that Amazon currently have the
Explorer
Active maps
on special offer, heavily discounted from £13.99 down
to £9.23 or less depending upon the map you choose.
So if you have a favourite walking area then now is a good
time to replace that dog-eared paper map with a laminated
OS Explorer map!
Olympus
Voice Recorder £25 - for recording those pub walks!
If you would like to add any of your own pub walks to MyFavouritePubWalks.com
then I would strongly recommend a voice recorder for a simple
way to record your route. Its been so easy since I received
my Olympus digital voice recorder as a present last year that
I have no hesitation in recommending them. Prices have been
falling and I now see the discount supermarket Lidl is selling
an Olympus one for only £25. If there is not a Lidl
near you then the next best place is probably Amazon who offer
the Olympus
VN-2100 Digital Voice Recorder at £27.25 with free
delivery. So if you want to share a few of your favourite
pub walks, now could be the time to get one.
Previous
Offers Still Available
Some of the special offers highlighted in previous editions
of The Pub Walker are still so you might want to check these
out too if you have not done so already.
Money
Off Vouchers - Pub Meals in Cambridgeshire
If you are doing one of our 20 Cambridgeshire
pub walks then take a look at the discounts off pub meals
on the LocalSecrets.com
website which has downloadable free vouchers redeemable at
some of our favourite pubs. You could try the Axe
and Compass pub walk and choose from vouchers
offering £5 off £20 spent in the restaurant, or
a free bottle of bubbly for the birthday boy (or girl) or
even 10% off weekday lunches and Monday to Wednesday evening
meals! Why not look out the best pub offer and create a new
walk that leads you back there for some well-earned refreshment?
Please remember to send us the pub walk afterwards so others
can try it too!
Money
Off Vouchers - Slug and Lettuce
You can get £5 off when you spend £10 at a Slug
and Lettuce. Simply click through to the Slug
and Lettuce homepage, select a venue, register for free
and you'll get the voucher to download. Use your proper name
as it will be printed on the voucher and you can always deregister
afterwards if you like. OK I know they are bars rather than
pubs but they serve decent real ale and I've had some excellent
meals at the Winchester one. Plus they have other offers like
two desserts for the price of one!
Pub Guides
- 50% Off
Have you seen that the AA
2008 Pub Guide is still half price on Amazon?
It is a real pleasure to use and is in full colour throughout
with numerous photos. The 2000+ entries cannot compete in
number with the 5000+ entries of The
Good Pub Guide 2008 but it screams AA quality and complements
the other very well with often less overlap than you may think.
So at the offer price it may be time to try it yourself.
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Dates
for your Diary - special events, festivals and deadlines
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DATE
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EVENT
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Sep
5 - Sep 21
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Seafood
Fortnight will generate a host of special offers
from pubs, so keep your eyes open especially near the
coast where pubs traditionally specialise in recipes using
locally caught fish. Due to its success over the last
7 years, Seafood Fortnight is extended from a week this
year, potentially doubling the special offers we should
find. |
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Sep
20 - Oct 5
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British
Food Fortnight has
events taking place across the country so take a look
at the site to see the events and special offers available
at pubs near you. There are plenty.
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Sep
26 - Sep 28
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Waitrose
Autumn Food Festival 2008 will be held at Longstock
Park in Stockbridge which is part of the Waitrose Farm.
A family day out telling the supermarket's "field
to the fork" story plus wine tastings, cookery workshops
and opportunity to visit the famous Longstock Water Gardens. |
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Oct
11
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CAMRA
Awards Lunch and 2008 Champion Beer of Britain Presentations
for CAMRA members who are invited to this "annual
celebration of the best in brewing". A chance to
taste the 2008 Champion beers matched to a superb four
course meal at Lords. Presentations to all the awards
winners will follow by Chairman Paula Waters and Good
Beer Guide editor Roger Protz. Not cheap at £85 per head
but a special event for real ale enthusiasts. |
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Oct
24 - Oct 27
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Alternative
Isle of Wight Pub Walking Festival is featured
at the top of this newsletter and it will be great to
combine this with the Walking Festival and Real Ale Festival.
Remember to check out the growing collection of free pub
walks to download. |
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Oct
24 - Oct 27
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Isle
of Wight Walking Festival coincides with
our own pub walking festival above, enabling you to enjoy
both on a single Autumn island break. |
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June
2009
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Pub
in the Park is set for June next year and is the
first national celebration of British pubs that we have
ever seen. It will be the culmination of months of pub
activities, tournaments and promotions. The lead up to
this and the event itself should offer much of interest
to pub walkers so MyFavouritePubWalks.com will keep you
updated with the latest news. |
If there are any events you think we should include here in
our next edition then please do let us know by emailing Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
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Have
you seen The Pub Walker blog?
Our blog is updated a two or three times a week with topical
news about pubs, walking and the countryside together with
"This Week's Pub Walk". If you have a pub walk you
think we should feature then please let us know by emailing
Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
Why not check out our blog now to find out about new pub
walks and hear the news on pubs and walking first? Take a
look at http://thepubwalker.blogspot.com
and remember to subscribe.
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What
are you thinking?
We mean it when we say your views are important to us so please
send us your feedback, good or bad, to Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
What do you think makes a great pub walk? Is
the pub or the walk the most important element or do you consider
them as equal? Please write and tell us what you look for
in a pub walk by emailing to Leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.
And what about this newsletter? Is once every 2 months the
right frequency for The Pub Walker? Should the articles be
longer or shorter, more or fewer? Or maybe you would like
to see features on particular pub walks, pubs, or special
events? Maybe you have an article you would like to submit?
We'd love to hear whatever you have to say!
If you prefer post to email, please address your comments
to:
Leigh Salkeld
The Pub Walker
MyFavouritePubWalks.com
Norwood
Southdown Road
Shawford
Winchester
England
SO21 2BX
Leigh Salkeld
Website Founder
MyFavouritePubWalks.com,
MyFavouritePubWalks.co.uk,
The Pub Walker blog
and The Pub Walker newsletter are owned by Trailblazing Ltd,
a company registered in England and Wales, Company No. 5921609,
with its Registered Office at the above address.
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Newsletter
Archive
Remember if you have missed any of our earlier editions of
The Pub Walker, you can catch up by visiting
our Newsletter
Archive which we have recently added to our site.
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The Pub Walker
The official newsletter
of MyFavouritePubWalks.com |
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