Pints of View Summer 2026 - the branch magazine of Mansfield & Ashfield CAMRA.
Brook
Two Blokes, a Dog, and 26 Letters - G
We're now getting into the spirit of our alphabet of pub crawls. So far, we've completed the letters A, B, C, D and N. We managed to find a date for our next adventure, and our initial thought was to try to keep it in alphabetical order, exploring options for our letter E. Having thoroughly enjoyed one of our CAMRA monthly Branch Socials in Eastwood, this was our first plan. However, for a couple of reasons - but mainly the opening hours of some of the pubs on our intended route - we decided to go away from alphabetical order and visit Grantham to get our letter G.
Neither of us had spent any time in Grantham previously, so some research was required. Once again, we used the CAMRA website to search the area for likely the pubs had to serve real ale and be dog-friendly.
pubs, setting the criteria that the pubs ha
I would be travelling from Mansfield, and Adam (along with his dog, Toby) would be travelling from Arnold. The easiest option for us was to meet at Nottingham Train Station and then take the Norwich train to Grantham, which only takes about thirty minutes.
The best and cheapest option for me was to was also nice to be able to purchase an River
Street an off-peak return train ticket from Mansfield to Grantham. It return' so that I didn't have to think too much about which train I needed to be back for. The off-peak journey into Nottingham was fairly quiet, and I had a great welcome at the station, as Toby tried his best to drag Adam down the platform in his rush greet me!
George Street
We caught the 10:37 train from Nottingham, and it left exactly on time ebri
Step the er arriving in Grantham at around 11:10. We didn't have far to go for our first port ng of call, it's situated on the station platform! It's a micropub called The Whistle Stop, which opened in 2019, situated inside the former parcels office on Platform 1. You can access the pub from either the platform or from road. There is some outside seating on both sides of the pub, too. As I mentioned previously, we do check beforehand that the pub is dog-friendly, but we also think it's only right to ask when we arrive, just in case there are certain areas they don't allow dogs. On asking, we had to chuckle; they couldn't have been more dog-friendly, making sure that Toby had a drink and a few doggy treats from the bar, b
Whistle Stop
Sefore serving us!
They've got three sticks on the bar and always k: Street eroantham. On the day one permanent beer and two changing. The permanent one is called Whistle Stop and is brewed for the pub by Z Zest Brewery, a local brewery based in we visited, the two guest ales were Newton's also from Zest, and Diplomat from Beermats. It's always nice to see one of our local breweries when we're out and about in different areas. As neither of us had sampled anything from Zest before, Adam went for the Whistle Stop, which is a pale ale, and I went for the Newton's Drop, a best bitter. This wasn't going to be the last reminder we had of Isaac Newton's prominence in the town! They were two very good beers, and we were off to a good start. We then had walk into the town centre to reach our second pub.
Whistle Stop interior about a ten-minute w reet
As we strolled into the town centre, Sir Isaac Newton's influence became apparent. He was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, which is about ten miles from Grantham, and he was educated at The King's School in Grantham. We walked past the Isaac Newton shopping centre and his statue, which is located just outside the guildhall. We also discovered that there's a Primary School named after him and there used to be a pub named after him too. I rawas pleased that I'd in the cultural theme by having an ale called
Angel and Royal
24 | Pints of View Summer 2026