05/08/26 - Geocaching in Inkberrow

Drinking with the Archers..... How Much!

Inkberrow, Worcestershire, is connected to the county town by an infrequent bus service. Running only sporadically, it means that once I'm there, I'm stuck for a while. Fortunately, there are two pubs in which to while away the time. The bull seems to have been an animal of particular importance to past landlords, featuring in the names of both of them.

The village is one of the oldest in Worcestershire - with plenty of history. The name derives from "Inta's Burial Mounds", suggesting ancient civilisations were there. There was a castle. There is still a moat. Charles I apparently left his battle plans for Naseby at the vicarage. Which provides an indication on how that worked out for him.

In more modern times, the Old Bull is the inspiration for the pub in Radio 4's The Archers. We'll come to that once I have calmed down. There is a plot spoiler in the blog title.

Today's walking is haphazard, as I am on a Geocache Trail - which takes in around 30, including some pirate themed Adventure Lab Caches. Don't ask. It's better that way.

Some nice views over the Worcestershire low-lands to the Malvern Hills, showing how it runs as a ridge up to Abberley.

From the Millennium Way

Caching completed at 11:50am. The next (but one) bus home at 14:50. Can I stretch three hours over two pubs? I do have the Metro newspaper and my cryptic crossword solving skills are improving.

The Old Bull

This is an entry in my 1960s Pub Guide - Historic and New Inns of Interest.

Undeniably Handsome

It's what you would want from a country pub. Ancient flagged floors, low ceilings, oak beams, signs saying "bullshit corner", 1970s pop playing out over external speakers. Catering for the tourists, there are some Ambridge Photos and an eye watering price list.

When Butty Bach is £5.70, the game has gone. 

I stayed for two, just to make sure I hadn't bene overcharged.

Still, there is something quaint about riders parking their horses (do you park a horse?), under the village green tree and nipping in for a pint in their jodhpurs. Cost consciously frugal foal fans can go to Costcutter.   

Horses in the Shade

The Bulls Head

Told you that Bulls are important to Inkberrow. I suppose with such a famous pub over the road, they are on a hiding to nothing here. Indeed, there were just a couple of old boys and a TV tuned to one of the last music channels, with the volume far too loud.

It's a Wye Valley House - and really, I should have had another Butty for cost comparison. Instead, I gave £6.50 to Jeremy Clarkson for his Hawkstone Lager.

Bull

Walk Details

Distance - 4.5 miles

Geocaches - c30

10/01/26 - The Pubs of Henley-in-Arden

Geocaching in the Snow

There aren't many Geocaching trails published any more. There was a time when seemingly a multi-cache trail within my 25 mile home radius would be created monthly. Someone posted on the UK Geocaching Facebook group asking for a family friendly trail and one of the few responses pointed to Henley-in-Arden.

Starting at the railway station, it's a short 3 mile loop with 13 caches. I expected the snow and ice. I did not expect puddles the size and depth of small lakes. I am pleased to report that my aging Scarpas are still waterproof, but really, wellies would have been a better bet.

The terrain was familiar from the Arden Way, Millennium Way and West Midlands Country Way.

Station Start

Out into the Countryside

Henley-in-Arden was once a coaching town. The main high street runs for a mile and is unusually wide. It was the first stop from Birmingham to London and once there were 25 coaching inns lining this mile.

With a (kind of) new establishment being setup, I decide to tick off those that remain. Bar Trek suggests 6 locations, but we can discount the Bluebell and the Mount as restaurants only. The Black Swan a little too far to the north.

The Three Tuns

Starting with easily the best - a Good Beer Guide regular for the last four years. I don't really need the new advertising to entice me in.

Liquid Gold

The Best in Henley

12:30pm and I am the only punter. The bar staff are loading coals onto the open fire, so I know which seat in the house I will be taking to thaw out. A nice beer chat about how well the Bathams sells.  The locals need to get to the Exchange in Stourbridge. Paying £5.20 here, their minds will be blown at how cheap it is in the Black Country.

Show me a prettier sight?

The Nag's Head

All of Henley's punters appear to be in here. Most tables are full, with a mixture of diners and boozers. One gent on lunchtime whisky, which is always brave.

The beer choice is good - Proper Job or Landlord. Having just got back from Cornwall, I chose the latter. Which was far too cold for cask.

Traditional Boozer - Henley's most popular

The White Swan / The Henley Mile

I've never warmed to the White Swan - the most gastro of gastros, where I experienced poor service on the Heart of England Way and have never forgiven them since. Not since I discovered the Three Tuns.

Yet, I was intrigued by a new tap room in town - The Henley Mile. It's hard to know where this starts and the White Swan ends - as it is housed in the same building on the opposite side of the courtyard.

Look carefully for the Henley Mile Sign

My chatty barman couldn't offer any advice. He stated that they were autonomous operations with shared infrastructure. The "Our Story" section of the website offers little more.

Several of their own beers on - Twice Hanged, Perkins Prescription, Run Charlie Run (chosen and very good) - all named after local Henley characters, with explanations on the beer mats.

Run Charlie Run - A Perfect Best Bitter

So, that's the Henley-in-Arden pub scene completed.

I only needed 90 minutes.

Walk Details

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 14

First Cache

19/09/25 - Architecture and Oktoberfest in Cheltenham

Traditions and the Death of Pub Exploring

Traditions don’t arrive fully formed – they creep up on us, stitched together from small acts we stubbornly repeat. What begins as a comedy of errors gradually takes on the weight of ritual, the very mishaps becoming part of the story we tell ourselves about why we return.

In 2024, I turned up at Oktoberfest in the Sandford Park Ale House to find plenty of beer but not a hint of Bavarian food. Not on a Monday. In 2025, I try again, this time preparing with military precision: calendars consulted, reminders set, messages dispatched. Yet as I board the 7.27am bus from deepest Worcestershire, I know some minor disaster is already on the timetable. The only question is what shape it will take this year.

I want to earn my lunch - so I start the day on an architectural town tour promoted by the Council.

How to Explore Cheltenham

I concentrate hard on the Montpellier district - an area that is a showcase of Regency elegance: graceful terraces, ashlar façades, and classical detailing like Corinthian, Doric and Ionic orders everywhere you look. Perhaps the most striking are the caryatids lining Montpellier Walk — draped female figures under cornices, modelled on those from the Acropolis, lending the streets a sculptural poetry.

Here's the pictures;

This time yesterday, I didn't know what a Caryatid was

Queens Hotel

Imperial Gardens

Neptune's Fountain

There is more to investigate, as the morning gets hijacked by geocaching. I've been wanting to have another go at a Whereigo for some time. In brief, a more involved treasure hunt that involves collecting information from several places before the location of the treasure-box is revealed. The theme of this one is Penfold Post Boxes. Yes, I walked around 5 miles around town looking for half a dozen of these;

If I hadn't have started looking for Penfold Post boxes from the 1860s.....

..... I wouldn't have found the Pitville Pump Room

The church bells strike midday and I am ready to abandon amateur architecture and treasure hunting. Coordinates set for the heart of the Sandford Ale House. But where is the Deya van dropping off supplies?

Only Favourite Beers!

There's no doubt that the Good Beer Guide takes me to some wonderful places but I often wonder how much I miss. Favourite Beers is an impossibly richly laded Aladdin's cave of beery delights. It also sells keg. Great Keg. At great prices. I shall be forever grateful for being successful in today's mission. Paulaner Festbier. A bargain at £4 for half a litre.

Of course, take out was purchased. One beer made it home more or less intact

I don't know whether to be sad or grateful the shop is so far from home.

Onto my original quarry. The Sandford Park Alehouse - former CAMRA pub of the year - always hosts a fully fledged Oktoberfest. Beer! Music! Lederhosen! and Bavarian Food!. It starts today.

Little Germany

Except when they have marquee issues. The launch postponed until tonight. Not a single Oktoberfest beer available. Boring the staff with tales of my 2nd year of disappointment, I manage to get the Bavarian menu delclared open. But having had the items relayed to me verbally, rather than read on a page, I manage to make a monumental error of ordering.

Sausage sandwich with chips. With chips. With sausage on those chips.

Still, if you want to make friends, go around a pub offering free chips

It's getting to the point of my life when I don't want to go out with a chaperone to question my choices.

And does sauerkraut go with Uley Brewery Old Spot?

The only thing that can save Oktoberfest now is Lidl's suitcase of joy.

There is time for my final Good Beer Guide Tick in Cheltenham. Somehow, I manage to go from loving the Railway to hating it with a passion that has me leaving Google reviews and having a conversation with the head brewer of Nothing Bound.

An unassuming back street local

LOVING IT: £5 for Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude and wondering why more pubs don't play blues music in the afternoon sunshine. Eavesdropping on the boozy pensioners on the next table. Loving the lady who said that her husband can have a Thai bride when she passes as she knows he would be looked after. Mrs M says she is coming back to haunt me when she goes.

HATING IT: With an hour before the train that I know will be delayed, I decide to have a second pint. In the interests of experimentation, I go for (the not ironically named) Count Me Out from my local craft brewery, Nothing Bound. It's a 6% Keg. How much would you expect to be charged?

£7.80 is the answer here.

I am beyond outraged. Not only with the price but with the lack of warning from the server.

I am declaring pub exploring over and sticking to finding old post boxes in newly visited towns. 

28/07/25 - Geocaching, Ghosts and Timothy Taylor Landlord

Mysteries of Mercia Folklore

Back into the Wyre Forest, where the Forestry Commission have been laying more ammunition can geocaches. Familiar paths, from the Visitor Centre, down to Dowles Brook and back for the bus in Bewdley Town.

A Forest

Dowles Brook

My next guidebook for walking inspiration is going to be from Hugh Williams. He has two Mysteries of Mercia books and one Magic of Mercia. They are not walking books but detail the locations in the Midlands that are shrouded in folklore. Exactly the sort of thing to tide me over until the Worcestershire Section of the Good Beer Guide gets its annual September update.

Two reasons have stopped a purchase. A) I am still working through several guidebooks and the shelves are rather groaning. B) Hugh posts some detail on the locations on Facebook, telling all you need to know.

This week's post was about St Andrew's Church, located where Dowles Brook meets the Severn and on the route home today.

Date unknown - before demolition in 1956

There is no sign of the Church today, but the gravestones remain in an overgrown wood. This is a truncated version of the text from Hugh, detailing a ghostly vicar and a horned lady.

A lost graveyard and ruined chapel, hidden deep in the Wyre Forest near Bewdley—peaceful or spooky? I stumbled upon this overgrown site on a long walk. Gravestones barely rose above the undergrowth, leaning as if in surrender to nature. Only an arch and fragments of wall remain of St Andrew’s, or Dowles Church.

I’ve seen a few abandoned churches, but this one felt different—maybe it was the wild garlic scent or the green cast over everything. Beneath a great yew lay something chilling: what appeared to be a mortsafe, a metal cage once used to stop grave robbers. This one was only a metre long—possibly for a child.
Local folklore adds to the eeriness. A ghostly vicar is said to pace the path by the ruins, vanishing at the gate. Brave campers have reported flying bricks, groans and ghostly shouts. One grave, belonging to Susan Wowens—rumoured to be a witch—was said to grow horns she removed each year. A local supposedly mounted one pair in silver and sent them to the Ashmolean Museum—who deny any record. More likely, she suffered a fungal condition, later mythologised.

Very Michael Jackson Thriller

The Mortsafe - a foil for grave robbers?

Some find the place spooky, and although I am unsure whether I would spend the night there, it does make a quiet spot for a sandwich break. Just ask the Ramblers - they took me there a few months ago.

Folklore itch scratched, it's time to engage in my usual hobby. It's a toss-up between the mug house for TT Landlord or the Horn and Trumpet for Bathams. Choice decided by the place that is open on a Monday lunchtime.

The riverside Mughouse

For first-class Timothy Taylor

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Hugh Williams Mysteries of Mercia Facebook Post

09/05/25 - Pub Archaeology, Holdens and Geocaching in Trysull

Black Magic in the Black Country

I appreciate from the title of this blog that all my worlds have collided. 

I was in Trysull for a Geocaching round. You'll probably not be interested in Tupperware in bushes, but the walking in this are is very pleasant. Especially when you consider that its on the fringes of the Black Country and not far from Wolverhampton.

This is the Black Country

The village itself is ancient, mentioned in the Domesday book as "Treslei". Disappointinly, 66% of the pubs have closed down - leaving one remaining. A chance for a little pub archaeology. 

The Hollybush was found - now apartments, with little of interest. This is something that the Plough could not be accused off. An ancient postcard showing that structurally, the pub is easily identifiable. 

315

Nice bit of pub archeology at the former Plough, Trysull. Found on a 6m Geocaching trail

Spooky tales at the blog..... Which isn't mine 😄https://t.co/hJNHpSp1Mt pic.twitter.com/pCEuWOiYxc

— Mappiman (@Mappiman1) May 9, 2025

The only thing I can see that has changed in the c100 years is the placement of the sign labelled quarters. Now moved closer to the roof.

Unsure what this represents, but the other sign is to with a Cycling Club

My tweet references a blog-post detailing a rather disturbing past. A painting of the devil, links to children being involved in Black Magic rituals and tunnels to an unnamed "Green Man" gravestone. I can only assume this is in the church next to my open pub destination, The Bell. Have a read.

It would appear that it has been private accommodation since 2020, following a Marstons sell-off. A downstairs window was open and if someone had been there, I would have been tempted to ask if they knew the history. If the answer was no, they may not have slept well again, so probably for the best it was all quiet.

The Bell is a fine (finest) Holdens pub. Solid looking and "Pure Black Country" proudly displayed on the frontage. Too nice a day to sit inside, so a picnic table. Only slightly disturbing to see the old boys at the next table tucking into a roast dinner. In 24°C sunshine! On a Friday!

Pure Black Country....

.... Special

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 27

16/12/24 - Sandwell Valley Country Park

Psycho-geography through Adventure Lab Caching

Mappiman taxi service in full swing this week. A mother that needs delivering to Digbeth Coach Station for a journey that will a) hopefully reach Plymouth, in the opposite direction and b) arrive by Christmas Day.

Where to walk? A couple of ALCs in Sandwell Valley Country Park and the adjoining Dartmouth Park.

Sandwell Valley Country Park is a 660 acre green space nestled between Birmingham and West Bromwich. It's a haven for nature lovers, offering a variety of activities like cycling, walking, and birdwatching. The park's rich history is intertwined with the ruins of Sandwell Priory, a 12th-century Benedictine monastery. This historic site, once a place of religious devotion, now stands as a reminder of the area's past.

Dartmouth Park, while not directly connected to Sandwell Valley, is another significant green space in the region. It's known for its beautiful gardens, playgrounds, and sports facilities. The park offers a peaceful escape from the bustling city, providing opportunities for relaxation and recreation.

The route between the various stages, rather meandering.

Information

Low Sun over Swan Pool

Remains of Sandwell Priory

Could have been a Desi Pub Lunch. But I have a Turkey Crown to collect. I kid you not, the BBE date is 22/12/24. 

With a price tag that has me agreeing with the Daily Mail article suggesting it is now acceptable to charge your Christmas day guests.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 10 ALCs

20/09/24 - Tewkesbury, The Oldest and the Newest Pubs

Trapped by a Tornado

As excuses for being late for a Worcester Pick up - trapped in a pub by a tornado is right up on the edge of the believability stakes.

Caught a little down spout in Tewkesbury, looks better in 4k. pic.twitter.com/LwnP5gWx7X

— Rich$ingularity🇬🇧 (@richdeanmartin) September 20, 2024

Quite mental, as there was only sunshine at Worcestershire Parkway Station. That, and no trains south caused by all the flooding.

Tewkesbury was a stop off - Two Adventure Lab Caches opening my eyes to this rather unspoiled town. The Abbey, medieval buildings all flag bedecked as though the armies from Games of Thrones are visiting, cat art and many, many alleys.

How great to see the Black Bear open for the first time in my beer blogging career. And haven't they done a fine renovation job. If I told you it had a sympathetic make over, with a fine terrace overlooking the River Avon, you'd probably expect Gastro.

Glosters Oldest Inn

Lots of claims - as you would expect. Dating from 1308 and etched onto the pint glasses. Shakespeare performed there. A tunnel runs to the Abbey - now glass covered, with a monk hiding below. Used as a field hospital after the 1481 Battle of Tewkesbury. More ghosts than you can rattle a chain at.

I was impressed that they had Uley Brewery house beer and the prices kept to an affordable £4.  Excellent stuff.

And since my last visit in 2018, a new Good Beer Guide Tick in town - The Cross House Inn. Architecturally, you would be hard pushed to tell which pub was the newest.

Someone's Pub of the Year - 2023

It's a cracking two roomed micro. Ales, counter top mounted and gravity fed. Ciders and perries in bags in pull out draws.

Carton were exported to Worcestershire. 

Frequent checks at the door to see if the storm had passed. Time to determine that Travelodges are available in December for £30 a night. I'll see if any fellow casketeers are interested in a festive crawl in an impressive beer town.

Not yet

 

16/06/24 - Geocaching from the Bell at Shenington, Warwickshire

No Power.  No Real Ale.

A week in Alcudia. They have the weather and Eurofizz. We have frost warnings in June but tasty beer.

I was looking forward to a proper pint. And I can always wear a fleece.

A new geocaching trail took me back to a part of Warwickshire that I thought I'd be leaving behind on completion of the Centenary Way.

5 Miles through knee high grass and waist high crops. Close to 30 caches to keep me going.

Through the crops.....

... to find tupperware under bovine noses

My reward is the Grade II listed Bell Inn in Shenington. In harmony with the rest of the village, constructed in 1700 from the local iron stone. 

In a attempt to gain Mrs M's help in a finding tupperware, a late attempt to book a table was made, without realising that tomorrow is Father's day.  Chef said "No".  And so did Mrs M. I have left some blue faces of shame on the Geocaching map.  

The Bell on the Green

My cursory investigation had me think this was Hook Norton house. Closer inspection of the sign shows "Free House" in a larger font. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised to see two of the three hand-pulls reversed, including the Hook Norton Bitter. The TT Landlord gurgled and spluttered and delivered a half of froth.

I'm back on the Eurofizz.

Chef who says No is summonised to pull through a surprising for this part of the world Holts 1849.  

And then the power went.

Everyone's Father's day lunch is in jeopardy.

The chef went village walkabout to confirm everyone's power was out.

You'd have thought he'd look more pleased when he confirmed it was.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 28

First Geocache