Great British Pub Crawl YouTuber Dale Harvey gives his take on Lincolnshire’s boozers after visits to towns and cities including Boston, Stamford, Spalding, Bourne, Skegness, Lincoln and Grantham
Dale Harvey arrived in Lincolnshire with a list of 17 pubs he was planning to drink in that day.
To many of us - and our GPs - that could sound a little excessive, but for the social media celebrity it was just another day’s work.
When Dale and wife Holly began having days out visiting the boozers of nearby towns and documenting it on Facebook they saw it as nothing more than a fun way to enjoy a day off.
But the public appetite was whetted and The Great British Pub Crawl was born, a social media phenomenon that has reached tens of millions in just the past three months.
“It started off as a silly little hobby that has turned into a life-consuming mission that takes up most of my week,” said Dale, whose daring mission is now to sup in every single one of the nation’s hostelries.
“But the more we grow, the more followers we get and more determined we are to keep doing it.
“Having 50,000 followers is mad to me. The reach on the Facebook page was 28 million people in the last 90 days, so if that’s helping promote pubs and the industry I’ll happily keep doing it.”
The Harveys are no strangers to Lincolnshire and neighbouring Rutland, documenting their benders is the likes of Grantham, Stamford, Spalding, Bourne and Oakham.
Being Nottingham based means the couple regularly hop over the border and arguably know more about the drinking delights of the county than many Yellowbellies.
“Honestly, every town in this county is completely different,” said Dale, who joked he now has ‘probably 100 locals in the midlands’.
“Skegness and Lincoln are opposite ends of the scale, two completely different things.
“Lincolnshire’s got some great towns and wonderful pubs. As it’s easily accessible for me I’ve done most of the towns.”
Read what the Great British Pub Crawl though of Bourne here.
But despite having a soft spot for Lincs, one place does stand out.
“Stamford was one of our favourite towns so far,” Dale continued.
“It was a beautiful town to walk around on the cobbled streets and see the historic sights. The pubs there are all very different.
Read what the Great British Pub Crawl though of Stamford here.
“It’s one of those places that’ll stick in my mind as I’d never been there before and didn’t know anything about it. It was a really great town to go out in.”
On Thursday Dale - drinking solo because ‘one of us needs a proper job’ - was back in Boston a year on from his last visit (where ‘most of my reviews were positive’) , filming for their recently-launched YouTube channel.
It was here where LincsOnline caught up with him at the Coach & Horses.
“I want to show the best bits of the pubs. Boston has some beautiful pubs, like this one,” explained Dale, taking in the eyecatching menagerie of oddments - from stuffed animals to instruments - which adorn the busy walls.
Read what the Great British Pub Crawl though of Spalding here.
“There’s a lot of variety here in Boston. Some good ones and some maybe not-so-good ones, but I try to give a full reflection of what is in the town.
“And if someone is visiting the town, hopefully I can help show them which are the ones they might want to go to.”
The day wasn’t going to plan when we met up, something which is becoming more and more of a regular occurrence for the Harveys.
The first pub on the list was shut in preparation for a private function. Number two was closed when he tried the door and, as Dale swigged his Batemans XXXB in the Coach, a third contacted him via the Facebook page to say they wouldn’t be open.
“I can’t hammer home with pubs enough, the need to be on social media and update everything,” Dale implored.
Read what the Great British Pub Crawl though of Grantham here.
“We went to Bridgnorth, near Wolverhampton, because there’s one pub that’s meant to be old and haunted.
“We get there and that’s closed for a private function on a Saturday night - nothing on their Facebook about being closed.”
Some pubs, however, take a much more proactive approach.
Desperate to dodge the drizzle, Dale hopped in a cab to the Eagle - which he ‘knew is always open’ - to re-plot his route.
And it was while working on a new plan that an online chat with the Coach saw John O’Connor and Linda Webster offer to open up at 4pm - two hours earlier than normal for a midweek - to accommodate him.
Although enjoying his surroundings down Main Ridge East, Dale isn’t always enamoured with the pubs he visits. But he believes its the honest critiques the Great British Pub Crawl delivers that adds to their appeal.
“There’s no value in doing it if I’m not going to be honest,” added Dale, who begins his week running his memorabilia framing business and spends Thursdays to Sundays checking out the boozers, with Holly joining on weekends.
“I hope that when I say something that’s not-so-positive they take it as general feedback.
“I wouldn’t necessarily choose to go to a pub that does nothing but Carling, Fosters, John Smith’s, Strongbow. If that was all you had on offer and nothing else at all, that wouldn’t appeal to me.
“But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t appeal to other people. That might be their go-to four drinks. I like to tell people what pubs have got, whether it’s my kind of pub or not.”
Read what the Great British Pub Crawl though of Oakham here.
With so many pubs to visit Dale tends to sample a half in each place before moving on. But even after the equivalent of eight-plus pints, many of us would be ready for a kip.
That’s certainly not the case for Dale, however, who - with the help of a ’friendly Uber driver’ - heads home when time’s called to begin editing his latest video.
“I wouldn’t change this for the world,” he added.
“It started as a hobby and turned into something I’m very passionate about.
Read more pub reviews courtesy of the LincsOnline Secret Drinker here.
“The best thing for me is the feedback from people who say ‘we didn’t know this pub was there until we saw you’d been there, now we really like it’.
“That’s what I want, to hear, that we’re having a positive impact on pubs and people are having a nice time.
“I can still have a nice quiet pint, but it is getting to the stage that I’m getting recognised a lot more.
“But if you see me out, come over and say ‘hi’ and let’s have a drink.”
What do you think? Let us know your views in the comments below…
