12/04/17 - Fox Inn, Monkwood Green

Distance - 2 Miles
Walk Inspiration - 100 Walks in Hereford and Worcestershire, Walk 2

You've got to hand it to those CAMRA Members.  They leave no stone unturned in the quest for the outlets selling the perfect pint.

We're on an expeditition to track down an intriguing Good Beer Guide Entry - The Fox Inn, Monkwood Green.

We've walked hard over Worcestershire for 13 years, and I don't even know where Monkwood Green is.  The journey here involved following sat navs down country lanes.  We knew we were in trouble when the lanes had long grass growing up he middle.

Trouble was confirmed when we hit a no prior warning, fixed barrier across a narrow single track lane.  The long reverse started off scary.  Ended up boring.

But still, we got there and some woodland offered the opportunity to work up a thirst.  Monkwood Reserve is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and given over to the British Butterfly Conservation Society.   There are footpaths through it - some open 364 days of the year, so as not to turn into public footpaths.  Its not Feb 01, so we are good to go for a bimble.

The walk is straightforward, following mainly broad paths although one did taper down to a jungle and would have got a tripadvisor rating of 1, if Mrs M was allowed to rate walking routes.

The Entrance to the SSSI

The Good Path

The Green where the pub is.  The Malverns.

Having not seen a single butterfly, we repair to the pub.

The Fox Inn, Monkwood Green, Wye Valley Butty Bach

A whopping 9/10 on BeerintheEvening.com.  Worth a read of the recent reviews, and I rather enjoyed this one.

This is a lovely traditional pub - however our visit was marred by an incredibly arrogant and rude barman - if he had not starting pouring our drinks we would have walked out of there. Initially he blanked us (I can only assume as we were not locals) he then completely ignored my girlfriend when she asked him the name of the pubs dog - the second time she asked the question he then told us the dog was called Terry, my girlfriend continued to fuss the dog, until we later found out that he was called Jojo, and he had just lied to us - for no reason whatsoever (the barman not the dog)

On approach, we could hear the dog barking.  Inquiries on it's handle were made and we would not have settled for Terry.  It wasn't Jojo either.

We were met by a gaggle of smokers (seemingly smoking is compulsory here), who greeted us pleasantly.

Smokers by the porch, other side of hedge.  With Terry/Jojo

We were surprised by the amount of cars outside, so shouldn't have been surprised by the amount of people inside.  7pm on a Wednesday night and the place is heaving.   How can somewhere so remote be so packed?  There is another boozer 1/2 a mile away, similarly remote, closed down.

The pub cannot have changed for centuries.  All hard wooden pews/tables.  A monster log burner (inexplicably on in Spring), adorned with top mounted fans to waft the heat around.   Our favourites of the many knick knacks were the wall mounted heads of stoats in the main bar.  We are from the big city of Stourport, so up front apologies to our country chums.  They may have been weasels.

The beer was exceptional.  I'm a regular Wye Valley Butty Bach drinker and this was as good as I have ever tasted it.

Stoaty/Weasals on other side.  Note the fan assisted log burner.

So a successful trip.  Hats off to Worcester CAMRA for first finding, then recommending such an isolated but Good Beer Serving little piece of history.

It's an adventure simply getting there.