In a bit of a change from our usual "let's go to Cornwall for a week" autumn holiday, we decided, instead, to head north - I fancied York but he suggested a scenic place with excursions.
As a result, we ended up In Knaresborough. 10 mins from Harrogate, 20 mins from York, 40 from Leeds.
We needed to fit in a Bristol trip around work-type schedules as well, so we decided that triangular trip made sense.
Our train travel north was without incident, although, the busyness of the train reminded us that we prefer to travel during the week.
Nevertheless, we had a pleasant journey, landing at around 3.30pm - a 5 minute walk from our cottage. There's a slight "but" to this walk...it's down a 1 in 4 hill from the station.
As is normal for us, we dumped bags - had a mooch around our quirky digs for the week which is an old house with almost every room on a different level - and set out to try one of 4 GBG pubs. Pretty much everywhere is "up" from the cottage and it also necessitates crossing the railway line - so you do feel like you've earned your beer.
We went to The Cross Keys which is an Osset Brewery pub. Very traditional with a mix of locals and visitors and it was pretty busy. We chose a couple of beers and I had to conceal a smirk - they were expertly poured, of course, with a "proper" Yorkshire head on. We settled and ventured another. Osset are a brewery that I consider to be "new" (obviously, it's not actually new - any more than BBF is) and we occasionally see it around in Bristol but their beers are definitely "traditional" in style. It was a good way to get used to beer in the "Yorkshire Way"
Because it takes us so long to drink a pint, we'd been in the pub for the best part of 2 hours and we realised we should really eat something so we walked around the corner to a quirky place called "Six Poor Folk". It had been full when we passed it on our way to the Cross Keys but it looked like there may be a bit more room when we returned.
We were greeted in jolly fashion, so we ordered a couple of pints (can't remember what of) and sat down. It's a difficult to describe place - one part cafe, one part bar, one part bistro. Definitely not pub but warm and friendly.
The food (small plates) were pretty good (not amazing, but good enough), the beer was lovely - even if the choice wasn't enormous. We were happy.
Travelling (let alone all the stairs and hills) had made us a bit weary so after we'd eaten we thought that heading back "home" would be wise - but we did slide into the bar on the station platform.
It's effectively a micropub of which, we've observed, there are broadly 2 types: type 1 is just a small version of a pub: everyone welcomed and with a wide variety of punters (Drapers Arms, Wight Bear, Steamworks). Type 2 is more of a insular thing - a few (usually) blokes or a bloke sets it up because he fancies running a pub and it's a manageable version of a full pub. It tends to be mostly populated by hyper-locals and/or the owner's mates. Walking in here as an out of towner can feel quite intimidating (The old blockbusters near Hitchin, the more distant micropub in Ramsgate and the one we went to in Wells, The Farmers in Bexhill) - often the beer isn't particularly interesting.
I would have to say that the Knaresborough bar was more type 2 than 1 although the folk were very, very friendly it was pretty clear most other people in the place seemed to know each other. The beer was really well kept but lowish strength, and not that interesting. We can hardly complain, and people seemed to be having a good time and it was rammed - but we were a tiny bit disappointed.
Heigh ho - there were clearly more places to try...and there were other towns...of which more, later
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