The Ironstone Miner (JD Wetherspoon), Guisborough

Official site of The Ironstone Miner (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Ironstone Miner (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

One of the Wetherspoons’ chains newer branches, this is a tidy, compact pub set inside a former registry office. The pub is set quite high above street level, requiring customers to climb a set of steps that pass through various levels of the front patio terrace, although a lift is also available should anyone require it. You enter into a moderate sized room with the servery down the right-hand wall. The bar has a light wood panelled counter and pleasant bar back enhanced by a few arched windows that have been lined with climbing plants. The room is mostly open plan but has a couple of pillars and short sections of wall that divide the space up a bit, whilst over to the left, an area has been walled off specifically for food service. There are mainly high tables and stools in the front part of the room, filling a bare boarded space with some views out across the patio to the High Street below. Some banquette booths offer comfier options to the front left, whilst regular seating dominates the carpeted area through the middle and rear part of the room, supplemented by some more banquette booths along the back wall. There’s a fairly neutral colour scheme throughout, but the walls have been decorated with some large pictures of the nearby Gisborough Priory. A pleasant raised stone fireplace dominates the back wall, making for an attractive focal point and there is some decent wood panelling on most of the pillars and partitioning walls, that adds a little bit of a traditional pub feel. The place was extremely quiet on our mid-week lunchtime visit, with just a smattering of customers here and there and some bored looking staff manning the bar, where I noted three guest ales on alongside the usual three regular cask options. Annoyingly, ordering via the app, only two guests and two regulars were listed, so I eventually ended up with a pint of Cameron’s Sanctuary, which was in decent nick. This is a modest ‘Spoons befitting of this modest little town. I liked the quirks of this building, including the terraced patio and the attractive fireplace, but aside from that, felt there wasn’t too much here to distinguish the place from your typical High Street ‘Spoons. I’m not too familiar with the town’s pub scene, but I can imagine you could do a lot worse than this place.