26/02/22 - The Lost and Found Pubs of Thornbury

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 20 and 2 Adventure Lab Caches

Local cache trails are running out but South Gloucestershire's Thornbury looks a hot bed of geocaching activity.

Three goals for today:

Goal 1: A trail of 20 Traditional Geocaches based on Premier League Teams

A decent ramble from the Munday Playing Fields, where muggle activity forced me into doing the round in reverse.  Well maintained caches, each with a Panini Sticker of the appropriate club on the log book.  I would like to say I made  clean sweep of it but 1xDNF, Ixfail to solve a puzzle cache and 1x "Multi Did Not Attempt as I was probably going in the wrong direction" meant it was a Vauxhall Conference effort from Mappiman.

Geocaching Terrain

With the Baggies languishing, I have to bring you a picture of enemy insignia

Goal 2: Adventure Lab Caches

The town has two ALC's - one explaining the history and one explaining the lost pubs.  I do love a bit of pub archaeology, so this held more than the usual level of interest.  The sites were sequential and more or less shared between the two ALCs - so they were run simultaneously.  Took some effort in flipping between puzzles in the App but I got there.  Importantly, without bumping into other pedestrians or getting run over.

Centre of Thornbury - with a Dead Pub to the left - The White Hart now the Natwest

History Today

Goal 3: The Anchor Inn - Good Beer Guide Tick #652

On the road out of town was the sole Good Beer Guide Tick in the 2022 version of the Bible.  A food led pub, located on the way back to the motorway.

Good Choice of Proper Job, Courage Directors and a chosen Landlord.

A fellow pub ticker tweeted the pet hates for pubs that he was experiencing in Portsmouth.  These included prams blocking access, random piles of logs and cushions.  I replied that I had all of these, plus a special table reserved for the sale of cake.

Still, a fine fishfinger sandwich and a good Timothy Taylor meant it wasn't all bad.

The Greek themed specials menu - complete with Greek flag bunting - looked interesting.

I'm kicking myself now that I didn't check for gyros.

Licenced from 1695

Kids... Prams... Logs.... Cake Table!

 

19/02/22 - London Spiral Walk - Stage 4

Distance - 8 Miles

Start - Archway

Finish - Anglesea Arms, Selwood Terrace, South Kensington 

Areas Walked - Archway, Hampstead Heath, Belsize, Kilburn, Maida Vale, Bayswater, Knightsbridge

Geocaches - 5 and an Adventure Lab Cache

Pubs - 3

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3

A wonderful stretch of the London Spiral walk, showing off London in all it's diversity. 24 hours either side, I wouldn't have made it - a chance to peruse the damage from yesterdays Storm Eunice and before Storm Franklin bored us with more of the same.

The trail resumes at Archway and a stiff climb up Highgate Hill, across Waterlow Park and through a remarkable gated estate.  The views from Swains Lane, as spectacular as those from Primrose Hill. I was tempted to spark up purple bricks, which probably updates property value in real time.

London, sprawling out below Swains Lane

The target is Hampstead Heath - Londoners are so lucky.  As well as the theatre, the history and the pubs they have pockets of proper walking country on their doorstep.

Amongst the Storm Eunice Survivors

Hampstead Village is as pretty as ever and it's to the walks benefit that I arrive before the pubs open.  There would have been breaks aplenty at Wells Tavern, The Flask and one of my favourites, the Holly Bush.  I'll save that for a pub crawl and today, just admire the architecture around Frognal Way.

After all this glory, its unspectacular urban walking through Finchley, Kilburn and Paddington.  Working out how to get under the Westway is tricky with an AZ Map but when the path is found, it reveals it's surprises.

Every Inch of London is used

Its full waterproofs on when I reach Kensington Gardens and probably not the weather to be completing an Adventure Lab Cache.  A non direct route across, taking in the Peter Pan statue, Italian Gardens and edifices to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Italian Gardens

Albert Memorial - the end of today's route

The walkings not over, but its the end of this stage of the London Spiral.   Pubs to be found in this corner of Knightsbridge, Brompton and Chelsea.  But which one will win the Mappiman "How Much?" award for liquid piracy?

Queens Arms, Queens Gates Mews, Landlord, Good Beer Guide Tick #650

A hidden treasure in one of those enviable mews streets.  It's a beauty in pastel blue.

Queens Arms, SW7

8 handpulls on and I have plenty of time to see whats on offer.  The only free tables have reserved signs on.  Apart from a strip along the window, this is not a pub for drinkers.

Never get past the Landlord, regardless of the alternatives

The only place for me is to lean at the bar, getting in the way of grumpy looking bar staff, setting tables and delivering pies to the genteel pub goers of South London.

One toddler starts crying and sets off the others.  

Good beer guide always full of surprises.  Today, I got to drink in a posh creche.

Bunch of Grapes, Brompton Road, Beavertown Neck Oil

Bunch of Grapes

As well as hunting our Good Beer Guide Pubs, I've also been working my through the 12 pubs that Len Deighton recommended in his 1960s guide book, London Dossier.  This is the penultimate one - in a little over two years.  Not bad, when you consider the many lockdowns.  And storms.

In the main, I have agreed with Len's choice but this is the one that breaks the rule.  Len liked it because it served Holstein Lager.  Its now a Green King pub that sadly, doesn't stock anything other than their standard cask.

Avoid, Avoid

The ornate mirrors and central bar are still present but this is an identikit pub that won't last long in the memory.

Anglesea Arms, Selwood Terrace, Landlord, Good Beer Guide Tick #651

I've failed to get a table at the last too - and things aren't too promising for lunch in this hidden away boozer in the backstreets of Chelsea. If indeed Chelsea has backstreets. Another stand at the bar but I do ask if I can order a sandwich whilst vertical.

Really, I should have been sitting down when I swiped my plastic. The Starling Bank instant notification telling me a cheese toastie and a pint is £18 in these parts.  

I now know why they have a daytime bouncer.

To stop people leaving without paying.

Nice enough pub - but surprisingly for a GBG pub, just the one cask available.  But they do know how to keep the Timothy Taylor Landlord.

Anglesea Arms, SW7

12/02/22 - Centenary Way - Stage 7 - Sutton Stop

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 5

Pub - The Greyhound, Sutton Stop

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6

I am meant to be walking the Centenary Way on monthly jaunts into Warwickshire. 12 months in and I am on Stage 7.  This tells its own story on the quality of the rambling but things are improving. This leg is a solid 6/10.  Two of those points granted as it starts from a cracking pub, a stalwart of the Good Beer Guide.

The Greyhound Pub sits where the Coventry and Oxford Canal merge. Tiny inside, not helped by the fact it is so popular.  Since my last visit, a Covid Crime Tent has been added to the exterior, so at least you can enjoy your Bass in some degree of comfort. A 3 sausage, all day breakfast known as "the morning glory" is a fine post walk accompaniment to the rustling of tent flaps.  

The Greyhound, Sutton

I am, of course, getting ahead of myself.  This is the reward after the walk, where I head SE on the Oxford canal.  Ansty - a two pub village, where a quite stark choice between "community" and "gastro" is my complicated exit from the canal.  I have to walk under the M69 to find the road bridge and then double back on myself to continue. Noonhill Farm not allowing the rambler to share their more convenient bridge.

Ansty is Stage 8 Startinig point - will I go "Community"

Or Gastro....

The route back follows the Coventry Way - an interesting Circular walk around the City that can also be broken down into a series of day walks.  It's on the list... dependent on post HS2 disruption.

Its decent paths through agricultural fields to the intriguingly named hamlet of Barnacle.  A little bit of pub detective work is required.  The OS Map has the big blue cup of joy, but the pub has long gone.  Through Google Street Map and when at GZ, I was unable to determine the building that housed the pub.  Internet based searches suggest was called the Red Lion.  Practically no information to be found, least of all a photograph.

A Coventry Way - 40 Miles, through 21 Circular Walks

Spot the ex-Pub in Barnacle

The Coventry Canal is picked up where I left it at Stage 6 - Coalpit Fields - and a few geocaches keep me entertained until I meet the point where the two waterways meet.

The View from a table laded with draught Bass

06/02/2022 - The Phelips Arms, Montacute

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 6

Walk Inspiration - 40 Town and Country Walks in Somerset, Walk 40

The first thing that strikes you in Montacute is how gorgeous the buildings are.  All the same shade of honey, built from Hamstone.  This short, yet super energetic walk, takes in the quarry where the stone is sourced.  

Montacute - giving the Cotswolds a run for it's money

More architectural splendour

Uphill along Hollow Lane to the lost Medieval village of Witcombe.   Then its hill forts all the way, paths both under and over the ramparts, with the occasional views through the trees.

War Memorial, Hamdon Hill Country Park

Reasonably sure this is Stoke Sub Hamdon

Even a chance for mid walk refreshment - with the Prince of Wales right in the middle of the hills forts and get this, an 8am opener.  People enjoying their cider at 11am on a Sunday sounds almost illegal.

Prince of Wales - right on top of the Hill

I'm saving myself for the Good Beer Guide Tick - a rarity in this part of the world, as last nights pub crawl in Yeovil will testify to.  All I need to do is circle St Michael's hill, with its odd tower and disappearing paths of precipitous proportions.

No photography awards for this blog

I've timed it perfectly for the Phelips Arms.  

The one and only Phelips Arms in the land

12:03pm and through the front door to be greeted by the smells of today's three meat carvery - served from a kiosk directly opposite the entrance.  But its not only food fans that are catered for here.... its been a while since I have had the option of Palmers Beers.... a brewery synonymous with Dorsert/Somerset.  I first discovered their wares in Glastonbury and very quickly booked a holiday in Bridport.  Mainly, so that I could ram-raid the brewery shop.

Today's beery experience made even more special from the best seat in the house - the Chesterfield smack bang in front of the log burner.

Dorset Gold

05/02/2022 - Yeovil Pub Crawl

Pubs - 6

The first person to speak to me was a one legged man, wheeling himself along the main shopping street.  "Want some perfume mate?  Tenner each or two for Twenty".

I probably should have done my research before deciding on Yeovil as a location for a Beery Adventure.

One of many amusing TA reviews of a place visited tonight but whose identity will be protected.

Even the Daily Mirror is on the hate.... branding the JDW the ugliest pub in Britain.

Not too shabby at a certain angle, in a certain light.

The Good Beer Guide has a single entry - The Quicksilver Mail - an old inn on the outskirts of town.  I visited after my walk and found a massive coaching house, serving a reasonable Butcombe Original.  The view from the car park was unworthy of a photo and there was just the wrong amount of people inside for internal photos.

So, we move onto the evening crawl.

The Pall, Silver Street, Stella Artois

Closing stages of Scotland vs. England on the TV screens meant this was a hive of boisterous shouting about a game that I will never understand.

Beer, I do.   And it wasn't going to be a Speckled Hen.

Pall Tavern

Everyone on Guinness.. didn't look the place to trust Cask

Plus points.... a barn of an Indian Restaurant next door.   Negative Points..... where they charge 50p for each poppadom pickle tray.  Even the horrible one, that no-one touches. 

The next pub on the list was actually a rarity - one I walked on past.  The Westminster looked like a fun pub on the Magaluf strip.  Bright lights.  Loud Music.  Dancing.   At 8pm.

The Westminster.  A Fun Pub.

The Manor, Hendford, Cragganmore

The Manor

From my limited research, this was highlighted as the prettiest pub, externally.  Sure enough, it was a handsome hotel, with a large conservatory, drinking area and restaurant.  Free range toddlers causing me anxiety when they go walkabout.   At what point do you involve yourself?  When they leave the room?  When they get to the front door?

At least whisky doesn't last long.

Stay away from the IPA, said the Abbot

The Butchers Arms, Hendford, Butcombe Original

Easily the pick of the places, although not without it's idiosyncrasies.

A Proper Pub

There are a lot of signs telling you what not to do.  "Do not mess with the ornaments" - next to a window sill full of ornaments.  But they the one they fiercely protect is "Do not put logs on the fire".

After being unfazed by a cash only bar and taking a very good Butcombe Original to a table in front of the fire, the landlady comes out and demands to know who has placed a log on there.  I explain that I've only just arrived and it was like it when I got here.  She heads back through the door behind the bar.  I have the feeling she was not 100% convinced by my alibi.

A group of very drunk Scotland Rugby fans come in.  After a rousing and much appreciated rendition of Flower of Scotland (genuinely - they were very tuneful), one of them notices the fire is dying out.

Don't touch the logs - I very nearly shout.  But too late.   Two are placed on, and the fire picks up.

Now we've got entertainment!

Within ten minutes, the landlady is out and stares into the flames.  You can probably guess what happened and you'd be right, except you probably don't appreciate the size of her husband.  Summonsed as a peace keeper/enforcer, he explained that "this is a family pub and you leave the logs alone".

Amazing how quickly you can get through three pints, when there is a frisson of drama. 

Crown and Globe, South Street

I should have ended on a high, but this huge former coaching house was on the way back to Lenny's Purple Palace.

San Miguel the only option.

The old man, barking and shouting at himself showing me the Ghost of Mappiman Future.

I did not notice any ants

05/02/2022 - Bring me the head of Theophilus Broome

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 10

Walk Inspiration - Walks in Mysterious Somerset, Walk 25

Spooky Somerset goings on.  A weekend away, based on the story of a screaming skull from the English Civil War. 

The Roman Town of Ilchester provides the start for my walk, providing the following;

• Free Parking
• Cafe Opposite the car park - Full English, toast and tea, £8
• Two pubs.  

The walk follows the Monarch's Way and Leland Trail.  Dull agricultural fields on the way out and skirting the edge of the Naval Air Station at Yeovilton.  Criss Crossing the River Yeo, provided you are prepared the ignore the "Dangerous Bridge" signs.  The locals certainly are.  All fencing pulled down.

Path Markings

Yeovilton Naval Air base

It's Chilton Cantelo that we need to rush to - for this is the resting place of Theophilus.  If you haven't watched all the YouTube video, the Church has an information sign in the porch.  Alas, the door was locked, so I cannot bring you a photo of where the majority of him lies.

St James Church - Chilton Cantello

Church promoting superstition

My guide book is 23 years old and suggests if you want to view the skull, you can write in advance (and enclose an SAE) to the owners of Higher Farm. I can't imagine that they would be that pleased with a procession of rambling ghouls, who want to investigate their cupboards.

Fortunately, we can all live vicariously and virtually through the Internet. It's a wonder I ever leave the house.

Would I have shouted "Show us your Skull?" to anyone gardening

Probably not - but maybe "where's his jawbone?"

Other questions need answering......  A Twitter follower wants to know how he was fatally wounded but died another 20 years after the end of the Civil War.  Family members are asking me what the hell I do at weekends.

And in all the spooky excitement, I nearly forgot to tell you about the pubs.  Not that there is much to write home about.

The Ilchester Arms promises Craft Beer from the external chalkboards - but on entrance, I could see no logical bar and just a bunch of tables setup for dining.  Lets blame the Covid one way system and a rambling multi-roomed hotel for that.  

The Bull Inn on the opposite looked more down to earth - although, along with flat roofs, pubs with cartoon signs are usually best avoided by the experienced pub ticker.

In One.... The Bull Inn, Ilchester

My local team, Kidderminster, are 2 minutes from FA Cup Glory.  But everyone else is in for the Rugby, so no point asking for the even one of the TVs to be channel changed.  

So I improvise with an ice cold, keg St Austell Proper Job.  Something I have never encountered before.  Certainly a much different experience to cask.

Declan Rice about to break Kidderminster hearts