Adventure Lab Caching is a modern day treasure hunt. Armed with an app on a mobile phone, you are guided to locations to answer questions. Each answer adding to your geocaching tally.
What's this got to do with the Best Boozers in the Black Country, you may ask?
Well, a cacher called Signyred (thank you, my friend) has created an ALC that takes you to 5 pubs that they consider the best in an area that is blessed with some crackers.
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Will I agree?
Will you agree?
There's only one way to find out. I masked up for public transport and bought myself a return to Cradley Heath, importantly with a PlusBus Ticket. In terms of distance travelled, this represented the best £3.40 ever spent.
The Crooked House, Himley Road, Staropramen
Might as well get the toughest destination out the way first. This required two buses and a 1m walk, the last half a mile down a dreadful track. Litter strewn, next to the Severn Trent shiteworks and through a lorry park. Motivation to keep plodding provided the amusing signs.
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| Prepare Yourself |
It's a Marstons House. So we are not here for the beer. In fact, they had no cask on at all but after 2 hours on public transport, quality Euro lout from Burton went down a treat.
So, what are we here for? Well, you wouldn't want to miss this curio.
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| The Crooked House is falling down |
It was built as farmhouse in 1765, becoming a pub called Siden House in 1830. In black country dialect, Siden means crooked.
Subsidence has caused the left side of the building to be 4ft lower than the right and the whole thing is saved from collapse by the massive buttress, propping it up. Marbles will run along picture rails uphill, and the curtains hang away from the window frame.
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| The Lounge.... Note the reversed hand pulls. And the window frame. |
£5 minimum card charge and I can confirm that a Staropramen, with Roast Ox chaser, comes in at £5.05.
Taken in the sunshine, but I couldn't hang around. The next one is an afternoon closer.
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| Inappropriate glassware and the first part of my lunch. |
The Beacon Hotel, Bilston Street, Sedgley - Sarah Hughes Surprise and Ruby Mild
The only one of the five that I have not previously visited - so I am grateful to get Good Beer Guide Tick #587.
From this point on, our guide has selected boozers that brew on-site (well, maybe) and the brewery tower here acts as a reference point to know when to ding the diamond bus bell.
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| Plus its at an altitude of 777ft |
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| A Beacon |
Its the inside where the beauty is - a classic pub interior virtually unchanged since creation in 1852. The front snug is separated from the larger rear "smoking" room by a tiny serving hatch where you have to bend down, asking whats on to a lady's midriff and have the beer passed through. Always an optimist, I went for a Sarah Hughes Surprise.
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| 2nd Part of my lunch - and the serving hatch. |
My Untapped check-in receives the following response.
The 'surprise' is that it's not Dark Ruby Mild 😉
— deltrems (@deltrems) September 8, 2021
Well, I couldn't turn down a challenge - even if I thought Milds usually come in around the 3% mark.
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| A dangerously drinkable 6% enjoyed in the "Smoke Room" |
2:25pm and the bell wrung for last orders. Proper old school. A few more photos on the way out.
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| Hatch Close Up |
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| The snug mirror, curse of pub bloggers |
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| In all the excitement, I forgot to take my own external photo - lifted from their web-site |
In the eighties, My Dad used to love the Little Pub Company. Colm O'Rourke would take over a back street pub and ramp up the quirk factor. Amongst the pubs I remember, there was a canal side pub with the bar made from a 30ft barge (the dry dock). There was one called the Little Tumbling Sailor that had a lighthouse... at least 100 miles from the sea. The one nearest to us - the Little Pack Horse - sold Desperate Dan Pies with horns - a tradition they continue here.
All the pubs were similar but unique and certainly conversation starters. The chain was sold in 1998 to Ushers, in a move that was a disaster for the pubs. Some I know have gone - others have returned to a more sedate/traditional pub experience.
The Pie Factory was bought back from Ushers 2 years after the buy out by Colm's former business partner. It keeps the blueprint for what made them successful. I know from experience, its impossible to get in during the evenings, without a booking.
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| Pub with a bath |
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| Dangling Pots and Pans. |
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| Factory Fresh Pies exported to the Civilised World (and Wales) |
My Lumphammer Checkin elicits the response that the beer is no longer brewed on site - a fact that is endorsed by the chalk runner under the handpulls, proudly proclaiming "we now brew all our beer at Dig Brew".
Somewhere else to visit, in the future. I am assuming Digbeth..... but research is required.
Ma Pardoes, Halesowen Road, Netherton, Bumblehole
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| Pure Home Brewed Ales |
Moving on from 1980s kitsch, we move back at least 100 years for an absolute stone cold classic.
The Old Swan was one of only 4 brew-pubs left in the UK when CAMRA formed in 1971... and the advertising claims that they are the purest ales in the borough.
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| Not going to disagree - note the guess your weight m/c |
This is the third time I have been and each experience is different. I always seem to choose a different door and this is the first time I have been in the main front bar - complete with a rare enamel panel ceiling featuring a white swan.
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| Bumblehole - named after a local canal |
And the source is where to drink it.
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| What a Beauty! |
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| The larger room - all punters sunbathing |
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| Bathams Best Bitter |
- PlusBus Passes are great value
- but how did you know where to go without Google Maps?
- (Ruby) Mild needs to be treated with care
- You can survive the day on Cheese and Onion Cobs
- Black Country beers stand comparison with any in the land
- Drinking them at source is best
Brilliant pubs, some of the finest unspoilt ale houses you will find. Stourbridge, Sedgley, Gornal and Dudley have some of the best proper pubs around. Beer, cobs, pork pies and black pudding. Heaven.
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DeleteGreat read & good pubs, but it's a tough call narrowing the list down to 5. I've still got many more trips to make to this area to draw my own conclusions. Happy to see confirmation that you it's possible to survive on cheese and onion cobs, even if my other half insists you can't.
ReplyDeleteHa Ha - I was in the Vine and Great Western in Wolverhampton on much the same fodder! Let me know if you find any other great Black Country pubs and I'll go visit!
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