07/05/26 - Dudley Geological Heritage Trail

Rock and (beef and onion) Roll

My latest West Midlands History Podcast is not really suitable for going on a fact-finding walk for. It concerns the improvement in household living in the Black Country home.

I could have gone to the Back to Back Houses in Birmingham, but have already visited. The Black Country Living Museum falls into the same category, but next door is the free Museum and Art Gallery.

However, it is the listing in Black Country Geosites and there is a Good Beer Guide Tick is up for grabs. A day out is possible.

Would have more apt

I'll look at plastic dinosaurs, instead

I did manage to get all the leaflets I needed for future Black Country Geo-sites walks. Including a heritage trail around Dudley town centre, where 23 interesting rock locations are highlighted. I enjoyed the statues and priory, Poundland and the Halifax less so.

What retirement holds in store for you

Duncan Edwards - the best statue in town

Priory Park is lovely

Nothing says tourist more than a man struggling to unfurl an A1 sized leaflet in a town centre. And Dudley doesn't get many tourists. It was best that I repaired to the unvisited GBG Tick at the Malt Shovel.

Former Banks

Should you be able to zoom in on the external chalk board - it says they do have Real Ale. Not that this was encouraging my fellow lunchtime drinkers, all on Carling. Comfortable enough and my Pictish Brewing Blue Moon was perfect, even if it was from Rochdale, rather than Scotland, as informed by the bar staff.

A cob lunch, perfect.

A two phase lunch

The Fellows is highlighted on my Google Maps as being part of the Holdens chain, but my spider senses were instantly alerted to this being fake news.

Too smart

Online, its still listed. It serves a perfect Golden Glow. And Holdens scratchings. Yet it has been sold and is now an independent concern.

Lunch - Part 2

A walk back to Tipton Train Station (evidence that the future tram extenstion may make getting to Dudley slightly easier). Long closed pubs, ruined vans with repossession notices on the smashed windscreens and celebrations of the local celebraties.

The Tipton Slasher

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 12

Walk Inspiration - West Midlands History Podcast and the Dudley Geological Heritage Trail

06/05/26 - Worcestershire Cakes and Ales - Stage 1 - Martley to Malvern Link

Kid in a Sweetshop 

It's time to start my next challenge. The Worcestershire Cakes and Ales Trail.

This is a 2009 book, that forms part of a trilogy. Other adventures await in Warwickshire and Shropshire. As the name implies, it's a themed walk - a theme of which 50% I wish to take advantage of.

Stage 1 is a great walk - following the Worcestershire Way from Martley to Malvern. I don't get too many photos, as the terrain is mainly through a high ridge of woodland that eventually joins the big hills of Malvern. Ankerdine Hill to Rounds Hill to the Suckley Hills.

That ridge provides most of today's walking

Which is well waymarked

Views, when there are gaps in the trees

For company, I meet Steve. Steve is following the Worcestershire Way. So am I. We walk together until such points that the path has changed from my 25 year old digital edition of the OS Map to his more recent but printed copy. It becomes kind of embarrassing as we shake hands, say our goodbyes only to meet another mile down the trail.

It's as if God had put Steve on my trail for a reason. Steve is a long-distance walker, Chairman of Herefordshire CAMRA, pub owner and train spotter. As Meatloaf said on the 12" version, three out of four ain't bad. We made friends but in true British style, failed to swap contact details for any future adventures.

That would have been weird, wouldn't it?

As the guidebook suggests, refreshment stops are pointed out. Too early for the Admiral Rodney and the Talbot. The New Inn at Storridge is a dead inn.

But fear not - I have a diversion from the guidebook to tick off three unvisited pubs in the suburbs of North Malvern.

One of them, The Malvern Tavern, is a real surprise. I mean a staggering surprise.

I can smell your anti-climax

Well, look how it was during my Google Maps research.

Formerly, the Cross Keys

For context, the pub is located in a quiet backstreet, not on a public transport route and I cannot imagine it gets much passing through-traffic. You have got to want to go there.

Yet its beer offering is as good as anywhere. Cask options that wouldn't embarrass Black Country Ales. A chill room offering a staggering amount of UK Craft and international Keg. Ciders. A future on-site brewery.

Doesn't even list the cask

The young landlord could tell I was an enthusiast through my excitement at finding Hofbrau Dunkel in the Worcestershire Wilds. A long chat ensued, where I determined his modus operandi is that he can drink bottles at home.

My next visit to Malvern may be just to go on an international pub crawl without leaving my seat.

Of course, the next two pubs won't be able to compete. The Prince of Wales has next to no beer - Guinness, Madri and a smooth-pour. I interrupted the landlord's afternoon TV viewing out of a sense of ticking completeness.

After the Lord Mayor's Show

The Retired Soldier has potential for a revisit. A small, quirky pub trying to hide itself away from the street.

Tucked Away

In the interests of conserving anonymity and not being classed as a "disaster tourist", I will say only two things about the pub.

1) They import cider from a Cornish farm and no one believes the published ABV of 6%

2) There was much crying, much consoling, phone calls to the police and some excellent swearing about someone's conduct who wasn't there.

The two things may have been connected.

Walk Details

Distance - 14.5 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - Stage 1 of the Worcester Cakes and Ales Trail

01/05/26 - West Midlands Metro Pub Crawl - Stage 5

It's Later Than You Think

Back on the trail of the closest pubs to West Midlands Tram Stops.

Spawned out of necessity, after I saw a classic CAMRA Heritage Interior Pub was about to close down. This time next week, it will be impossible to visit the Black Eagle again.

Picking up where I left off at West Bromwich Central. AI gets it right.... The Billiard Hall is technically closer, but has already been ticked when I alighted at Dartmouth Street.

Number	Station	AI Recommendation	Actual Nearest
15	West Bromwich Central	The Billiard Hall	The Billiard Hall

The Sandwell is a Craft Union place which took refugees in from the Billiard Room, after it's short hiatus when Wetherspoons pulled out. Undergoing a refit of its own, its not looking the best externally.

Baggies!

It's a cavernous, Cruzcampo "fun pub" inside but most of the entertainment is provided when police and ambulance services are summonsed to the al fresco, afternoon gentlemen sleeper whom I noticed on arrival. A rush to the windows, much conjecture about the reason for blue light activity, until a fly is spotted that needs swatting. Teamwork in action, but the fly survived.

Number	Station	AI Recommendation	Actual Nearest
16	The Hawthorns	The Vine	The Blue Posts

  

My most used tram stop. Revisiting the Vine would not have been a hardship but its not technically the closest. This is a tie - The Royal Oak, my post match go-to pub or the Blue Gates are closer. 

Only one has a blue plaque celebrating the 1965 visit of Malcolm X.

It's a Fee Ouse

Again cavernous but no fly swatting championships. The only entertainment in a sparsely decorated pub are the two pool tables. Apart from that, it's spartan. The only thing of note is the gentlemen who tells me that "I will never forget by first visit to the Blue Gates toilets". My eyes had already started watering. My laugh is met with "They are Grade II listed and nothing can be done".

Drain unblocker may have helped. Or mandatory wellies.

Number	Station	AI Recommendation	Actual Nearest
17	Soho Benson Road	The Soho Tavern	The Soho Tavern

AI gets it correct by about 10m but in the interests of never being able to visit again, I hit the Black Eagle. Another one lost to the CAMRA Real Heritage Pubs book;

Victorian Terrace

Built in 1895, this pub retains much of its original multi-roomed layout along with some attractive old features.

Of the five small rooms here, four are clustered round a central servery. The bar front left has its original counter (incorporating a row of Minton tiles) and bar back and which also serves the tap room on the right. The lounge front right has absorbed the former off-sales; the counter is original but some tiles were damaged and the rest re-used on the rear smoke room counter. The former entrance to this room is blocked up and the fixed seating in front is modern, the rest being original. In the rear smoke room, the counter has been enlarged to the right. The bar back fitting actually consists of what were the exterior windows, removed to create the doorway to the rear dining room (which has no old fittings). On the right are a 1920s fireplace and inter-war fixed seating.

Ever wondered what it would be like drinking in the bar of the Titanic? Conversation runs from the stoic "Everything Changes" to the more morose "I haven't been this upset since Silver Blades closed".

I was asked on Twitter if the closure was permanent?

Sadly, if I was a betting man, I would say "Yes".

Offers have been made on Social Media for the fixtures and fittings

Walk Details

Previous Metro Pub Walks - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Pubs - 3

Total Number of Metro Station Pubs - 17

01/05/26 - Rail Trail - Langley Green to Old Hill, Via Rowley Regis

Walking Backwards for the Waterfall

The official Rail Trails stop at Stourbridge to restart at Shirley. The powers that be decided that there is nothing worth walking on the stations in-between. I know better — and with an OS map and Google Maps with pubs of interest plotted, I fashion something of value from Langley Green to Old Hill.

Going backwards to finally get the Holdens pub tick at the Waterfall. Friday sees standard pub opening hours.

Exiting Langley Green, I find the only "green" space on the map. I should say blue — the 1-mile Titford Canal, reaching a dead end at the M5, which I discover is built on water.

I knew he made rice

The M5 — surprisingly built on water

No avoiding the roads to get back to Old Hill. A plod to ponder why drug dealers wear such obvious uniforms: grey velour tracksuits with designer man bags.

For entertainment, I have the twin activities of finding a barber’s shop and pubs — both old and new.

A repeat visit to The Britannia, at Rowley Regis. Like a ninja, I press the pedestrian crossing to arrive at the exact moment the bolt of the door scrapes open. I’m always a little suspicious of the first pint pulled of the day, but the Bass settled into perfect condition as the pub filled up with workies getting ready for a bank holiday weekend.

Pub and brewery

A monster 22 Pub (Alan Winfield lives!) on Bartrek alerted me to The Last Jar. Conveniently situated opposite a barbers, staffed only by mutes. I wouldn’t have minded, but I had rehearsed the answer to where I was going on my holidays. The pub itself was a former barbers and is now a split-level micropub. An excellent Green Duck Stronghold bitter, flawlessly presented — not a bubble in the glass and a perfect colour.

Micropub ticking in Blackheath

Finally, I time The Waterfall to be open, having previously been forced to walk past on its usual closed afternoons. A long-standing project to visit all their tied pubs gets another tick.

All downhill to the station

Unexpectedly, Bathams is available. I have never seen Holdens in one of their tied pubs. Maintaining brand loyalty, I ordered a Holdens Black Country Special, only to find it required changing — allowing me to have what I really wanted. The friendly landlady assured me the locals say she keeps it better than in the King Arthur.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Previous Stages on the Wyre Valley Line - Worcester to Droitwich, Droitwich to Hartlebury, Hartlebury to Kidderminster, Kidderminster to Hagley, Hagley to Stourbridge, Stourbridge to Cradley Heath, Cradley Heath to Old Hill