Exit Through the Gift Shop
More public transport liberties with the West Midlands Way. I chose Shifnal, instead of Tong, to finish Stage 7. It would have been possible to resume from Shifnal, but two miles of busy road walking did not appeal. A handily placed station at Cosford - next to the RAF Museum - enabled the Monarch's Way to be soon picked up and get me back on track.
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| Jets through the fence |
Lots of historical interest on this walk through Staffordshire agricultural fields... a couple of priories named after the colour of the habits worn by the nuns. White Ladies is a ruin. Black Ladies is a moated farm house. Linked by Charles II escape from Worcester - Boscobel House the home of the famous Royal Oak.
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| White Ladies, with a fresh faced Mappiman from 2012 |
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| Catholic hidey-hole of Boscobel House |
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| Black Ladies from the footpath |
The Monarch's Way has been kindly re-routed from a road into fields just before Boscobel House. There may have been an exit, or it may have been a ruse to get the unsuspecting rambler to pay an entrance fee. Before I knew it, I was next to a sign saying "Ticket required" and with no way of escape apart from going through the gift shop. The cheery hello from the staff indicated they were definitely going to extract money from me if I looked in their eyes. Just keep moving.
Not that I needed to keep my dollar for the pub.
The first OS Map Big Blue Cup of Joy at Lapley. A town simply dripping in history, with a hall, manor house and a locked church that could not be explored. Externally, you could see the different building materials used in the various extensions.
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| Lapley Church - sandstone, Norman origins |
Of course the pub was long dead. The Vaughan Arms was easy enough to spot from the architectural layout and naming it "Vaughan Arms House" after a refurb seemed a bit of a kick in the teeth to the 2,500 thirsty inhabitants left behind. Notes from the 2008 closure;
Its demise followed the closure of the village post office, a threat to remove its only phone box and an Oxford University study that ranked Lapley seventh among the most deprived areas across the country for villagers' ease of access to important local services and facilities.
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| Vaughan Arms House |
Surprisingly, the pub at Whiston is still a going concern, even if it is of little use to the daytime rambler. Opening hours from 5pm. The sign proclaims "Holdens Beers" but it is not a tied house.
I have to wait until Penkridge. The Littleton Arms next to the train station. Horrible inside, no real ale and to add insult to injury, the train line gets suspended while I was battling through a £5.75 Staropramen.
The main North/South line suspended for four hours. Scores of trains cancelled and thousands of passengers displaced.
All because of a man having a fag on a railway bridge.
I know this, as he asked me to collect his cap that had blown off, as I walked underneath prior to my pint.
The stand-off between him and British Transport Police had to be seen to be believed. I'll stop the blog here before I use the word "woke".
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| £5.75, a 90-minute wait and a £14 Uber to Wolverhampton |
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