Warwickshire's First Community Pub and Churches Aplenty
This is what I love. Finding ancient guidebooks and seeing what has changed and what still exists.
My latest eBay find - a 1951 book called "Fifty Weekend Walks round Birmingham". Walks will be tackled sequentially. Walk 1 is from Hatton. I can ignore the bus route instructions, as I don't have 1s 7d for the bus fare. I can adapt the hand-drawn map for my own needs.
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| North goes at the top - with little indication of distance |
This is a good advert for completing research. The walk itself - through Warwickshire countryside and along rather too many roads (traffic not an issue in 1951) - would have been as dull as ditch water. By carefully reading the walk text and a little bit of googling, I was able to have something to look for at every turn. And there was even time for a spontaneous find.
Claverdon is the first sleepy village. Pinley Abbey was more interesting on the map than on the ground - as there was little to see of a nunnery founded in the reign of Henry I. In 2025, I was forced to concentrate on poorly maintained paths. On the village approach, there is an architectural oddity that looks out of place.
The Stone Building looks like a fortified tower. It was part of a grander building built by Sir Thomas Spencer, whose tomb can be investigated in the church. Once you pass the smithy, with its unusual horse-shoe front door.
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| Pubs, not the only thing to be converted to flats |
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| The horseshoe fronted old Smithy |
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| The Tomb of Sir Thomas Spencer - 1586 |
The guide book points out a grave with a wonderfully bleak inscription. Memorialising John Matthews, who lived during the reign of Henry VIII, and gave the land for the church to be built on. It's part of a longer sonnet that starts;
"Altho’ John Matthews under this stone lies rotten,
His deeds and name by us shall never be forgotten"
My book claims the text is still decipherable. The only other reference I can find on the Internet is from a C19th book - Shakespeare's Land - which states the tomb is near the South Porch. A good mooch around, but no success in locating it. The clue "Tomb" - and the fact he is the church benefactor - led me to believe it would have been one of the grander memorials. Maybe the text has deteriorated in the last 50 years.
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| South Porch, lots of text, sadly indecipherable |
Wolverton is a very sleepy hamlet. A manor house and a very simple church, notable for its Norman origins and my observation, the walls are bowing outwards. No gaudy iconography here.
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| Wolverton Church |
I'm back on the wider blog topic at Norton Lindsey. A village that has a pub. First the church, to see a Saxon font that is much older than the mainly Victorian building that houses it. Some fine stained glass windows.
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| The clock ticks very loudly, somewhat disrupting the internal ambience |
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| Saxon Font - shaft wider than the bowl it supports |
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| God is Love, Love One Another |
I knew that the New Inn was Warwickshire's first community owned pub, sharing space with a shop and a cafe. I did not realise it is in the 2025 Good Beer Guide. Unexpected ticks are always the best. Especially when they are open at 2:30pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
As expected from a pub owned by 200 members of the community, the patrons were all locals. Three ladies laughing so hard they had to announce that they hadn't even had a drink. A couple of solo fellas on lout. A rather important looking fella - who I am convinced is the community ring leader - sat at the bar end on a gin and tonic. Further evidence that he is in charge from the Wi-Fi password - "haveagin", all lower case. He might have been responsible for commissioning the pub poem;
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| A ballard for boarded-up boozers |
This lack of cask activity left me slightly concerned that the TV Screen showing the available ales, with a detailed description of each, listed six different choices. I wondered who was the last person to have ordered an Old Hooky.
I had nothing to fear. It was in fine condition.
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| Old Hooky |
Having had my fun, I ensure I return home a hero. Carrot cake from the adjacent shop for Mrs M and the boy.
Walk Details
Distance - 10 miles
Geocaches - 10
Walk Inspiration - Fifty Weekend Walks round Birmingham, Walk 1
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