26/02/23 - The Halfway House, Eardington

Unexpected industrial surprises on a delightful river-side ramble.  Best walked in the afternoon.

A simple walk that brought great pleasure. Maybe it was the short distance. Maybe it was the first snowdrops of spring. Even a 2pm opener couldn't dent my morning enthusiasm, when I had timed the walk to finish bang on midday.

The Halfway House will need to wait for their car-parking money.  

From the pub carpark, it's downhill through the outskirts of Oldbury to pick up the river Severn at Daniel's Bridge.  A lovely surprise awaits - nestled in the shadow of a mighy Severn Valley viaduct is a fully working C18th Watermill. If engineering isn't your thing, then maybe the tea rooms are.

Geocaching on the way to Daniel's Bridge and Mill

Daniel's Mill

The Severn Way runs downstream under Cliff Coppice, exiting at the sewage works. You don't need to consult the map to know when to head inland along Slade Lane and back across countryside to the Half Way House.

River Severn, under Cliff Coppice

Back to the pub. Prominent signs about opening hours meant that I had already got over the disappointment of strange weekend opening hours. Maybe they change in the summer season, where a steady stream of customers from the on-site camping site will be available.  What else can campers do other than booze the afternoon away?

Caravan and Camping HQ - The Halfway House

My guide book tells a little of the history. A 1620 coaching house that was formerly knows as the Old Red Lion. One day in 1823, Queen Victoria was travelling between Shrewsbury and Great Witley and stopped to change horses. She asked how much further. 

You can guess the reply.

I'll have to guess at what beers replace Woods. A significant and depressing brewery victim of Covid.

  

Shropshire Lad No More

Walk Information

Distance - 4.75 Miles

Geocaches - 7

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks for Motorists, Shrops, Staffs and West Mids - Walk 14

25/02/23 - Birmingham Spoons

Which is the best (and worst) Wetherspoons in Central Birmingham?  Only one way to find out.  Go geocaching.

It was my old friend the Adventure Lab Cache's fault. With a rare 3pm kick off at the Hawthorns, I find myself with a morning to spare.

What's open from 8am? Wetherspoons, of course. An Adventure Lab Cache provided me with the psycho-geography needed to entertain myself (and possibly you, dear Reader). I need to visit 5 city centre spoons to answer questions in an App. And then reward myself with a pint. Here's what the Cache Owner had to say.

The ALC Description

The Square Peg is the first port of call. Housed in the basement of the Lewis's department store - Timbo described the architecture as being "a square peg in a round hole". And a pub was born.

Birmingam, will be great when its finished.

The largest bar in town - 82.5ft, stat-fans - is little of use when it is manned by just two harassed staff. Still, it would be heartless man that begrudged the act of kindness presented when the girl - who had already marched off twice to fetch the precious coffee cups - offered to hand deliver a pint to the table of a less able gent.

I had to wait 15 minutes for my Brummie Stout (£2.57)

The Huge Bar.  The kindly staff member.

Its only amateurs that queue at the bar I decide. At the Briar Rose, I grab a table and fire up the app. It does mean I cannot hide my endeavors from Mrs M, who will see the paypal deduction and deduce that I have been having fry-ups again.

But where are the advertised tomato and mushrooms, with my large breakfast with a side order of black pudding?  Twitter knows.

Wetherspoons have run out of tomatoes and will be substituting them on breakfasts & burgers with mushrooms.

Fair swap...?

— Rob Boyd, Esq (@AvonandsomerRob) February 26, 2023

Well I never!  In Birmingham, the burgers dont even come with substitute mushrooms.

Pint of the day, Cairngorm Wildcat ESB (£2.57).

I enjoyed the art deco furnishings and tiger print bar

Onwards to the newest of JDWs - housed in the New Street Station.  Aim for the Southern Exit, or risk an eternity of aimless wandering.

App put to good use, although better stories would have been found if I had queued behind the two airport style lines. Queue 1 was fronted by a 6'4" gentlemen dressed as a Spanish matador. Queue 2 fronted by four ladies dressed as Smurfs. All painted blue.  

Theakston's Old Peculiar (£2.57).

JDW - All life contained

The Dragon Inn in the Chinese quarter next. The only one I didn't like. Dirty, crowded and dingy on the inside. The Black Pheasant (£2.57) was off but I was only told after paying.  All other guests off. Ruddles weren't going to cut an expected drubbing at the hands of the most in-form team in Europe, so I attempted an upsell to a Belgian super-brew. I expected to be let off the admin, but no. My server protected Timbo's profits by calculating the difference.

I skulked off outside to see what normal people do before midday, Saturday.

Leffe - the bang per buck JDW Winner

Lesser men might have been tempted to call it a day, but I plough on to the end. Broad Street has two JDWs and my game-setter has chosen the former Lloyds bar, the Solomon Cutler, for the fifth and final question.

The Final Spoons

Exmoor Gold (£2.57).

I complete the ALC review - 5 stars - and consider whether the monopolies commission need to be informed of price fixing or whether 'spoons should be praised for consistency. 8 Ace from viz has his £1.99 multi-pack. I have my £2.57 guest ales.

Dragons apart, it is the latter I decided on.  

A pub crawl and belly busting breakfast (pints, the only 5 a day) for less than a score.

18/02/23 - Greater Manchester Ringway - Stage 6

Greater Manchester's Boundary Path getting into its stride on Stage 6.  Proper rambling around Marple, at the edge of the Peak District 

The Greater Manchester Ringway simply gets better and better. This stage is a meandering route between two stations on the same line. So much variety contained within its 8 miles. Proper rambling country, offering views throughout.

A long climb from Strines Station, through Brook Bottom and onto exposed moorland for fine views in all directions. Manchester, sits in a the valley to the west, the Kinder Plateau to the east.  Cache finds straddling two territories in their description notes.

Pausing for breath, climbing out of Brooks Bottom

There is a ticking website for these sign posts.  Do I need a new hobby?

Manchester in the distance

Some of the properties have amazing views.

A drop down through Mellor to pick up the Goyt valley, walking under viaducts and past the Victorian beauty spots of the Roman Lakes. The Peak Forest canal delivering me to Marple Bridge, via an impressive set of locks.

Along the river Goyt

Easy final walking into Marple

Onto post walk refreshment. Marple Bridge has a couple of Good Beer Guide ticks that require maximum use of my Rover ticket to access - a good couple of miles away, but on the bus route home.

With no preconceived ideas - and I am desperate for lunch - I take a chance on the Norfolk Arms.

Norfolk Arms, Marple Bridge

An excellent choice - stocked with several unusual German keg fonts and four handpulls, I apparently chose wisely with a lesser spotted Timothy Taylor Knowle Spring. The lines had been cleaned and it had just been put on. A pin sharp pint was reward enough, but they also have taken roast pork sandwiches to an art form. It was the crossbone arranged strips of crackling that won the day.

With no hanging around, I head for the bus stop and get whisked to two Good Beer Guide Ticks opposite each other. Alas, the Northumberland Arms is a 3pm opener but at 13:00, the Spring Gardens is serving.

Not a Chinese restaurant

They are big on their Germanic beers in this part of the world.  Table mounted menus showing half a dozen Teutonic bottles, with a similar amount of Belgians. 

The ubiquitous Timothy Taylor Landlord, my choice.

 

Buses every 20 mins, I managed to catch the next available

The Tick that could have been - if I had waited 90 mins for the Northumberland Arms

Walk Information

Start - Strines

Finish - Marple

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

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 9

Good Beer Guide Tick - #799  

Walk Inspiration

17/02/23 - Geocaching the Historic Pubs of Manchester - #2

Discovering the historic pubs of Manchester through Geocaching for a second time.

Round 1

How I love these.  

A geocaching pub crawl, where I can put my fate in the hands of someone else and let them choose where I am drinking. This is the second of three Manchester Adventure Lab Caches (ALC), demonstrating the oldest of Manchester's drinking establishments. An ALC is simply an online treasure hunt, where you have to visit a set of co-ordinates to answer a question.

The first two on this trip of five take moving house to a new level.

I was intrigued by the Shakespeare in Fountain Street, after reading a Manchester Evening News article. The building dates from 1656 and started life in Chester, before being moved to its current location in 1928. Like canal building, you would have loved to see the faces of the workers who were tasked with making this happen.

A former resident of Chester

I did see comments to the article saying what a dreadful pub it was. After a promising welcome, everything went wrong.

Warm Welcome by the Bard

The smell was off a thousand fried meals. The music was deafening. The beer bad enough for me to consider joining the temperance movement. Greene King customer care did reply to my Untappd associated tweet, but did they really care?  

Ropiest cask I've had for a long time. Spider senses were right to go for a half.

Massive hit of vinegar on the nose. Then the palette 🤣 - Drinking a Scrum Down by @greeneking @ The Shakespeare — https://t.co/AGX5Q6UX4N

— Mappiman (@Mappiman1) February 17, 2023

Move on to the The Old Wellington in Cathedral Gates. Built in 1552 and Manchester's only surviving Tudor building. Following the IRA bomb in the 90's it was moved - along with Sinclairs Oyster Bar - timber by timber 300 yards towards the Cathedral.

The Old Wellington, nestling behind Sinclair's

Manchester's oldest building

Its more of a challenge to find indoor seating than outdoor, where there is a massive patio - always thronged in the summer. The ground floor is tiny, but if you can brave the stairs and keep on moving past a first floor restaurant, you can drink in the rafters. Just mind your head on the beams.

Another poor pubby experience. Uninterested staff, stuffing a short measure of Tiny Rebel Cwtch into a London Pride glass and charging £6.30 for the privilege. He took the hint of my unimpressed eye and topped it up to a still not quite pint level.

But I'm here for the history, I tell myself. Here's a bit more.

And possible the answer to the ALC

I need a proper pub - and Hydes do what Nicholsons cannot, and provide.  I'm sure the Lower Turk's Head in Shudehill was always closed during previous visits. To be fair, with the exception of the the wonderful external tiling, it still has a slightly down-at-heel air. Hard to tell if the above window foliage are weeds or pot plants gone to seed. But trust me, it is gorgeous inside.

Dating from 1745

There's much to discover and its only reading now that I find out it has an upstairs bar, with an external terrace. Something to remember for the summer - Holts Bitter in the Manchester sunshine. I was too impressed with the tiny pew seats opposite the downstairs bar to go exploring. Upright, narrow and with a table, the size of which I have not seen since Edinburgh's Bow Bar. Sitting in the high back chair was akin to a ride at Alton Towers.  

A great place to watch the pub filling up with the Friday evening crowds.

Blurred, but you get the point.

Onwards, to possibly my 2nd Favourite Manchester drinkery. Temple Bar maintains top spot but The Castle in Oldham Street has just as good a juke box. Maybe you can actually control this one, but I needn't have asked for change. Someone had put on The The's Perfect Day on arrival and I couldn't have agreed more. I managed to get a bar seat, as I awaited the company of my daughter. Throw in Titanic Plum Porter in perfect condition, bar chat with strangers and I could not have been happier.

View from a bar

With my daughter arriving in 30 mins, I had time to reflect that when I first started to get to know Manchester in the late 90's, a taxi driver would not drop my brother and I off in Oldham Street. Two 6ft, 15 stone lads in their twenties. One military trained, the other an expert in dBaseIII/Clipper. He took one look at us and decided that we would be safer in the Walkabout.

Photos and Untappd checking take second place to conversation but I do have a final clue to get at the nearby Crown and Kettle. The place famous for it's crumbling ceiling and certainly a place I visited many times before - its the only current Good Beer entry on this particular adventure.

Great thing about Flickr, is you can link to other people's photos

A great range of beers but should I have been concerned that the bar man warned us that a pint of Elusive Brewing 4.7% Miles Per Hour would be prohibitively expensive?  At such a middling ABV, I had to question its apparent cost.

Its made with real oranges, was the reply.

I probably needed to move onto halves at the point anyway.

11/02/23 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Leamington Spa

Are these the best pubs in Leamington Spa?  CAMRA believes so.

Good Beer Guide Pubs - #795 to #798

The River Avon seems to provide a thin boundary column between Warwick and Leamington Spa. On the ground, it's not easy to see where one ends and the other begins,

CAMRA avoid favouritism by assigning four entries to each town. The Centenary Way has allowed me to take my time in discovering them over two trips. Warwick can be found here. The Alan Winfields of the world would do all eight in a day.

11 miles rambling the Warwickshire Canals and Countryside, I am delivered to the New Inn, a back street boozer with a difference. The back street is that wide, it can accommodate four rows of parking.

Flags aplenty

It's Six Nations time, so we are festooned with external flags and internal Guinness bunting. The pool table (red baize requiring red chalk) has been moved to an unplayable position against the wall. Tables are arranged in Jazz Club style rows, with little reserved signs replacing table lamps. Oakham Citra in reasonable condition but being honest, little will linger in the memory.

New Inn, Interior

But why drink in traditional boozers, when an artisan ale, wine and gin bar is available. The Boiler Room is in the heart of town, next to the museums and across the road from Jephson Gardens.

Modernity in Pubs

A chalk board to peruse wares and it was my own fault in choosing a key Brewboard Brewery Sauvin for the Future.  A delicious NEIPA that nearly went into the record books as my first double digit pint in pounds. £10.50, if I hadn't caught hold of myself and remembered my trendy surroundings. 2/3rds it is, when you are down with the crafty kids.

Empty on a Saturday afternoon, I saw more punters walk in and straight out again when they were disappointed with the pizza only food menu.

Like me, they were leaving for a JDW. The Benjamin Satchwell a short walkaway and ticking all the 'Spoons boxes.  External Mobility Scooter rank. Packed solid. Airport style line queuing.

They built it and they came.

I manage to secure a booth - recently cleaned - and smugly fire up the app. Yes, I am in the BS. Yes, I am at table 73. Oh no - App ordering not available.  

Still, if you cannot trust people not to half-inch a rucksack guarding your spot in one of the posher parts of Warwickshire, when can you?  I battle the pensioners at the bar, impressing them all by taking a Leffe in the meal deal.

Finally, back to back street boozers with easily the pick of the pubs. The Woodland Tavern a traditional Victorian Corner pub.

Winner - Best pub in Leamington, by a landslide

The Times carrying a story about how Twickenham Rugby goers complaining of being constantly interrupted by boozers not observing the game and heading back and forth to the bar.

The irony. My boozing interrupted by rugby fans, glued to a massive screen. Even the floor sprawled dogs looking screen bound.

It generated a fine atmosphere, even if I have no idea of the game's rules. Timothy Taylor Landlord adding nicely to the joy and only relatively infrequent trains dragged me away from a lost afternoon.

Not a night club

11/02/23 - Centenary Way - Stage 16 - Leamington Spa

Countryside, canals and HS2 on the latest stretch of the Centenary Way

Just three weeks between Centenary Way stages and we have a change of seasons. Warwick in January was completed in sub zero temperatures with freezing fog. Leamington in Feb and people are out in short sleeve tops.

Once again, I can avail myself of public transport - beginning from the Town Centre station. Familiar paths along the River Leam to pick up the official start at Newbold Comyn Park. Heading east to Offchurch, I find some familiar Millennium Way markers, yet I remember nothing of these distinctive paths along the Leam. It looks like significant re-routing has been completed. I think we know who to blame.

Along the River Leam

Dont remember walking this on the Millennium Way

Yes, it's our old friend - the white elephant that is HS2. Another article in the Times today, another budget review, rumours of it not making the East Midlands, Manchester and (you couldn't make this up), Central London.

I don't know how the digger-men work up the enthusiasm to relentlessly fill the dumper trucks with soil.

Thankfully, Ridgeway Lane is still open to Cyclists.  And Ramblers.

Ridgeway Lane leads to the Grand Union Canal for an easy walking, if not rather dull stretch back to the Leamington Flesh Pots - where four Good Beer Guide Pubs await my ticking.

The Grand Union

Walk Information

Distance - 11.5 Miles

Geocaches - 6 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, Stage 15

05/02/23 - January Man - February on Long Mynd, Shropshire

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

Distance - 9 miles

Previous Walks - January

Walk Inspiration - Self developed from the book references 

Pub - Bottle and Glass, Picklescott

February's theme is snow. Somerville reflects on childhood memories at the vicarage, his father battling to get his ancient Austin started and onto the A34.

He chooses the Long Mynd for this month's walk and recounts the well told story of the Reverend Carr almost losing his life in an 1865 snow storm. The Reverend was responsible for hosting services across a number of villages and set off to walk from Ratlinghope back to his home in Woolstaston, 5 miles away. Disorientated in the snow-drifts, he lost his hat, gloves and boots and nearly his life. 27 hrs after setting off, he stumbled into Carding Mill Valley, snow blind and half dead.

No snow today, but there is a hard frost, as I tackle the minor roads to Picklescott. Somerville stayed the night at the Bottle and Glass pub, so my first walk necessities are easily achieved. Parking and post walk refreshment.

My planned route is developed from the clues in the text and it doesn't disappoint. From Picklescott, I climb Betchcott Hill to drop down the Golden Valley to Ratlinghope. Fine walking on a crisp winter's day.

View from Betchcott Hill

Dropping down into the Golden Valley

Views from the valley floor

Ratlinghope Church has another story. The last of the English Sin Eaters, Richard Munslow, is buried here. The Sin Eater's job was to spend a night with a corpse, and to drink ale and eat bread that had been balanced on the dead person's body. The fodder absorbing their sins before burial. The story, and hope to correctly pronounce Ratlinghope, detailed in this video.

Richard Munslow, the last of the Sin Eaters

A interesting diversion before more uphill walking to the Shooting Box and the Portway - an old drovers road - which carries me arrow straight to Woolstaston.

The Portway

Reverend Carr's other Church - Wollstaston

Just another mile back to the Bottle and Glass to pay for my parking through the purchase of lunch.

A fine Country Inn....which is best explained by the fact that two horses are parked in the bay next to my car. The place was doing a fine trade with the Sunday lunch crowd, but I was able to commandeer a bar area for my tuna chiabatta and decent Ludlow Gold.

The huge roaring fire, an added bonus to thaw out in front of.

Bottle and Glass, Picklescott

A blissful fire

Ludlow Gold in a Three Tuns glass.

I struck lucky with February. A brilliant ramble, relatively local...... let's see what March brings!