06/06/16 - Outer Circle Route 11 - Stage 2 - Selly Oak to Perry Barr

Distance - 8.9 Miles
Geocaches - 6
Pub 1 - The Midland, Bearwood, Wickwar Falling Star
Pub 2 - The Arthur Robertson, Perry Barr, Doombar
First Stage


If Stage 1 was "Leafy", this is going to have to be described as "Earthy".  I am on an urban safari, where you know you are in trouble when Bearwood is the highlight.


Starts off well enough.  In Selly Oak, in the glorious evening sunshine, dodging the CCTV cameras to find Geocaching Treasure in a Sainsbury's car park.  Views of the Queen Elizabeth hospital and university clock tower dominating the skyline.

Yes, that is a Number 11a

Grove Park is my only Green Space today.  The Brummies are out sans shirts, just the way our European Cousins do it.  The park has at least three caches that don't represent too much of a detour.  The heat has rendered the muggles useless at spotting my clandestine hunting.

Grove Park Greenery - Most Welcome

We brush the outskirts of Harborne, a area walked before and where most of the pubs have been investigated.  Highly recommended, beer fans.

There is one consistent motif on this walk and that is the number of dead pubs.  I pass the Old Smithy (A Gibbs Mew Pub Anyone?), The Acorn and a number of others that cannot be identified due to their disheveled state.  For wanton destruction though, the Huntsman at Harborne wins.  Destroyed by fire in 2013.  Blocking Harborne highstreet everytime another bit of it falls off ever since.

Proper Dead Pub

Lordswood Road provides surprisingly quiet walking for a City.  Broad pavements and next to no traffic.  The peace will soon be shattered.

I'm stopping off in Bearwood.  My research has shown that the owners of my local (Black Country Ales) have made their most recent purchase Bearwood's former Midland Bank.

And it's an absolute boster.

13 hand pulled beers with a large notice board showing whats what.  I was going to try for a Wickwar Cotswold Way (having had it before) but selection is futile.  The landlord offers you a sup of his pint (I tried to decline, but when in Rome) and my selection was modified to an equally fine Wickwar Falling Star.

Further investigation of the pub found the door to the old Strongroom, complete with a viewing window, where they now keep the barrels for dispensing.  An interesting diversion, but I for one, don't want the magic to be ruined.

A crowd that can only be described as "eclectic" made a passing stranger feel welcome.  I will be back one day.

Post HSBC - The rebirth of the High Street

I wished upon a Wickwar Falling Star

Half way through the walk, fortified by fine Ale, I hit the mean streets of Birmingham.  The arrow straight City Road will offer no memories apart from taking me into the increasing bad lands of Winson Green, Handsworth and ultimately, the worse of the lot, Perry Barr.

Winson Green is famous for the prison.  This was the safest I felt, as all the bad guys are neatly locked up.

Now HMP Birmingham

The rest of it was a blur of "Street" activities.  Gangs of youths hanging around on corners.  Souped up cars pumping loud music and performing a variety of stunts, mostly wheel spinning out of side roads.  Eyes fixed front, pace increased to 3.75 MPH and camera left deep in my pocket.  Nothing to see here.

Perry Barr is where it ends.  Refreshment is provided by a Wetherspoons that won't be bothering CAMRA's Heritage Pubs of the Midlands book anytime soon, regardless of how they have made it look like a Gentlemen's drinking club on the inside.

Cask Marquee and in a Shopping Centre

I'm not going to knock it.  I knew I would get a decent pint and value for money meal and at least the toilets were clean.  Well, apart from the traps.

The one thing I will object to is chance to read the "Facts about the Referendum, from both sides".  My Dad told me never to argue Politics or Religion in pubs.  If an aging, mulleted man came up to me at a bar spouting his views, I would quickly move on.  So therefore, I don't think it is right that I should be bombarded with beer mats telling me Brexit is the way forward.

Sloganeering

Refreshment over, I head to the bus stop wondering whether Milan, Paris and Munich will miss Perry Barr.  Mind is made up when the drunkest man I have ever seen in public, brandishing a half finished bottle of Rose, demands a cigarette from me.

We are drinking wine, alfresco.

We must be Europeans.