31/08/26 - Caer Caradoc

Automatic for the People

Walking comes into the modern age. No pubs or cafes on route today, but post walk refreshment can be found in a (for me) first of a kind. At the trail head - a shed - with automatic hot and cold drink and snacks running the gamut from twix to ice cream.

Ginger beers and brownies, post walk

But I am getting ahead of myself. First the walk - a lung-bursting ascent of Caer Caradoc, via three fingers rock. Descent over Little Caradoc and stop before climbing the Lawley. The return on fern infested paths along the flanks of the Caradocs.

We could watch the rain-storms sweeping in and were rewarded with a rainbow and surprisingly, by not getting a drenching ourselves.

A delight of a walk, where the photos only just begin to do it justice.

Views over Church Stretton

Climbing

Summiting

Mrs M at Three Fingers

Minnie and her daughter, Curly - the flatcoat retreivers

Turn back when you get to the Lawley

The profile of Caer Caradoc

Walk Details

Distance - 5.75 miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - Komoot

30/08/26 - The Holdgate Sheela-Na-Gig, Shropshire

You Exhibitionist

The Queen PJ Harvey's second single. I've been listening to it for 34 years. It's taken a trip to deepest Shropshire to find my first one. A tiny church in the tiny hamlet of Holdgate, deep in the Corvedale Valley, in the shadow of the Clee Hills.

On the south wall, above the chancel door

It's rather weathered and a little tricky to decipher. But once you have had it explained to you, it's impossible not to spot. From the Sheela-Na-Gig project;

The figure is described by some authors as “pugilistic” which is understandable given the weathering on the figure. In fact what at first seem to be the figure's hands are in fact its knees. The arms are behind the knees with the hand holding the vagina open.

No one can quite agree what they are for - a pre-Christian fertility symbol? A warning against lust? Who knows, but you wouldn't necessarily expect them on a church wall. If we wanted to see more of this ilk, we could have headed onwards to the next Hamlet. Tugford also has one.

This walk climbs out the Corvedale valley on the Shropshire Way. If you don't like sheep and/or stiles then maybe give this one a miss. It's not a bad walk, it's just that Mrs M is a tough woman to please. Already disinterested in rude symbols, she then moans that this route "is a bit samey and can we do something more exciting tomorrow?"

Corvedale Valley Floor Views

The Clee Hills in the far distance from Wenlock Edge

Not even spectacular Elizabethan architecture can excite her. On the crest of Wenlock Edge, we come across Wilderhope Manor House.

From the 1580s - restored by the Cadbury Family in the 1930s

If you like it, you can stay there - either in a single room or by hiring out the entire gaff. It is a youth hostel.

On the drop down to the valley floor, we find our second Elizabethan home - Shipton Hall.  Many parallels with Wilderhope, although this is in private ownership.

Same period, style and building material

Walking Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 2 (including a 3 year resus)

Walk Inspiration - Les Lumsdon's Best Shropshire Walks, Walk 29 

28/08/26 - Pole Bank and Light Hollow Spout

Old Familiar, Variation

This walk over Long Mynd is my most walked "boots on" ramble. It's the one I loved from the first time walked. It's the one where Country Walking Magazine ran a feature on Geocaching. It's the one I used for training when my son had an interest in walking Snowdon. Cost me children's boots, rucksack, socks and a penknife. He didn't like rambling.

We are staying in the wilds of Shropshire on our latest dog sit. A first, as it is 3 dogs. Never have more dogs than you have hands. Or children. It looks close to Church Stretton on the map but with the roads not taking the most direct route, it's a 40 mile round trip.

I found a new route on Komoot. We park in our (not so) secret free car park in Cunnery Road but instead of heading to Little Stretton and Round Hill, we head up Townbrook Valley. This will shave a couple of miles off and test out our dog handling skills.

All the views from the highest point, Pole Bank, and the slightly more dramatic hands-on-rock descent of Light Hollow Spout are present.

The top of Townbrook Valley

Old Boy Punch left snoozing - the two flat coats are up for it

The real wild ponies are in the far distance

Light Hollow Spout

Heading down Carding Mill Valley - for coffee and cake at the NT Cafe

Walk Details

Distance - 6.25 miles

Walk Inspiration - Komoot

Geocaches - 0

26/08/26 - Pershore Bridges

Meddling Parents

Investigation required for the Part 3 of Travels with Pevsner. Jonathan Meades does a fine job of describing an impressive looking home, but fails to tell the viewer where it is. Thank the lord for Google Image Search, which informs me it is Wyke Manor, Wick.

Pevsner states;

This eminently picturesque large house just NW of the church is in fact entirely an evocation. It has all the motifs of genuine Worcestershire timber-framing and groups them suggestively, It was done in 1923 round a Georgian core.

1923 Wyke Manor, Wick

There's more to the story than Pevsner lets on. The house is privately owned by the Hudsons. During WWI, Aubrey Hudson wanted to marry a young local girl. His parents didn't approve and asked his CO to transfer him away. So they sent him to the front. He lasted two weeks. 

The house contains and is a shrine to him.

My chosen walk appeared in a recent Country Walking Magazine. A figure of 8 loop with the focus point at the Pershore Bridges Picnic area.

20th Century meets 15th Century

The first loop to the hamlet of Pensham. All agricultural fields in the shadow of Bredon Hill.

First half walking

Bredon Hill

Then into Wick, where there is more to discover than just the manor house. A signed, and notice-boarded History Trail tells you all about Viking raids up the Avon and how to build cruck houses.

Alas, the FYI Geocaches are lost

Walk Details

Distance - 6.5 miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Travels with Pevsner and Country Walking Magazine, June 2026, Walk 9

24/08/26 - A Hackney Pub Crawl

On a Monday? Madness....

My second walk from the Joolz Rather Splendid London Pub Walks. The YouTube video for an overview on the area, where he gets rather too excited about coal holes and stink pipes.

Attempting a pub crawl on a Monday is a challenge. My advance ticket means I need to be at Euston for the cancelled 3.26pm. The first handful of the pubs don't open until 3 or 4pm. So part of this crawl is virtual. Use you imagination. I did.

Royal Inn on the Park - next to Victoria Park.

Kenton Arms - gorgeous.

The Gun, less gorgeous

And the Chesham Arms

Saved time from boozing provides more time for investigation. Of a personal kind. I worked for Great Universal Stores - which also contained Burberry before it was requisitioned by the underclass. I found myself at Chatham Place, the former head office. Where as a teenager database programmer I used to (attempt to) eat watermelon in the Director's restaurant.

A factory outlet now.... and flats

For a full appreciation of Umit and Sons, watch the video. A most unusual shop, with the tiniest of cinemas contained within. This week showing "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

A real one-off

If you have watched the video, you will know that Joolz likes to cosplay as an Edwardian Dandy. I am amazed that he escaped with his teeth/life (delete as applicable) in his choice of boozer. The Crown - and the mobile shop they have extended into next door - the half crown. The veteran pub tickers on Pubsgalore claim it to be faux-Irish - even if they do have a sign saying I love fecking Ireland and sell Tayto crisps.

Crown and Half Crown

There's no denying it's a drinkers' pub. It's only been open 10 minutes and already busy with quite frankly, ill-looking men, some of whom are already double loading on the Stella. Friendly enough if you can handle banter but I am unsure how they would have taken to our Joolz.

Proper boozers out of shot. No real ale, so (a decent and cheap) Guinness

The Cock is an unexpected surprise. I noticed the Good Beer Guide 2026 sticker on the door of this shabby-chic ex-Trumans pub. The beer and cider range is comprehensive enough and of sufficient quality to justify its regular appearance. 

The Cock

A lot to admire - my Howling Hops Upper Crust Red IPA was delicious and only just over £4. Remember, I am in London. The barman/owner gave off Black Books vibes, trying desperately to plough through a huge novel, whilst thirsty punters interrupted his reading flow.

And who could fail to be impressed with the speed of the pickled egg eaters?

Some serious attention to timings there - Jack holding his own against the Simons

And I end at the unusually named Cat and Mutton on the other side of London Fields. Over the years, this ex-Charrington house has had many names, usually a combination of cat, cattle, shoulder and mutton.

More pubby handsomeness

It's decent enough, in a gentrified kind of way. All exposed wood, cat-related artworks and decent music played at a reasonable level. But I am reminded I am in London. 

Five Points XPA for £7.50.

Take me to the cock.

Pub and Dining Room

Walk Details

Distance - 3.75 miles

Walk Inspiration - Joolz Splendid Pub Walks, Walk 15

Previous Joolz Pub Walks - Bayswater

24/08/26 - Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury

All Manner of Artist

Second "Hidden Walk" in an attempt to reacquaint myself with Central London. This time it is Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury - the land of the Bohemians. I have so much future inspiration from this walk, I can hear my other projects weep. It's not every area of London that is named after a pub. I am rather enjoying reading "The Fitzroy: An autobiography of a London Pub". To the extent that I have a 1950s-themed pub crawl planned for another day.

An overview of the area;

Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury form a historic swathe of central London immediately north of Mayfair and Soho, with a character that is noticeably more literary, bohemian and intellectual. Fitzrovia developed as a mixed residential and commercial district, becoming particularly associated with artists, writers and musicians, including George Orwell, Dylan Thomas and Augustus John, while its pubs, workshops and small streets retain something of that unconventional past. Bloomsbury, by contrast, was largely shaped by the Russell family from the 17th century onwards and is renowned for its garden squares, grand terraces and intellectual associations, particularly with the British Museum, University College London and the Bloomsbury Group. Together, the two neighbourhoods offer a fascinating mixture of Georgian town planning, literary history, medicine, academia, pubs and bohemian London, stretching from Oxford Street north towards Roughly bounded by Great Portland Street to the west and Gray's Inn Road to the east.

A uniform layout of streets and impressive squares, mainly Georgian and early Victorian. The Post Office Tower dominates the skyline.

From the Euston Road

This is a morning walk, so too early for watering holes. The Fitzroy is important to comment upon, responsible for the naming of the area in its bohemian glory years of the 1920s to the 1940s. I am part way through the previously mentioned book, reaching the start of the decline in 1955. A court case for running a house of ill-repute, when homosexual men were observed "fingering sailor's buttocks" by undercover detectives. The people and their other haunts have provided much future reading material and a new pub crawl for me to follow.

The next big source of inspiration is Hawksmoor. St George's, one of his six London churches, is on route. The distinctive tower featuring in the background of Hogarth's Gin Lane. 

Looking forward to exploring in September

Don't miss the more upbeat "Beer Street".

Google Maps suggests the church is open daily from 9am. It appears that the church opening times are as inconsistently vague as pub opening hours. Gates are padlocked and access to the Hawksmoor (and suffragette) exhibitions are out of reach. Further research into the potential satanic layout of the six churches, via Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, will be required – and another walking route will be born.

Hawksmoor - St George's

Charles II in Roman Garb, atop Hogarth's Tower

For the quirky - again, I am too early for the most famous (how many are there?) of London's Umbrella shops - James Smith and Sons. It saved me from myself. I fancied a heavy-topped walking stick to fight off phone thieves.

Summer of 2026 - Worst trading conditions ever

And inside University College - one of the most bizarre sights in London. The corpse of Jeremy Bentham on display in a glass cupboard in the reception area. He died in 1832 and his will requested that his dressed body should be put on display as a "self-statue". Of course, the medical students have been messing around with it over the years. The head now a wax replacement.

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That's plenty for a blog - more photos of pubs, squares, Coram Fields, St George's Gardens and Tracy Emin artworks hidden in plain sight on a railing on the Komoot map below.

Future Inspiration

Book - The Fitzroy: An autobiography of a London Pub, Sally Fiber

Book - The Laughing Torso, Nina Hamnett

Pub Crawl - 1950s Bohemian Fitzrovia

Book - Queens of Bohemia and other Miss-fits, Darren Coffield

Artist - Augustus John

Book - Lud Heat, Iain Sinclair

Book - Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd

Walk Details

Previous Hidden London Walks - Mayfair

Distance - 5.5 miles

Geocaches - c20

Walk Inspiration - London's Hidden Walks - Book 1 - Walk 2

20/08/26 - Greater Manchester Ringway - Stage 17

Peat Bogs in the Rain

I left the Greater Manchester Ringway in the Holiday Inn Express. It's been a long time since I've stayed in a corporate hotel. Vaguely interesting to have a late night pint in a soulless lounge, eavesdropping on other tables of people forced into spending time with each other. There's always one talking loudly, and that one is talking about work. You can watch the eyes of their colleagues glaze over in real time.

If the question is "Where to go in a drought for a chance of rainfall?" the answer has to be Manchester.

I'm almost too scared to throw those curtains wide, with persistent thunder heard on the other side.

But there is hope

Incredibly, after an attempt to break the record of most sausages eaten at a free buffet breakfast, the rain stops. And it very nearly stays stopped.

This meteorological prelude is necessary. This stage of the walk has absolutely nothing to talk about.

The Leeds Liverpool Canal is left behind, replaced by flat agricultural land on the Glazebrook Trail Long Distance Path. 

To add some variety, the walk designers ask us to leave the trail for a completely unnecessary circuit of what is unidentified on my OS Map. It transpires that  the series of arrow-straight canals are the Wigan and Salford Mosslands. Rewilding of peat bogs, that may provide interest to Twitchers and whatever the collective noun of lizard watchers is.

Could have stayed to the West on the Glazebrook trail...

but I'd have missed three miles of this

Just in case I was to get excited as to what Irlam might offer a lonely traveller, the storms come back.

Soaked to my pants, I decide to instantly get the train home, via Warrington, looking for somewhere to change.

Three stages to go - I'm no quitter.

Walk Information

Start - Leigh

Finish - Irlam

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, Stage 16

Distance -  10.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration

19/06/26 - Greater Manchester Ringway - Stage 16

The Western Wind-down 

A whole calendar year since I was on the Greater Manchester Ringway. We can blame relatives - my daughter and son-in-law (pending) have moved house. It's not that they haven't informed me of their new address. They still haven't sorted out all the decorating and can't put up guests. If I had more talent, I would take a rest from exploring and pick up some paint brushes. Weaponised incompetence is my middle name.

So, the bullet is bitten and a Holiday Inn Express is booked at the halfway point, to enable me to knock off two stages.

This is the final five sections. The website says that we are now on the Western Wind-down, with flat easy walking along canals and agricultural land. 

Back to Wigan, the pier is under scaffold, so few photos on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, dissecting great bodies of water known locally as "flashes".

Today's walking - The Leeds Liverpool Canal

Scotsman's Flash

Sadly, from a blogging perspective, that's it. The choice about whether to stop for refreshment is made instantly. The only pub passed - The Dover Lock Inn - not only closed, but firebombed.

It's just the canal until the next flash, Pennington and a comfy bed for the night.

Leigh does have pubs. Having visited four of them, I am trying to determine if they are worthy of blogging. Nothing of real architectural or beer interest but it's sometimes the people that make pubs.

And the people of Leigh are quite odd.

Walk Information

Start - Wigan

Finish - Leigh

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

Distance -  10 Miles

Geocaches - 11

Walk Inspiration 

17/08/26 - Sedgley Ale Trail

Monday Lunchtime Ticking

Never the best day for visiting pubs, but I don't do too badly in Sedgley. I was here on the trail of a Victorian Widow (read on, if interested) but in the back of my mind, I knew there was another Sedgley item on my Google Calendar To Do List.

Nine available but as stated, it's Monday. Wallet and liver will be safe.

2. The Beacon Hotel

The first I reach, on my approach from a hidden medieval lane across Turl's Hill. It should be number 1 on your list too. In other pubs, I am taken as a pub tourist and the bar staff there ask "Have you been to the Beacon Hotel?". 

Even when their own pub is empty.

The Beacon Hotel

Handsome from all angles

It's the brew pub for Sarah Hughes, where their Ruby Mild is the stuff of legend. Facebook showed a delighted punter finding it in Portsmouth on the weekend. You might think a 6% easy drinker is the strongest drink available. The chalk written board has a brew called Hedgerow - coming in at a whopping 7.3%.

The bar is a near unique experience. There is a glass partition that only opens to belly button height. You can either remain anonymous, or crouch down - where the staff crouch down back to meet your gaze. It must be a health and safety concern for cricked necks for staff and punters alike.

Once you've chosen your poison, you have a considerably bigger decision to make. Where to sit. There appears to be room after room internally and then a pleasant rear patio and play area. Or you can just do what this tourist did - wander around until you find the most life.

Back to the wall pensioners

I love the old school opening hours..... maybe it was so busy, as people know it closes at 2:30 for an afternoon hiatus.

3. The White Lion - Closed on a Monday lunchtime.

4. The Bulls Head

A pleasant enough Holdens Pub, suffering with a lack of punters. I awoke the barmaid from her doom-scrolling and enjoyed another tick on the Holdens Chain, with a Black Country Special.

My type of pub

Steven Brown Highland Cow and an indication of brewery distance

1. Mount Pleasant and 9. The Crown - The Mount Pleasant is a "Want to Go" but is not open on many lunchtimes, so saved for another day. The Crown, a desi pub, will be ticked on that day.

7. Sandy's - The only one on the PDF that is closed down. It was a cafe with an alcohol licence.

8. Seven Stars - Too far out of my way.

5. The Clifton 

'Spoons cannot be kept out of the news. This week, the mainstream media has Timbo's announcement that mobile phones on loudspeaker are to be banned. The sooner we give this man other parts of society to manage, the better. And in the latest Critic Magazine - a two page article in praise of the most democratic of pub chains.

Timely article in this month's The Critic.

Mirroring yesterday's joy. pic.twitter.com/NKDJVBPUPe

— Mappiman (@Mappiman1) August 18, 2026

The crux of the article - how he saves important high street buildings, promotes cask ales and offers value for money for all perfectly experienced during my visit of this old picture house which would be otherwise left to rot.

A grand 'spoons

6. The Swan Inn

A little bit of an ugly duckling - I couldn't find a decent angle to photograph it in a reasonable light. It certainly exceeded expectations. Two old boys watching the golf and one old girl with an older dog did not seem to warrant the four cask ales available.

Yet, my Town Crier was in perfect condition.

You cannot always succumb to your own prejudices.

And on blogging, I determine it's in the 2026 Good Beer Guide.  My 1191 tick.

Reassuring to see that I concur with the bible, even when unaware.