05/07/25 - London Spiral Stage 20 - Carpenders Park to Hayes and Harlington

Limited Interest - Decision Point Looming

Oh dear - the London Spiral Walk is starting to get a little stale. The last leg involved a lot of non-pavement, fast-traffic country lanes. It could not be described as wholly enjoyable. If anything, the stretch from Carpenders Park to Harlington Station is even worse.

There is nothing of any interest in 14 miles of walking. I have 6 photos on my phone. 2 of a too-early visit Good Beer Guide pub and one of an identikit 'Spoons that was the highlight of the day.

Early on, Oxhey Woods provides traffic-free countryside walking alongside the dog walkers of North London.

Woods.  Trees.

 

Then it's the outskirts of Pinner. Too early for the Good Beer Guide Woodman Pub and too many miles to walk to hang around for it's opening. Housing estate after housing estate. Admire the shed extensions on the rooflines. Find the house with the most cars parked on a repurposed front lawn. Dull, dreary walking. At least I get to tick off a couple of podcasts.

Wish I was at the Woodman End

At Ruislip, the OS Map switches from London North to Chilterns East and at least there's countryside again. The Hillingdon Trail takes me around Northolt Aerodrome along Yeading Brook. More or less all the way to the day's finale at Hayes and Harlington Station. Marshland, a babbling brook and mowed grass fields. You wouldn't think you were in London. It's so dull.

The Hillingdon Trail is a 20-mile (32 km) waymarked walking route through the London Borough of Hillingdon, running from Cranford Park near Heathrow to Springwell Lock in the Colne Valley. The trail offers a varied landscape of canals, ancient woodlands (Ruislip Woods NNR), rivers (Pinn and Colne), meadows, and historic landmarks like St Dunstan’s Church and Harefield’s ANZAC Memorial.

Refreshment desperately needed in Hayes, where there are near unlimited choice of takeaways.

One Good Beer Guide Tick available - the ubiquitous Wetherspoons Botwell Inn making the Bible for the 17th year running. Long may it continue when you can drink cask Jaipur for £2.29 a pint in London.  Best thing on the menu? Chicken in a basket.

Best a man can get (In Hayes)

I'll give the London Spiral until the next crossing of the Thames - although getting through Heathrow Airport doesn't promise great walking. Maybe I'll get some good photos.

Walk Information

Distance - 14 Miles

Start - Carpenders Park Station

Finish - Hayes and Harlington Station

Areas Walked - Pinner, Ruislip, Hillingdon

Geocaches - 11

Pubs - 1

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19

04/07/25 - A Crewe Pub Crawl

Judging

A pub crawl that was generated from a post in the British Pubs Facebook page. I used the Bar Trek App to plot the recommendations. Traveled up to Winsford for some Adventure Lab Caches and by the time I arrived at Crewe, there was only an hour to spare.

A return journey, but over the passing months, I have forgotten which were Good Beer Recommendations and which were merely recommended by locals. I am sure that I will be able to work it on the ground.

First stop is an early opener, The Crewe Dog. Hosted in one of those indoor markets that the North does so well. A small collection of eateries and Asian supermarkets, with a central area of high tables and stools for consuming your purchases.

Not Brew Dog

Service was tricky. The bar was unmanned. I had a wander around, hoping to determine how Thai Basil differs from Italian Basil. I came back. Still unmanned. Problems with the San Miguel tap.

Eventual service, and my Cask Merlin's Gold was in ropey condition. A little murky, little buts floating in it if you looked too closely. Not in the bible.

More success at Hops, where world's collide. Crewe is a little bereft of Geocaches but there is one in the front beer garden. 

Geocaching and Chouffing

As you can see, this is a Belgian specialty house, with an extensive bottle menu and several on draught. But they also love traditional British dispense, with a selection of curated cask beers. Hard to make up my mind, but in the interest of scarcity, I went for the hunchbacked gnome. Good Beer Guide and an Orval Ambassador - just like my much loved Tripel Bs in Worcester. 22 others exist in the UK. Maybe I should create a Google Map?

I honestly thought that The Borough Arms was closed down. If ever a place deserved an external lick of paint. Mrs M would have been tutting, but I am riding solo and can venture where I choose.

Freehouse since (and last painted) 1867

And what a gem!  A beer oasis, with all the beauty inside.

All my friends have been there

Upstairs, downstairs and a rather nice patio garden. At least 8 cask ales on and as usual, I peak rather too early. The Thornbridge Crackendale was absolutely superb but then I clocked a reason to stay for two.

How to get in the Good Beer Guide - Import the best of the Midlands

Superb and straight into my Top 10 pubs in the UK. The benefit of the two drink stop is that by the time I have finished, Tom's Tap House and Brewery around the corner is open.

Industrial Drinking

A few quirky touches to raise it above the usual Industrial Unit Tap Room. A sense of humour - with the electronic board pronouncing "Today's Evil Keg Filth".  A second screen details the Cask and a surprising varied selection of ciders. Which I could not resist. A schooner of a cider from Ross on Wye.

Indoor space, outdoor space and hybrid, where you can sit in a shipping container. Likely to be more lively during the regular evening events, I was made very welcome by Tom's Dad. He took me for the pub ticker I am and asked "Where Next?". I saw the slight eye-roll when I said "The Earl of Chester" and left with his words, "You really need to try Ebeneezer's" as I left.

What is wrong with the Earl of Chester I wondered? 

A relatively long walk - but in the vague direction of the station - and I found an unassuming back street terraced pub. Entered, no punters and on a sparsely populated bar, I swear to God I only saw Carling.

Like Homer Simpson's dad, I did the hat off, 360 degree turn, hat back on to wonder how this got added to the list? Was someone on British Pubs pranking tourists? Something to ponder on a repeat visit to Ebeneezer's.

It's only at home, two days later and blogging that I determine that it is in the Good Beer Guide. I must have stumbled on an unused bar. 

Twice I have judged a book by its cover. One day, I will learn to give things a little more time. 

02/07/25 - Ebrington to Ilmington, via Foxcote

On the Trail of the Yubbington Yawnies

More folk tales from the Loreman Podcast. Episode 6 tells of the simple folk of Ebrington, known colloquially as the Yubbington Yawnies.

Most villages have an idiot. Ebrington is full of them, according to legend. Famed for;

• Caging cuckoos to stop summer ending
• Fishing for the moon in the village pond
• And most famously, attempting to make the church tower grow by covering the base in manure, prompting a poem.

“The Yubberton Yawnies be so wise

They mucked the tower to make it rise

And when the muck began to sink

They swore the tower had grown an inch”

This all happens to be in prime Cotswold walking country.

I start at a previously undiscovered car park hidden behind a new build estate and handily positioned for the pub, the Ebrington Arms. North, climbing hills to Lark Stoke. Some fine views in all directions. I am sure the OS Maps had a feature where you could use the camera and it would identify topological features and superimpose the data on the views. If it is still there, I couldn't get it to work in the field.

Lark Stoke Hill Views

And over Ilmington

A drop down to the edge of Ilmington. This is a village recently walked on the Centenary Way. This means I have crossed the border from Gloucestershire into Warwickshire.

Back uphill, over Windmill to walk the grounds of Foxcote House. 

A gap in the hedge to view Foxcote House

Nash's lane to take me back to the pub. Did I find any idiots? Walking back into town, I followed two late middle aged ramblers who stopped to start passionately snogging. I wouldn't have minded, but this took place at the spot where I was thinking of having lunch. For a moment, I was worried things were going to escalate but they spied me getting my banana out (not a euphemism) and scuttled off.

Oh, and the pub beer garden had two men in identical clothes (yacht shoes, pink knee length shorts, stripey tops), with identical hair (bald, beard) both drinking rosé wine. Do these people phone each other up first?  

The pub was labelled by the Times as the best Village Pub in England. It used to be owned by someone connected with the North Cotswold Brewery     and sold a beer called Yubbies. It has changed ownership since my last visit but still has beers from that brewery in the line up. Knowing it would be more than a fiver a pint, I asked for a sample of the Shagweaver first.  

Cotswold Village Pub - The Ebrington Arms

Cask beer in a summertime garden

Perfect condition. Just goes to show, you can have cask in summertime. If you pay £5.45.

Walk Details 

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 7

Walk Inspiration - Loremen Podcast and Harry Hargreaves The Third Book of Cotswold Rambles, Walk 3

Previous Loremen Walks - Churchill, Burford, Long Compton, Swinbrook, Minster Lovell

01/07/25 - West Midlands Way - Stage 7 - Bridgnorth to Shifnal

Pub Archaeology at Ackleton

For the first time on the West Midlands Way, public transport dictates a modification to the route. 50 years ago, our intrepid twosome of Ron Leek and Eric Jones ended this stage at Tong. A village with a population of 240, that has "no Post Office, no shop and no bus service". 

A minor modification, albeit involving the best part of 2 miles of lane walking, sees me end at Shifnal.

First, I have to get there and I am a little bit excited by this route. It takes me to places previously unexplored.

Worfield was the first - and what a quaint little hamlet it is. Like the place that time forgot. The shopkeeper sits on a deckchair on the street outside. The approach is made after crossing the River Worfe. Ron and Eric's guidebook shows an impressive waterwheel, which has sadly collapsed into the river.

A blog from 2011 shows it still standing

Once through the grounds of Davenport House, its into the village, where I was too early for the still functioning pub.

Worfield is a picturesque village in Shropshire, nestled along the River Worfe, known for its historic charm and connections to literary and architectural heritage. P. G. Wodehouse, the famed comic novelist, had family ties to the village—his parents were married in St. Peter’s Church, and he spent part of his early childhood at nearby Stableford. Just outside the village lies Davenport House, a grand Georgian country mansion built in 1727 by architect Francis Smith of Warwick. The house, now a popular wedding and events venue, stands as a fine example of early 18th-century English baroque architecture.

Dog and Davenport - for another day

Agricultural walking until the OS Maps shows two Big Blue Cups of Joy at Ackleton. I never for a second expected them both to still operational, but to lose both seems rather cruel.

The Folly (or Folley) Arms on the main road is long gone. Reported first closed in 2014 and now two cottages. Whatpub telling the story of how the name changed between the two spellings until at one point it was Folly on one side of the sign and Folley on the other.

Both cottages for sale suggesting a recent renovation

At the end of the village is a far more healthy looking pub, the Red Cow. I am slowly trying to tick off all the Holdens Tied pubs and this was actually saved in my Google Maps. It was 11:40am when I arrived and I thought long and hard about waiting the 20 minutes for the legitimate tick.

Potential Bonus - 18th-century, Grade II Listed, yet dead

Mobile coverage was sketchy but thankfully, I managed to hitch onto some free WiFi to determine that this, too, is a dead pub. It looks like a Covid Casualty, with the last post on their Facebook page, a heartfelt monologue, the type of which that I am reading far too often these days. With a twist, The Red Cow were bemoaning a lack of staff, rather than punters.

Badger, with its sandstone caves and dingly dells and Beckbury are next up. Will I strike lucky on the next Big Blue Cup of Joy? The answer is kind of. The 1800s coaching house once known as the Seven Stars has been rebranded as a "Pie and Smokehouse" restaurant". Not that I am normally one to mock anything with a Pie in the title, it all looked a little Miller and Carter. Still, the local rambling group were gathered outside, arguing about who's round it was, so I nipped in first. Too warm to trust the Brakspear Cask, a pint that never sets the juices flowing, I decided on a first time for a long time Kronenbourg 1664.

Holy Smokey Cow - an open pub

It transpired that the walking group were not the Ramblers but a "South Shropshire Wellness" group. From brief discussions, it appears that "Wellness" can be achieved through fresh air, moderate exercise, ordering puddings with custard when the mercury is in the mid 20s and drinking beer. I think they are onto something more than that woman who was married to the fella from Coldplay. She just peddles perfume to make your fufu smell nice.

Refreshment completed - it was time for me to make my detour and head directly North, through Ryton and picking up the lanes to take me to the train station and Shifnal.

This is a town I have recently discovered on foot, so in the interests of something new, I ignored the Good Beer Guide Pubs and test out the Jaspers Arms for a post-walk pint. Typically, its possibly the best pub in town. A free house with pump clips of former glories nailed to the ceilings. Many, many Chesterfields, including a rarely seen double seater that wasn't a sofa. A lovely patio, overlooking the railway viaduct. Most importantly, a very chatty bar-lady, who ensured the conversation flowed between disparate groups of punters.

Three GBG Ticks, but Mappiman says this is the best in town.

Walk Details

Distance - 12.5 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6 (Part 1), Stage 6 (Part 2)