Pub Archaeology leads to Murder
Walk 1 in my Best Walks in the Black Country Book.
 |
| Rambler meets Brewer |
I'm looking for both Pelsall and the Royal Oak. I find the first to be a near 6 hour return journey on Public transport, covering all of 30 miles. I cannot find the second. The pub - under its then name - no longer exists.
A little bit of Internet sleuthing and the first image I find is the pub covered in Police Tape and a mobile incident room setup in the road, guarded by two fluorescent jacketed coppers.
 |
| As it looked in 1983 |
A former landlord bludgeoned in his bed in 2003 as a robbery goes wrong. The safe stolen but dumped in the canal that I will be walking. The three murderers appealing their 20 year minimum sentences.
I'm unsure if this shocking event led to the pub being re-branded as The Fingerpost, but a mid-walk chat with a farmer tending to his dykes suggested this may have been the case.
 |
| The Fingerpost - Battleship Grey - With a flourish on the egde |
Enough True-Life crime - the walk is surprisingly good for a suburb of Walsall. And this is not the first time I have said that, as again, I am on the Beacon Way. A 22 mile linear route running from Sandwell to Cannock Chase. Yes, I've added it onto the list.
 |
| The Beacon Way on the Canal |
Today's traffic free route includes sections of the Wryley and Essington Canal and the arrow straight Cannock Extension. A disused railway line. Wryley Woods Common.
 |
| A disused railway line into the woods. |
Alas, I am thwarted from using the pub. Surely, the first two weeks of January are when pubs are redecorated.
 |
| Should have come on Friday |
Walk Details
Distance - 3 Miles
Geocaches - 0
Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in the Black Country, Walk 1
