Angela Marsons writes Black Country fiction
Alan Partridge: [opening a file] Right, OK - Shoestring, Taggart, Spender, Bergerac, Morse. What does that say to you about regional detective series?
Tony Hayers: There's too many of them?
Alan Partridge: That's one way of looking at it, another way of looking at it is, people like them, let's make some more of them.
It was a fellow rambler who told me about Angela Marsons and her crime series set in the Black Country and West Midlands. Incredibly popular and apparently the most loaned-out author from Rowley Regis Library.
A plot was hatched. I would read them and use any recognisable locations as the inspiration for future walks.
I'd struck gold in Book One, Silent Scream. Angela's detective, Kim Stone, conducts an interview in the Bull and Bladder..... Batham's Flagship.
In the same section of the book, the Delph Run - a pub crawl of 6 pubs around the Delph Road, was documented.
I'll leave you to decide whether Angela actually enjoyed her research.
Trainline fired up and a mile walk from Lye Station to start proceedings.
The Bell
An unexpected Good Beer Guide Tick. Angela says it's in Amblecote. It's in the Brierley Hill section of the bible.
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| Lampost casts a shadow |
It has a touch of the Black Country Ales about it. A recent refurb in a classic pub style. A roaring log fire. Cobs and other delicacies. The day could turn out to be a "snack crawl".
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| Ribblehead Bitter from Settle Brewery. Soz, Fixed Wheel |
The Tenth Lock
One for the completists only. One cask on, Hobgoblin and pensioners lunching.
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| Community Local |
The Black Horse
Research was meticulously completed. All venues are meant to be open. It looks like the Black Horse is having a bit of a time of it. The last record I could find suggesting it closed down twice in 2025 but was being reopened - by the same Landlord - in December 2025.
Doors firmly closed, 1:30pm, 16/01/26.
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| Curtains Closed |
The Bull and Bladder / The Vine
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| Blessing of your heart - you brew good ale |
Take my advice - bin the Delph Run - spend the afternoon in the front lounge of the Bathams Brewery. Politely ask for the locals to budge up, position yourself behind a tiny round table, spend 10 minutes trying to get the cling film off a black pudding and cheese cob and await the taste of the greatest beer known to man.
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| Priceless Lunch.... (well £6.20 the lot) |
The old boys provided the entertainment with good humour and that just right amount of p*ss taking. I thought the rucksack carrying rambler that I am would have got a hard time but I was saved by a chap with the world's smallest man-bag. Nothing off limits, including every and all medical ailments.
Back to Angela. She paints a very different picture. Questionable hygiene, dodgy geezers and foul smells (that's my lunch, you're slagging Ange).
I can only assume that she wants the place to herself and is trying to put off would-be tourists. No chance - this is one of the destination pubs in the country.
Or maybe she just doesn't know pubs. Arthur Connop - the suspect - sinks his daily four pints, then leaves for home and sleep off his drunken coma. Four pints! That was lunch when I started work in the 80s.
Plot spoiler - Arthur gets mown down crossing the road outside the pub by the real killer. He should have pressed the button and waited for the green man.
Corn Exchange
After the Lord Mayor's Show we get a Sizzling Pub and Grill, where they stuff half a Golden Hen into a Peroni glass.
I told you to stay where you were
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| The steaks were probably fine. |
The Brickmakers Arms
Another one that online resources - including their own website - say is open but is firmly shut.
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| Lights not on - continue downhill for Cradley Heath station |
I'll be back to investigate book 2 in the series, where Kim Stone probably describes the Old Joint Stock as an absolute dump.
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