03/10/24 - The Slow Way - Kinver to Highley

Highley, Closer than you think

5th Slow Way. Who would have thought that so quickly after setting off from Birmingham you could have such a wild countryside ramble? And if you'd asked me how far Highley was from Kinver, I would have said "too far to walk".

In reality, its 8 miles. 8 beautiful miles, where you know you are in for a good day's walking from the get-go. The Staffordshire Way providing the exit from Kinver.

Leaving Kinver.... or Cyinbre (Great Hill, in old English)

Out on the Staffordshire Way

Fine walking along good agricultural tracks that are holding up well to what was the dampest of Septembers. Field after field, Alverley - where a slight diversion could have taken you to the oldest pub in Shropshire and then through the Severn Valley Country Park for Highley.

Today's Views

Over the Severn Footbridge to Highley

The buses from Highley are hourly, but conversations with several locals determined that its quite random at which part of the hour they turn up. So time to explore, as long as you keep your eyes on the Diamond Bus app and their handy GPS locator page.

You could explore its mining history - a colliery running from 1878 until 1969.

I once found a Geocache attached to this

Or the only pub in town. There cannot be many places that have no Untappd check ins or reviews on Pubsgalore, but that is something I can fix.

A Survivor

I had little idea what to expect but it wasn't music playing at a volume that you would think a little loud in a nightclub. A handful of locals, half of which stared at me with an intensity that made me reminisce about my favourite films. Its been a while since I have watched American Werefolf in London, but Straw Dogs was rediscovered earlier in the year. 

No cask, so a very, very cold Guinness. Dry roasted added to take it over the minimum £5 spend. Confirmation that the bus stop back to Kidderminster is the little wall outside the undertakers. Plenty of chance to discuss with the locals about the quality of the service. A heart felt lament from a gent who truly regrets leaving the bright lights of Sandwell. Where once he had multiple transport options - even on a Sunday - he now has to do a 3 hour round trip for his single lunch time pint. He had other advice. Don't talk to the man with the multiple plastic bags.

As Jasper Carrott said, if you cannot spot the nutter on the bus, it means its you.

Time to see where the Slows Ways take me next. Bridgnorth, I imagine.

Walk Details

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Slow Ways

Previous Slows Ways - Birmingham to Blackheath, Blackheath to Halesowen, Halesowen to Stourbridge, Stourbridge to Kinver

02/10/24 - The Fingerpost, Pelsall

Pub Archaeology leads to Murder

Walk 1 in my Best Walks in the Black Country Book. 

Rambler meets Brewer

I'm looking for both Pelsall and the Royal Oak. I find the first to be a near 6 hour return journey on Public transport, covering all of 30 miles. I cannot find the second. The pub - under its then name - no longer exists.

A little bit of Internet sleuthing and the first image I find is the pub covered in Police Tape and a mobile incident room setup in the road, guarded by two fluorescent jacketed coppers.

As it looked in 1983

A former landlord bludgeoned in his bed in 2003 as a robbery goes wrong. The safe stolen but dumped in the canal that I will be walking. The three murderers appealing their 20 year minimum sentences. 

I'm unsure if this shocking event led to the pub being re-branded as The Fingerpost, but a mid-walk chat with a farmer tending to his dykes suggested this may have been the case.

The Fingerpost - Battleship Grey - With a flourish on the egde

Enough True-Life crime - the walk is surprisingly good for a suburb of Walsall. And this is not the first time I have said that, as again, I am on the Beacon Way. A 22 mile linear route running from Sandwell to Cannock Chase. Yes, I've added it onto the list.

The Beacon Way on the Canal

Today's traffic free route includes sections of the Wryley and Essington Canal and the arrow straight Cannock Extension. A disused railway line. Wryley Woods Common.

A disused railway line into the woods.

 Alas, I am thwarted from using the pub. Surely, the first two weeks of January are when pubs are redecorated.

Should have come on Friday

Walk Details

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in the Black Country, Walk 1

28/09/24 - Little Orme

Seal Spotting at Angel Bay

5 years since a still memorably wet walk on Great Orme. Might as well tick off its smaller brother at the promenade's other end, Little Orme.

Little Orme from the Free Parking Prom

Three things that appeal to the walker;

1 - Views - over Llandudno bay and Snowdonia's mountains.

The Climb Rewarded at Little Orme Trig

A second climb to Mynydd Pant for Snowdonia Views

2 - Wildlife - As we drop down through the quarry works, we can see a collection of people peering over the edge or what transpires to be Angel Bay. I'd already noticed Google Maps had the location mapped as "Seal Pupping Seasons - Sep-Oct".  Sure enough, big black ones in the water and on the shore and smaller white pups. If only they didn't blend into the rocks, which Mrs M suggested should be painted dayglo to offer some contrast.

There are seals below, uncaptured by a Google Pixel 8

3) Breakfast - Walk over and the nearby Coast Cafe offers sandwich baps. But look closer on the "Other Section" on the menu. A Full Welsh. Regardless of nationality, do hash browns have any place on a breakfast? Who knows, but the coffee was the finest tasted.

Walk Details

Distance - 4.5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, October 2009, Walk 18

Geocaches - 1

27/09/2024 - The Micropubs of Colwyn. And Old Colwyn

The final day of the 2024 Good Beer Guide Ticking. 2025 will be waiting on my Worcestershire doormat when we return from this mini-break. We find ourselves at the sea-side and like so often, first impressions are sketchy. Gangs of men hanging around at street corners, some literally sitting on the pavement. One bloke loudly chucking up over the railings next to the Station Inn. It's 1pm on a Friday afternoon.

Mrs M demands safety and I have four potential ticks available. The distance between Pen-Y-Bryn and the Crafty Fox likely to make this three. But other tragedies will befall us.

The Bay Hop is the pick of the pubs. A blue-print for how micros should be run. Shop conversions may lack the comfort, style and history of a classic pub, so the least they can do is stock the best drinks known to humanity.

Just and I mean just, warm enough for outdoor seating

We've a fine choice between traditional cask, Oktoberfest Keg, Belgian Surprises and all the craft cans and international bottles you can throw a stick at. Entertainment? Last nights quiz questions available on the bar. Alas, not the answers. I make a tit of myself by laughing at Mrs M's answer to what Diana Armstrong from Minnesota has grown to 42 feet. It was her fingernails. We find the pictures on google but not the most pressing answer as to how she wipes her bum.

Two drinks - an Ampersand Best Bitter and a Erdinger Oktoberfest for variety and we head off for disaster.

I've timed arrival at the Black Cloak Taproom to meet the 2pm opening hours confirmed by Google. Mrs M, always the harbinger of doom, says "we're not going in there are we? It looks locked up". True enough, a handwritten sign proclaims "Due to illness, we will not open till 4pm". Welsh cures are both miraculous and very time specific. But to be fair, no one wants to be in a micro when the plague is in town.

Not looking good at 2:05pm

Instead a long (read never ending) walk along the promenade to Old Colwyn. I can sense morale is dropping and suggest a topical ice cream stop. Until we see the one-scoop prices. On we plod.

The Crafty Fox has all the locals. A two room micro, with all tables in the front room occupied. Fortunately, they have a second room for space and its here I pay for a game of pool with a card for the first time in my drinking career.

A classic pub chariot

The beer range is far simpler than the Bay Hop. No fruity beers. Nothing too international. Some classic cask pales and IPAs. Coach House brewery seem to dominate proceedings.

Other entertainment options? Purchasing a second round, the landlord proclaimed I was missing a cabaret, as the oldest gent was on his feet and performing a little turn. And of course, there is always the record player. If you come prepared.

There'll be a Hue and Cry if you touch Gordon's Vinyl

Old School cab home, where the operator tells us it will be 10 minutes before we have even placed the order. After negotiation, we can have one in 30 minutes. It comes in 45.