Ale & ukuleles in Tetley-world

An excursion to the Shoulder of Mutton, in Castleford, proves to be tuneful as well as educational for Roger Protz.

I'm keeping up my New Year resolution to go to the pub more often. Last week the pub in question was the Shoulder of Mutton in Castleford, West Yorkshire. That's a journey of around 200 miles for a pint, but it was worth it, for the Shoulder proved to be a life-enhancing experience.

It's a no-nonsense, down-to-earth boozer. It's run by Dave Parker, known to beer lovers throughout the Castleford, Leeds and Wakefield area as "Tetley Dave". He's a former Tetley drayman and he sells a vast amount of the Leeds brewery's Dark Mild and Bitter. As a Tetley man to his fingertips, he's devastated by Carlsberg's decision to close the brewery.

But — pardon the pun — he's not a bitter man, even though he's had a long, hard battle to run and save his pub. The Shoulder is all about pleasure and Dave sets the tone. He's a warm and humorous man who wears, even indoors, a small black trilby complete with a Tetley badge.

I was made a member of his close-knit community, introduced to all his regulars, and presented for the occasion with a beer called the Jolly Roger. It was produced for my visit by the Great Heck brewery, with my grizzled image on the pump clip. At "5% ABV AProtz", it's a strong dark mild — smooth, creamy and delicious, with a good balance of bitterness. It matches my personality perfectly.

As well as the Tetley brews, Dave sells guest beers. He has no time for smooth-flow keg ales — "monkey's piss" — and trawls the country for cask beers from small craft breweries. He's sold 250 guest ales in his 13 years there, some from as far away as Cornwall. The guest ales go down a treat. "You can put one on at 1.45pm and it's gone by 2.30pm," Dave says. And Tetley beers keep on flowing. He sells 10 gallons of Dark Mild a week and four 18-gallon casks of Bitter.

Tetley​

The two bars are linked by a passage full of brewery memorabilia that pays homage to Tetley's. There are photos of horse-drawn drays, advertising posters and price lists, and several images of the famous Tetley huntsman logo.

"I worked as a drayman there for seven years," Dave says. "That work created my interest in beer through talking to licensees and customers."

He sums up his feelings about the closure of the brewery in one word: "Disgust. If you close Tetley's you may as well close Leeds. The first thing Carlsberg did when they bought Tetley's was to get rid of the huntsman logo. But that used to be the first thing you saw when you came to Leeds. Now Carlsberg won't even say where the beers will be brewed when they close the brewery."

We have another pint and move from the public bar to the lounge, with a sound stage where Dave has invested £3,000 in equipment. There are regular concerts and the George Formby Society meets once a month for a quick burst on their ukuleles.

Pub regular Colin Williams starts to tinkle the ivories on a piano that was saved from a council skip. Then Dave produces his own ukulele and the customers join in an impromptu rendition of such old favourites as Leaning on a Lamp-post and My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock.

Attracted by the ale and the music, the regulars are flocking in. In short order, I meet Yorkshire TV celebrity, raconteur and author Ian Clayton, two brewers, from Coors of Tadcaster and Sam Smith's, retired miners, a woman known as the Beer Monster who claims to have tasted 1,500 beers, and the slightly forlorn figure of Viv Nicholson.

Viv of Spend! Spend! Spend! fame won the equivalent of £3m on the pools in 1961 and spent the lot in a whirlwind of parties, holidays, houses and ex-husbands. Now she lives in genteel poverty in Castleford and drops in to the Shoulder for the occasional G&T.

Tetley Dave has had his own fight with fortune. The Shoulder was an Enterprise Inns house and Dave had constant battles over rent and threats of eviction.

He's convinced the pubco wanted him out because of a large amount of unused land behind the Shoulder that could be used for housing. Dave ended the hate-hate relationship by selling his house and buying the pub from Enterprise. He now lives above it with his wife, Margaret, who also serves behind the bar.

During the course of a long and exhilarating day, customer after customer said to me, "This is a pub in a working-class area for working-class people."

Some of them no longer work — local mines and potteries are gone. But they are proud and resilient and can afford a beer or two at £1.92 for mild and £1.96 for bitter. They will go on drinking in the Shoulder as long as Tetley Dave is there, beer pump in one hand and ukulele in the other.