Review: The Wheel Inn, Ticknall

The Wheel Inn
50 Main St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JZ

Having passed through Ticknall many, many times I have often thought what a lovely, inviting looking pub this place looks. As I was planning on spending some time walking locally, I thought it would be an ideal place to stop for lunch and start my walk from. Inside the place is gorgeous, clean, tidy and very nicely decorated, making good use of its many period features.

Despite there being many free tables, none of which were reserved, I had to wait to be seated. Unfortunately there is no real area set aside for waiting so your choices are standing around in the bar area, where people are sitting eating, or standing in front of the main entrance. I opted to stand awkwardly in the bar area, where I could at least get a drink.

Generally in a country pub of this style and supposed level of quality I'd expect to see a reasonable range of beers on offer, besides the usual awful lagers, unfortunately this is not the case, the beers on offer here are so run of the mill they're not even worth mentioning.

After a brief wait of 10 minutes or so I was taken upstairs to a, largely empty but very well decorated, dining room and shown to my seat. Looking over the menu the food choices seemed of a slightly higher end than other places I've visited locally and obviously the prices were higher to match. I ordered battered cod with hand cut chips and minted mushy peas, then sat back looking forward to what should be a very nice meal.

After about 30 minutes my food was bought out and my first reaction was one of disappointment, the fish was absolutely tiny and the portion of chips, though clearly hand cut and fried, was very small. I shrugged it off, opting for the mind set of "if the food is good quality then this could still be a very nice meal." The chips did not disappoint, they were lovely, crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and tasted exactly how proper chips should taste. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the fish, not only was it very small, but the batter was quite thick, not at all crispy and didn't have much of a flavour at all. The fish its self had that fishy smell and taste that speaks of it being not particularly fresh, that said it was perfectly cooked. The peas were quite simply forgettable, slightly over cooked and over minted.

Overall not the best experience ever, not entirely great service, a lacklustre beer selection and food that simply did not live up to the price tag. There are better, cheaper places to eat in the local vicinity, though apparently it closes early on a Saturday.

Review: The Staff of Life, Ticknall

The Staff of Life
7 High St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JH

Firstly this is a truly gorgeous pub, set in equally gorgeous surroundings, I loved the place before stepping through the door.

The inside is just as nice as the out, clean, tidy and tastefully decorated. The pub is separated into several cosy rooms, each furnished with chunky, rustic furniture that suits the pubs country ascetic. Only having a fairly small bar the pub has a limited selection of beers, however the ones it does have are good quality and well kept.

We went on a Sunday afternoon so I chose to have the 2 course set menu, I had soup of the day starter followed by a roast beef dinner. The soup was spiced parsnip and it was beautiful, nicely seasoned with a rich creamy flavour and served with warm bread and butter, genuine comfort food. The roast beef was served with roast potatoes, a large homemade Yorkshire pudding and plenty of proper beef gravy. The beef itself was locally sourced and really good quality, the potatoes were crisp but still nice and fluffy inside and the Yorkshire pudding was clearly homemade and just purely epic. The meal comes with a side of seasonal veg, which unfortunately was disappointing as it was overcooked, a bit flavourless and slightly cold.

Whilst the pudding menu looked amazing I was far too full to actually try one. Overall the experience was excellent, the food was good and the atmosphere in the pub was very welcoming. I am looking forward to going back during the week or on a Saturday to enjoy the standard daily menu.

Review: The John Thompson, Ingleby

The John Thompson Inn & Brewery
Ingleby, Derby DE73 7HW

Another gorgeous pub in gorgeous surroundings. I was using this as a starting & finishing point for a country walk and thought it would be rude not to call in and have at least a pint before setting off. From the outside the pub looks like a proper country pub and I'm happy to say the inside is equally as charming and rustic. The pub actually has its own brewery so has a reasonable selection of small batch brewed beer available on tap, I opted for one of the pubs own brews and found it to be very pleasant indeed.

Whilst they do serve food I didn't try any on this occasion so am unable to comment on the quality, however if it's anything like the rest of the pub I'd expect it to be nice, homemade fayre.

August 2015 - Adventures In Scotland

It’s August and that means its summer and that means it’s the six week holidays for Kelly. After spending a few days in Scotland over the Easter period, and having had an amazing time, we decided to visit again for this years summer holidays. We booked a week in a small cottage in the middle of the Scottish countryside at the heart of the Dumfries and Galloway region. To say that the place was more or less idyllic, with the exception of the beds, would sum it up perfectly. A small two storey cottage with shower room, small kitchen area, dining area, TV on the ground floor and small bedroom on the first floor, it suited our needs perfectly.

Being fairly regular visitors to the Dumfries and Galloway area we have visited a fair number of places on more than one occasion, this time we made a conscious effort to look for and visit places that we haven’t seen before. It really paid off, the whole holiday felt like an adventure and it made me fall even more deeply in love with Scotland and the Scottish countryside. The one thing that really completes the whole experience for me is being able to share it with my wonderful partner. Her love and support makes everything I do just that much better, I really can’t imagine my life without her.

Geo Adventuring In Kirkby

My partner and I live together on the outskirts of a small town called Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the area we actually live in is the old part of town and is surprisingly rural. Basically all you have to do is walk for 5 minutes in most directions from our house and you will literally be surrounded by fields and small areas of woodland. That said we have actually explored very little of the surrounding countryside, despite the fact that both myself and my partner enjoy walking.

Last weekend we decided it was time for that to change. Several months ago my partner had stumbled across a passtime known as geocaching and although we both thought the concept was interesting, neither of us had really done much in the way of research into it. That was up until a couple of weeks ago when one us downloaded the android app and discovered that there are in fact several caches within a couple of miles of our house. Knowing that these caches are so close made us curious and last weekend we set out to find our first cache, after a little deliberation we chose which cache we wanted to head for and consulted the map to work out the best route. The cache we chose is situated by a small stream in an area of woodland a little over a mile from our house.

Having located the rough area we were heading for, we packed a small bag of essentials and set off. Less that 10 minutes into the walk and we were absolutely surrounded by corn fields, we followed a public footpath right through the middle of some truly picturesque country and down into the woods. We were both surprised by just how dense the patch of woodland is and how pretty it is considering we were literally a 20 minute walk from the centre of Kirkby. After double checking our map to ensure we were in the right area we headed into the woods and selected the path that looked most likely to take us in the right direction. As we headed further into the woods we noticed that the ground was starting to get muddy and my partner Kelly started to get a little anxious about falling in. We spent the next 45 minutes or so slowly trecking through the woods, investigating every nook and cranny, poking in to holes in trees and taking photos all in the hope of locating some hidden cache of mini treasures so we could sign the log and swap one of their nicknacks for one of our own. Eventually we ran out of woodland and, feeling slightly disappointed in ourselves, we decided to head back, taking a slightly different route just to give ourselves one last chance at success. This it turned out was a mistake as the path we chose led into some heavily muddy areas and both my partner an myself ended up slipping over on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately we made it all the way back home without finding a single cache, this hasn't dampened our spirits too much though as we are already plotting our route for this weekend with high hopes of our first cache find.