22/01/23 - January Man: January at the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man, Month by Month

Christopher Somerville is the Times journalist responsible for the "weekly walks" in the Saturday weekend section. He is also a published author and his book, "January Man:  A Year of Walking Britain" looked a suitable contender to carry me through 2023. Each chapter represents a walk in a different part of Britain and I am always looking for more psychogeophary inspiration. 

Can I follow the monthly routes, as I read each chapter in the appropriate month?  

January is a nice easy start. The location is relatively local to me, just south of Tewkesbury. The Leigh, Gloucestershire, was Christopher's childhood home. 

I most enjoyed the 20 minute read, as he muses on his childhood friendship with Roo, his relationship with his WWII scarred father and growing up in a tiny farming community on the banks of the River Severn. There's a lengthy extract and some photos of Christopher and Roo at Frontier Magazine.

Fittingly, his revisit and walk sometime in the mid 2010s was blighted by floods. I found a suitable route but completing the basics of pre-trip research, I was able to see that the Red Lion, Wainlode, had been unable to re-open after Christmas.

I won't be visiting Christopher's Local

The flooding was worse than expected. I started my walk from The Leigh's Church, where Christopher spends time reminiscing on the surnames of childhood neighbours, now populating the graveyard. I get about half a mile into the walk before hitting the floodwaters, at least half a mile from the river. The fact the waters are frozen does not help me much. I have not brought ice-skates and the ice is not thick enough to support a grown man.

Looking back over The Leigh's Church

Hitting the flood waters

The red line shows my planned walk. The blue line shows the reality.

Planned 7m becomes 3m

Still, I was able to complete the loop of the Leigh. The Cyder Press (Roo's childhood home) and Hoefield House (Christopher's) were found, the latter Grade II listed and the most impressive building in the village. It now hides behind a gated wall, with no indication of the name.

The journey continued by vehicle, as I was keen to see the first crossing north of Gloucester and see what pub archaeology could be completed. The Hawbridge Inn painting a desolate picture of the lot of a publican all the way back in 2017.  A Gloucester news article detailing the following;

In a post on its Facebook page, it said: “It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that we will be closing the doors to the Haw Bridge Inn after this evening’s service. We had a good run in the little bit of summer we traded in, but, sadly, we were plunged into one of the quietest quarters we have experienced in the 12 years of our pub experience.

Last week, the snow at the start, theft of all our heating oil, and no water at the end, was the week that sealed the deal, and unfortunately we had no other choice but to close down trading.

The journey down through a bleak landscape, with the B4123 raised just high enough above the icy floodwaters. Enough to bring the drone enthusiasts out to get some interesting footage.

The road to Red Lion at Hawbridge, not faring so well

There were actually two pubs at Hawbridge, on either side of the road. The Riverside Inn falling into dilapidation but I can bring good news from the Hawbridge Inn. New owners in the garden confirmed that it was re-opening but no time frames given. I hope they took my advice of putting a lock on the oil tank.

Hawbridge Inn - Phoenix from the Flames - notice floodwaters behind

The view from Hawbridge

Refreshment was found further up the road at Apperley.  The Farmer's Arms trading on the strength of their food, offering what looked a pleasant dining experience in an ancient farmhouse.  Concessions made for the drinker, with three Chesterfields surrounding a log fire.

Farmers Arms, Apperley

Wadworth 6X from Wiltshire.  Scratchings from the Black Country

Walk Information

Distance - 7 miles planned, 3 miles achieved

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks for Motorists:  Bristol, Bath, Somerset and Gloucestershire 

Pub - The Farmers Arms, Lower Apperley

Geocaches - 1

21/03/22 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Warwick

Are these the best pubs in Warwick?  CAMRA think so.

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #786 to 789

Enough Good Beer Guide Pubs in Warwick to justify letting the train take the strain for the latest leg of the Centenary Way. 10 miles walked in sub zero temperatures and I am ready for refreshment.

The Old Post Office just outside the West Gate City walls is the first port of call.

Micro Pub Ahoy!

It's a micro, where they haven't spared a penny in trawling bric a brac shops for furnishings. The theme? Mounted heads. The quirky - comedy false legs breaking through ceilings.

Boars, Rabbits, WWI German Fighter planes.  A leg.

All these nick nacks are designed to take your mind off the pricing structure. Have I really just paid £6 for a 4.2% Keg Salt brewery Jute? 

It would appear so and this seems expensive when compared with the higher ABV and not insignificantly cheaper cask.

Keep it simple.  All keg - even Irish Stout - is a whopping £6

Just around the corner lies the Four Penny Pub, a Georgian building with an unusual name.  It comes from the cost of a coffee and tot of rum charged to the C19th Navvies building the Grand Union Canal, undercutting the competition by 50%.

Source of the name determined

A pleasant enough pub, with a front drinking room, an elevated narrow bar and a back room setup for dining. The customers in front of me asked for a menu, so it seemed a good place for lunch. If the competitive pricing cut still extends, other Warwickshire restaurants charge £35 for steak and chips. With exploding tomatoes on the vine.

A rarely seen Hobson's Postman's Plum Porter inoffensively not offering the challenge I usually find imbing a Titanic.

There's usually a joker in the pack of any CAMRA Pub Crawl and Warwickshire's entry is The Oak. The only new addition in the last couple of editions.  I didn't check, pre-plague.

What to make of a rough around the edges pub that you need to keep your eyes peeled to spot.

Brave advertising.  Its -2 and foggy.

If it wasn't for the recommendation, I wouldn't have considered it a source of comfort and quality real ale. Through the door and met with bright lights and a cacophony of noise, where a jukebox is vying with BT Sport to scramble your brains.

To a man - and they are all men - everyone is on Carling.  A St Austell Tribute was hardly likely to get the pulse racing but it was in decent condition. Enough to convince the Warwickshire Beards to add some variety to Warwickshire County town. 

Carling A-Plenty

File under outlier.

The pick of the bunch - and handiest for the railway station - to either make your escape or herald your arrival - is the Wild Boar.  A tap room for the previously unknown (to me) Slaughterhouse brewery.

End of Terrace Boozer

At last, some comfort. Proper pub seating next to a coal fire. I was able to remove my mittens.

Friendly owner, asking after my day, friendly punters also engaging and a pub dog that sits on the windowsill, keeping guard over the Warwickshire cats.  Like Daily Mail Royal observers, he hates the gingers.

The craft (and ABV) has gone up to £6.50 and 6% but I also tried Poking the Bear, a decent in-house brewed Blonde.

Heat.  Northern Monk New World IPA.... Bliss.

The next leg of the Centenary Way takes me to Leamington Spa.

They too have enough boozers to warrant another train trip.

Tune in next month for a comparison.

21/01/23 - Centenary Way - Stage 15 - Warwick

The Centenary Ways getting interesting.  Even the weather joins in.

The Centenary Way simply cannot help itself. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the most scenic and architecturally interesting leg of a Long Distance Path that previously can only be described as mundane. Running trains lead me through a glorious winter's day - freezing cold but gorgeous blue skies - to be met by a fog bank on the approach to Warwick.

Frozen Fields to Old Milverton

It's from the station that I pick up the trail, heading north on a busy road past Guy's Cliffe and into concrete hard fields to Old Milverton. The Saxon Mill - complete with working wheel - tempting me in with the offers of brunch. There's plenty of refreshment options throughout this walk.

Old Milverton Church

Its impossible to know where Warwick Ends and where Leamington Spa begins - but the posh houses north of Newbold Comyn is probably a good guess. I may change my opinion of Leamington during the next stage but my previous observations were always of faded grandeur and a place a little bit up itself. 

Hitting civilisation, I spy a woman up to something that leaves me pondering the back story for the rest of the day. She has arrived at a public bin on a sit up and beg bike, complete with child's seat attached over the rear wheel. In the child's seat is a bag for life, from which she is feeding the bin wine bottle after empty wine bottle. Enough bottles to more than double the amount required for the Waitrose Multi buy discount offer.

So whats the story here, apart from she obviously likes wine. Is the green recycling bin at home full? Does she not want to be judged by the bin men? Where is the child?

Much to ponder, as waterways take me back to Warwick. A new "river walk" path hugging the River Leam, through pretty Jephon Gardens, Victoria Park and a short stretch of aqueducts on the Grand Union Canal.

Jephson Gardens

Weir on the River Leam

Grand Union Aqueduct 

Back into Warwick and Adventure Lab Caches doing a fine job of pointing out the historical buildings.

If only I could see them.

Lovely path from Mill Street to Castle Street

Oken House - C16th Tea Room

Lord Leycester's Hospital - one of the few buildings to survive the fire of 1694

East gate, with a rare pillar post box

Ending the walk in Market Square - at Ranolph Turpin's statue

Onto Warwick's four Good Beer Guide pubs..... worthy of a separate blog.

Walk Information

Distance - 10.4 Miles

Geocaches - 7 and 2 Adventure Lab Caches

Pubs - See Good Beer Guide Blog

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14

14/01/23 - London Spiral - Stage 9

London Spiral hits South London.  Time to find the spiritual home of the podcast that saved lock down.

The London Spiral Walk takes me deep into Deserter podcast territory. Fittingly, notification arrived of the January episode arrived mid-walk. It's as if the boys knew I was coming.

For the uninitiated;

The London Spiral Walk is a 260 mile psychogeography walk. Whereas the Capital Ring, London Loop and London Country Way only complete a single circuit of the Smoke, the Spiral does it 6 times.

The Deserter Podcast was discovered in lock down and was a life saver. It taught me I wasn't alone in taking cans to park bandstands, when the pubs were out of bounds. It celebrated the finer things in life, both small and large. From the simple pleasures of beers, crisps and daft, day out adventures to the radical thinking of the four day weekend and Universal Basic Credit. It was the only thing that made me laugh out loud in 2020. And for that, I will be forever grateful.  

The Spiral gets me to within a mile of their HQ. Of course, I will be visiting the Shirkers Rest. I need to export Slabs to Worcestershire.

First, I need to get there from Clapham. A dreich day made for unspectacular walk through low rise estates, the parks of Brockwell, Dulwich, Crofton and Hilly Fields. The cemeteries of Camberwell Old and Camberwell New. An Adventure Lab Cache showing me some of their famous residents.

The City Looms over Brockwell Park

The Terroir of South London

A Treasure Hunt amongst the dead...

... revealing the final resting place of the last of the sword swallowers

Onto refreshment. A Good Beer Guide tick provided by the London Beer Dispensary at Crofton Park. A micro pub, tied to the previously untested Southey Brewery. Memorable for serving possibly the coldest cask ever. 

South London Micros

A very cold Southey Brewery Best Bitter

The walk ends at Lewisham, where the 225 bus whisks me to New Cross to complete my podcast pilgrimage. A 2nd GBG Tick at the Royal Albert. Where the New Cross hipsters reserve tables by placing records on tables. My trousers may be mud splattered from 11 miles in the rain but at least they reach my walking shoes. Hipsters like to reveal their socks to the world.

Portobello Company's Royal Albert

Give it Up Jamie - I was here first.

A huge selection of beers, but I am not 100% sure the board matched the bar. I can't see my Portobello Star listed. I did have to peruse other people's Untappd checkins to make sure it was meant to look like my offering.

What's on Offer?

Mrs M would say "That looks a bit murky for a bitter"

And finally, Deserter HQ.

No other customers on my 2pm arrival but I assured the chap at the bar that I would sit in the window to lure in passers-by. A rambling siren sea-nymph to entice the thirsty.

Come in New Cross Residents - the Drop Project Flow is fine. They have thick cut crisps.

It didn't take long for my magic to work. Two ladies come in, order stouts and take photos of the photos. A wall mounted montage of abandoned chairs in public places follows a mainstay of the Deserter Socials. The one lady insists that the two country kitchen chairs perched on the top of Telegraph Hill were hers. I had to ask for an explanation and proof. They had been purloined when left on the street for council collection and if you look closely at the photo, you can see where her dog had chewed the leg. 

Next a trio of people arrive and insist to the barman they are friends of Andrew Grumbridge. If this is an audacious attempt to get a free drink, they should have simply have come back on Blue Monday in two day's time.

In one of the most altruistic bar acts ever seen, everyone's first drink is free on the worst day of the year.

Whilst stocks last.

Walk Information

Distance - 11 Miles

Start - Clapham South Tube

Finish -  Lewisham

Areas Walked - Clapham, Brockwell, Dulwich, Crofton Park

Geocaches - 6 and 2 Adventure Lab Caches

Pubs - 3 (Good Beer Guide Ticks  #783-784)

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8

08/01/23 - Swindon Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl

Swindon - a destination for a beery adventure

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #777 to #782 

A lively debate on one of my favourite lockdown Podcasts. The BeerOClock show has been reborn as Beerlonging and Episode 3 had a lively debate about whether the Good Beer Guide was of any use at all.

Three hosts with differing opinions (although none fully supportive) made for an interesting listen, having me shout at the car speakers in both violent agreement and disagreement.

My own take - how else would I navigate a town like Swindon? And surely I would have missed the cream of the crop that was my first port of call.

The Glue Pot is an unassuming back street boozer and the last remaining pub in Swindon's Railway Village. I was never going to simply discover it by chance.  High hopes provided from the exterior corner plot, with steamed up windows showing signs of late Sunday afternoon life.

Sticky since 1853

A single roomer, with a comprehensive tasting board allowing me to make my mind up before panicking at the bar and rushing my decision. Hop Back Winter Lightening seemed most apt from both a seasonal and ABV perspective.

Everything you need to know, except the price.

Pint of the night

Little booths allowing me to spread the Sunday Times out to all its broadsheet glory.  

Excellent Pub.

Onto the Wyvern Tavern, after a walk through a standard, soulless pedestrianised Town Centre. The owners obviously looked at the JDW blueprint and asked "How can we improve on this?". Their answer, rather than go for 99p pints, was to install about 100 TV Screens, including some "per table". Brightly lit and although wild horses wouldn't drag me in again, I concur with the bible's claim that "it has a better than average interest in the sale of real ale". Goffs Brewery Black Knight Ruby Porter a good find.

Wyvern Tavern look very Spoons

A quirkier and more independent feel found at the Beehive. Don't let the Greene King tie put you off.  Not a hint of IPA on offer.

The Beehive - Greene King Branding but an independent beer range

The positioning at the corner of two streets on a hill leads for a slightly odd interior, with the pub spread over several levels.

View from the middle level....

.... where a regular let me share her bench seating

Super friendly and knowledgeable bar staff who helped me choose a Bristol Beer Factory Resurface by explaining the different hops in the five or so offerings. I was not to be intimidated and could out geek him by saying Australian Ella Hops were going to be popular this year. I'm no expert but I had watched the Craft Beer Channels Big in 2023 YouTube post the night before.  

Sometimes, I scare myself.

If you are still with me, I can hear you saying "But you're three pubs in, Mappiman. Where are the micro's with the unpredictable opening hours?"

Two together on opposite sides of the Devizes Road. The Tap and Brew providing the first 2023 break from legally enforceable, advertised hours.

2 days, 18 hours early.  Dubious Tick Panel notified

And if you think that was a dubious tick, even I'm not sure about this. I should have been looking for the Hop Inn. The building I entered was called the Little Hop Inn.  Close enough for a man three pints into a beery adeventure. It's only during blogging and another look at Google Maps, I can see that the other side of BetFred is the real Hop Inn.

When is the Hop Inn not the Hop Inn?  When its the Little Hop Inn

Post crawl Internet based research showing they are indeed brother and sister establishments. One made it, the other didn't but I am sure the beer quality was the same in both. The Little Hop could have been offering a Castle Rock tap takeover, with a near full complement available. The owner confirmed that this wasn't the case and he just liked Nottingham beers. Budvar proved a temptation too far, with 50% of the other punters supping from the ceremonial chalice.

Budvar in a Budvar Pot

Last genuine tick of the night, The Goddard Arms.  A pub so terrible, it showed that the Beerlonging chaps were on to something with their lack of enthusiasm for the Good Book.

Not too shabby from the outside

The Proper Job was in fine condition, but I defy anyone to enjoy it in the environment that they create. Yes, I am used to brightly lit Gastropubs, with every table festooned with a jumbo sized menu, but this provided a fresh aural vision of hell.

A piped-in, pre-recorded pub quiz - with count down music, jingles and a host that was too poor to get the local radio DJ gig that he so dreamed of aspiring to.

No one staying for the quiz

I couldn't end the night on a low, so I used my own local knowledge from working in Swindon 15 years ago.

The pub with the best atmosphere in Swindon is the Victoria.

Those that know, know. Or those that remember, remember.

And I can just about remember Thursday nights in the Victoria, mid 2000s.