29/01/22 - Scafell Pike and Lingmell. Recovery at the Wasdale Head Inn.

Distance - 6.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

A friend with a significant birthday and his desire was to be the highest man in England.

2010 was the last time I walked it - from Seathwaite - can I still do it my fifties? We pick the quickest route, from the Wasdale Head Inn. Hopefully, this will come in handy later in the day.

The drive there was as spectacular as the length. Avoiding Hardknott Pass, we ended up on the Cumbrian Coast through Muncaster.  5 hours. We could have made it to Edinburgh.

At 10:30am, we start walking.  I use this term in the loosest possible sense of the word.  The only time we are not climbing up, we are heading down. A few other hardy souls are out in Storm Mallik (wind, rather than rain), including a family of four. During one of our many breathers, my mate with the significant birthday is given inspiration from a 10 year old girl.  She assures him is "doing really well and to keep going".  

A mantra for life, if I ever heard one.

Our route?  Lingmell Gill and up Brown Tongue, past Hollow Stones and across the boulder field to Scafell Pike summit. Where it is too cold to stop for all of our sandwiches. Have you tried to chew a frozen ham bap?  For variety, we drop down and up to Lingmell, providing my first new Wainwright since the start of the first lockdown in 2020. The descent from Lingmell is easy to navigate but so, so steep. My thighs - which have ordered walking poles from the internet this morning - are not sure whether its easier going up or down.

Here are the photos;

View from a car window, as we reach Wast Water

Only fools would purposely leave this pub behind

Somewhere near the top of Scafell Pike

Descending from Lingfell

Mappiman Geocaching on Lingfell

We can see the pub from here!  A hellish descent from Lingmell

4pm when we arrive back at the pub... all of us walking like John Wayne after a particularly lengthy cattle drive.

The Wasdale Head Inn is a classic mountaineering pub and perfect for a single night, which you spend amongst people with the same interests as yourself. They may be better at the mountaineering but I can give them a run for their money at the bar.

Former Farmhouse

Cumbrian Humour

The Parlour

Three hand pulls are on.  Initially, I hadn't realised that the Great Corby Brewhouse was Cumbrian, rather than Northamptonshire based.  All three were in superb condition and I think the landlord knows to avoid people replenishing lost body fluids with anything stronger than 4.5%.  

Wasdale a rebranding Corby Ale?  A 3.8% session bitter

The food was the type of pub grub in epic proportions that was needed after "walking" for 6 miles at an average speed of 1 mile per hour.  Fish and Chips labelled the "Wasdale Whale".

23/01/21 - The Swan, Birlingham

Distance - 6.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, September 2015, Walk 8

Good Beer Guide Tick - #647

Completing a Good Beer Guide County gets a step closer.  It won't be long before I am reaching for the green Stabilo pen.

Getting to the stage in Worcestershire, where I need to look on the map to find the locations.  Birlingham is a tiny hamlet to the south of Pershore- lying close to the River Avon. The reference material is consulted and a 6 mile, figure of 8 walk can be developed from a Country Walking Magazine route.

The walk is simple - pick up the Avon at a tight bend called "Swan Neck".  Eckington Bridge - Grade II 1720s ancient monument - is the fulcrum point of the figure of 8. We pass it once as we circumnavigate the nameless flood plains and again as return inland from Eckington village.  All under the shadow of Bredon Hill.

Eckington Bridge - seen twice on this walk

Bredon Hill from the River Avon

Back to the pub, 15 minutes earlier than our booked time for Sunday lunch.  And booking was essential - there is just a single sitting left free for the entire Sunday Lunch period.  

Mappiman getting Good Beer Guide Tick #647

Everything was impeccable.  The service, including a lovely greeting on arrival.  Even when donning a rubbish bobble hat that had slipped uncomfortably into BoJo territory.  A full menu along with the roast.  Unusually, just a single roast choice - Pork  - from a farm in the the next village along, Defford.  It was fantastic.

Beer - two LocALEs on - from Goff and Teme Valley breweries.  A previous Untappd reviewer of my chosen "That" made be chuckle with their review;

If twigs and branches had a flavour, this would be it. More traddy stuff this.

I disagreed - it tasted as good as it looks.

Lovely to see a pub doing things well and being rewarded with plenty of customers.

22/01/22 - A Wolverhampton Ring - Stage 2 - Bushbury to Compton

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 4 - Good Beer Guide Ticks #643-646

Previous Stage

Oh the irony!  My plan was to get back on the Heart of Wales Line walk - but a travel check revealed that there were rail replacement services from Llandrindod Wells. 

Not wishing to make things more complex than they need to be, I head back on the rails for the next stage of the Wolverhampton Ring.  Where the journey home - 19 miles - takes 3.5hours on Public transport due to a signalling failure that wipes out all Kidderminster bound trains for 24 hours.

England is starting to appear a little 3rd world.

I do manage to get to Bushbury - North Wolverhampton - with just the 1hour delay.  An 11am start meaning that all planned pubs will be open by the time I reach them.

This stretch is more urban than stage 1. A couple of miles of housing estates until I reach the Staffordshire/Worcestershire canal.

Crossing the Canal

This canal wins the prize for having the most distant tow path, as I work my way south to Autherley Junction.  More housing estates and the OS Map markers have detailed in their historical font a dovecote.  At ground zero, it's not so easy to determine what they are on about.

GPS Arrow Bang on the first "e" of "Dovecote"

There is a C17th round brick building, if you look hard enough.  I wasn't hanging around to take more photos.

A golf course and the delightful village feel of Stockwell End and I pick up the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve.  A choice between canal or railway line walking can be made.  Or a bit of both, if you cross the very American looking rail bridge.

Smestow Valley Walk

6 miles and I'm at Compton.  I can't help but think I will regret bailing out on the walk at this point, but there is much Good Beer Guide Ticking to complete.

The Swan, Bridgnorth Road, Compton - Wainwright

1780 Coaching House

Firstly, I am initially surprised that Marstons ever trouble the Good Beer Guide.  Banks Amber, Wainwright and Sunbeam - the choice here - are hardly setting the beer world on fire.  Places like this will make me re-consider.  I don't think I have ever had such a good Wainwright.

Was that a pint?  There was no Pedigree

Certainly a bar for banter.  I am joined in my corner alcove by a former sailor and a man that pays £68 every 6 weeks to have his cockapoo groomed.

I just have to keep my wits about me as to what I reveal about myself.

Deep in Bandit Country

Chindit, Merridale Road, Wye Valley HPA

With not a single person in the front bar, the lights off, I thought the pub was closed.

Door ajar, a sign of life

There is a lounge to the back.  Four people inside and from the conversations, I think 3 lived here.  Difficult to review when it felt like I had burst into someones living room and demanded refreshments at the swoosh of my plastic.

Royal Oak, Newton Street, Marstons Sunbeam

The Royal Oak

Another locals pub, but unlike the Chindit, packed.  I think a football team were in for post training recovery.

I'd noticed that everyone in the Swan was drinking Sunbeam - so gave this a first try.  Again, local CAMRA had got it right.  It was in perfect condition.

Combermere Arms, Chapel Ash, Timothy Taylor Landlord

The final place actually took some finding - and I don't think I can wholly blame it on being 3 pints in.

Its on a main road.  Google maps was telling me I was right in front of it.  It looks more house than pub.

Clue available, side on.  Grade II listed

The landlord looks at me like I am a bit of mentalist when I mention this to him at the small bar in the front room.  Two other tiny rooms to explore and to avoid eavesdropping, I head to the back room for splendid isolation.

Then I can look at horror with what I have been served.  I am a veteran of 57 Landlord Untappd Checkins and I've not had one looking like this before.

Not so sure.

It did taste OK, otherwise I would have enhanced my nutter reputation by trying to get it changed.

Instead, there is a conversation starter in the gents.  

A still sprouting tree

A unique feature?  A direct twitter quiz message to @NHS_Martin and he came back with the answer before I had finished battling the Landlord.

16/01/21 - The Barnes Trail

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - Andrew Duncan's Walking Village London

Pubs - 3

I'd forgotten that the Hammersmith Bridge is still closed the road traffic.  With infrequent Sunday trains - that at one point were not even running due to engineering works - it's a complex journey on tube and bus that involves getting lost in Hammersmith.

Psychogeograpgy at its finest, when you are going around in circles looking for the bus stop and find the Rik Mayall bench from the opening credits of Bottom.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Eventually, I find my way to Barnes Bridge.  

The walk is very simple, back alleys through cottages that wouldn't look out of place in a Cornish fishing village. The green spaces of Barnes Common - following metal disc markers labelled Barnes Trail. Bumping into celebs - Dan Snow and his grandfather walking in the opposite direction. A short section of the Thames Path and than back past the wetlands centre, where I am delivered to the pubs.

Barnes Common

Short Section of the Thames Path

First up is the Fullers House - The Red Lion.  Packed to the rafters inside with family diners. Despite the large garden, with pod shelters, I decided that I had been in enough Red Lions this weekend. This was the 3rd.

An ESB Shunned

Opposite the Duck Pond is the Sun Inn.... aged, venerable and I meet the same fete. No space inside, but the sun is shining and I can't pass by two, for I will be saddled with a fussy reputation. Northern Monk Eternal Session IPA tasting and looking like squash in the sunshine.

Handsome Pub - The Sun

Northern Monk Catching the Daylight

Indoors success at the former coaching house aptly named the Coach and Horses. All tables are reserved at particular times in the near future - so I couldn't settle in for my Sunday lunch. A shames, as I could have set a new European and Commonwealth record as the most expensive Sunday lunch ever purchased.  

£19.

Seemed popular enough though.

Coach and Horses - Exterior

Coach and Horses - Interior

I'd not visited Barnes before, but I am sure those that have will know the best pub is coming up.

What a joy the Watermans Arms is.   A very impressive range of Cask and Keg.  A distinctively beautiful pub inside and out. Check out the 1st floor balcony, which is certainly where I will be aiming for on my next visit.  Excellent service and a more reasonably priced lunch.

A real cracker - and although I know the beer would have been excellent in the Red Lion, I'd certainly swap the two over in the Good Beer Guide.

Lovely inside.....

..... and out

The Bulls head adjacent, but no time. The once an hour train to Waterloo is about to depart.

Heading into the Sunset after a successful visit

15/01/21 - Wapping and Limehouse Pub Crawl

More work to be done in Wapping/Limehouse. I know the classics - Town of Ramsgate, Prospect of Whitby and so on but my new Facebook Group - London Pubs - has been recommending a couple of locals only boozers that are slightly off the tourist track.

A decent little pub crawl can be developed - but with hindsight, I maybe wouldn't have started at Westferry DLR. The Grapes was a little too far away from the others.

The Grapes, Narrow Street, Timothy Taylor Landlord

Much written about, much visited. Google will return it as the answer to "Which pub does Gandalf own?" before you have finished the sentence.

Stone Cold Classic

There are photos of Sir Ian McKellen both pouring pints and more interestingly, running the pub quiz.

Which must be quite a sight to behold.

7pm on a Saturday night and its heaving to the point of stupidity.  I know where the best seat in the house is.... a little wooden terrace out the back, with possibly the finest view from a London Pub.  The Founders Arms may wish to protest.

But they don't have a Gormley

The Dockers, 97 Wapping Lane, Camden Hells

This is the first of the non-tourist pubs that I have planned to visit.  Solid looking from the outside, but over modernised inside - complete with American Diner style booths along the front window.

The Dockers

They were setting up for a 30th Party.  I asked if I was in the way, but found myself invited along.

Looked like it was going to get messy - and a handily place Indian with good Tripadvisor reviews is positioned next door.  Not a patch on what we have in the West Midlands but the only other customer was from just down the road from me.  Alvechurch.

Happy Birthday in the Dockers.

Turners Old Star, Watts Street, Southwark Brewing Route Master Red

The post on the Facebook page is the reason I am here.  For this is where the fight scene in the Krays Film, the Legend was filmed.  Do not click on the link if you are upset by violence.  Or bad language.  Or unrealistic dialogue.  

You can see why the location scouts chose it. It still maintains a very authentic feel as a locals pub - when all around, nearly everything has been gentrified or modernised.  

The Taylor Walker regalia is still displayed externally.

Reminding me of Coach and Horses in Soho

Inside, a huge open plan room, so that all the cockney's voices can carry.  Not that they need much help.  When one man claims he still buys 34" trousers, the rest of the pub to a lady shout "Faaaaackkk off" at him.

Minimum purchase on a card is £5 and with £4.20 pints, the landlady has a cunning way of making you stay for 2.

34" waist man through the chair

As I leave, one of the lads playing pool tells his group that this is the pub where they filmed that Krays film.  To which his mates reply was "Yeah, it was shite, weren't it".

Captain Kidd, Wapping High Street, Sam Smiths Stout

Its finally happened.  I have found a Sam Smiths that I like.   Not totally fair, as I have a soft spot for some of the more historical ones - Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and The Angel in Rotherhithe - but at the moment, they are not being well run in the capital.  Often out of draught beer and now quite expensive, when compared with their own reputation.

Incredibly, I've never been to this warehouse conversion before.  This is possibly because it doesn't look like a pub from the outside.  Entry, via a little alleyway - complete with a noose hanging over the door.

Noose - just inside.

No mistaking it as not a pub inside - even if its not as old as the others in the area.  Converted a couple of decades ago.

Pub Like

Like the Grapes, it benefits from a spectacular riverside view.  Its just that 4 pints in, my photography skills are waning.

Unfocused pint.  Post in the way of Canary Wharf

Town of Ramsgate, Wapping High Street, Harvey's Sussex Best

Next to Wapping Old Stairs

This is the pub that should scream about its historical associations - which have mostly been stolen by the other pubs in the area.

The Prospect of Whitby claims that Judge Jeffries was captured in its cellar - when in fact, it was on Wapping Old Stairs next to this pub.

The previously visited Captain Kidd hangs it's noose to support the claim it was the site of Execution Dock - when again, in reality, it was much nearer this place.

But when you have a Landlord who dresses like Tender Prey era Nick Cave and you serve the best pint of the evening, maybe you don't have to self promote as much.

A(nother) stunning Harveys.

With the stop for the 100 bus to St Pauls right outside - this made a fitting place to call the crawl to and end.

15/01/22 - London Spiral Walk - Stage 3

 Distance - 6 Miles

Start - Hoxton Square

Finish - Archway Premier Inn

Areas Walked - Shoreditch, Hoxton, De Beauvoir Town, Highbury, Finsbury Park, Crouch Hill

Geocaches - 0

Pubs - 3

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2

The problem with doing a 260 mile walk, in ever expanding circles across London City, is there are too many distractions.

Picking up from the end of Stage 2 at Hoxton, my plan was to get at least as far as Kilburn (10m) or possibly Chelsea (12m).  Instead, I got distracted by Finsbury Park Pubs.

Hoxton Square was quiet on a Saturday morning.  The blue plaques pointing to its edgy reputation but the street market is as working class as you can get.  First stop of the day at a Paula's Cafe - a place with a bewildering choice of breakfasts.  Take your choice between Big, Full, Set1 running to at least Set 4. 

Proper Londoners, incredulous that Arsenal are crying off tomorrow's big game.

Hoxton Edge

The Street Market

I've never been to De Beauvoir Town before.  Its starts off as a collection of high rises but the architecture improves increasingly the further north you get.  Those sorts of solid Georgian Terraces that politicians are being doorstepped by photographers at.  

The London Spiral does what it does best - psychogeopraphy of a series of left and right turns, pounding the streets and looking for street art.

Street Art

One of the better on-line resources I have found in recent months is a Facegroup Page called "London Pubs".  Never short of inspiration and it goes a little further than what the Good Beer Guide recommend.  Proper pubs, with atmosphere.  There are four on interest at Finsbury Park.  I have a cunning plan to save money and time, by drinking halves.  

First up, is the Arsenal Tavern.  There's a number of pubs that show their allegiance to the Gunners along this stretch.  Not really noticed that in other towns.  I am sure that if this happened in West Bromwich, they would just be a target to away fans.  

My half pint plans initially thwarted by Timothy Taylor.  

Arsenal Tavern

I did look at the 12 Pins directly opposite the station but that wasn't for me.  It looked half closed and inside was too chain-y, with an uninspiring drinks selection.

However, around the corner was the Faltering Fullback.  This keeps coming up on the facebook page as a destination pub.  The people are right - even if CAMRA aren't interested.

Slightly off the main track, it appears to not want to be found.  Hidden under natural camouflage.

Half Pub, Half Kew Gardens

And there is the door

Inside, its all things to all people.  A lovely couple of divided rooms around a central bar.  The roof covered in all sorts of junk.  A cavernous extension with rows of bench seats all pointed at sports big screens.

Very easy to get into conversations with the regulars and other pub tourists.

I could have stayed all afternoon, except the TT Landlord was £5.70.   25% more than the Arsenal.

2nd Bar

Plenty to look at between conversations.

A proper pub.

Got to give CAMRA a go and the only place they are recommending is the Brave Sir Robin. With a name like that I was convinced it was a JDW but no, it's a hipster craft bar that is sadly lacking customers on a Saturday lunch.  I would be surprised if it is still trading in its current format in 12 months time.

One cask - A Stout.  Many Keg. Takeover kitchen, offering Artisan burgers.  Distressed decor.  

Nowhere near as homely, interesting or pub-like as the Faltering Fullback. Although the prices are in the same ball park.

Brave Sire Robin

GBG says "Best Described as Modern Decor"

It's less than a couple of miles of street walking to Archway - which is where my Premier Inn is located and far too tempting to pass on by.

Its cold and Hampstead Heath can be saved for Stage 4.