11/08/26 - The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne

Comparing Ancient Worcestershire Pubs

It's a matter of days before the new edition of the Good Beer Guide is replaced. Where does time go?

My usual commitment is to ensure that my home county, Worcestershire remains "greened". There are two entries to tick.

Today, it is Honeybourne. Technically two villages - Church Honeybourne and Cow Honeybourne. Until 1958, one was in Worcestershire and one was in Gloucestershire. Its fortunes have improved with the coming of the railways - first being on the Cheltenham Line and more recently on the London-Worcester line.

The walking was always going to be agricultural. At times the paths were lost to 6ft corn crops. At others, I was walking - quite legally on the right of way - through strawberry poly-tunnels.

Lost again

Lunchtime snacks available. Bring your own sugar.

The walk was largely perfunctory - designed to work up a thirst. 

The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne is the new 2026 tick. And I am having no problems in finding it.

One day, all pubs will be so well signposted

However, the walk takes me through Bretforton. Lovers of pubs know what this means. It would be rude not to say hello to an old friend. The Fleece Inn is described in one of my pub books as "one of the best half dozen historic pubs in England".

Both pubs appear in my 1960s guide "Historic and New Inns of Interest" and are of a similar age. A chance for me to compare and contrast.

The Fleece Inn, Bretforton

The memories of my last walk here - snow on the ground. What we would give for such days again!

The Fleece in a heatwave

The building is more than 500 years old and half timber-framed. A former longhouse farmstead - home to animals and humans - and in the same family until donated to the National Trust in 1978. 15 generations of the Byrds, the former owners, are found in the adjacent churchyard.

Rambling inside - there are low doorways, a tiny narrow bar and a rear dining room. Here you can see the famous "witch marks" at the fireplace, should you be lucky enough to get a seat.

I was lucky on snow day, 2024

I do manage to get a table inside - in front of the 300-year old pewter dining set display. Uley Brewery Pig's Ear is on, as always.

In front of the family heirlooms

The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne

I'm not sure how much of the C13th infrastructure remains. Again, it's half timbered and unlike the 1960s guide book, the A-framing can be seen from the other end, not where a more modern extension has been added.

That's the architectural angle! Two tree trunks pegged together for support

Unlike the Fleece, once inside, you could be anywhere. A modern bar... modern furniture... I wandered around, looking to see anything to photograph. To the delight of pensioner diners and knock-off early workers, there was nothing.

The cask range a little pedestrian. An HPA and another pale ale with a not-to-be-trusted handwritten pump clip.

It does have things going for it - a wonderful beer garden, regular and early opening hours (11am daily) and in these troubled days of cost of living crisis - reasonably priced and deliciously chilled keg lagers.

Walk Details

Distance - 8.5 miles 

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - Jarrold The Malverns to the Warwickshire, Walk 19

06/03/26 - The Mug House, Claines

Ghostly Goings on in the Good Beer Guide

I'll never get around to visiting every pub in a Good Beer Guide, but I can set myself a target of keeping my home county of Worcestershire "greened". 2026 saw five new entries.

The Mug House, Claines, becomes my latest quarry.

Now part of the Marston's chain

It probably comes as no surprise that this pub is detailed in two of my other books. Worcestershire's Historic Pubs and Haunted Pubs of Worcestershire. Let's deal with the stories.

Book 1 incorrectly claims it is the only pub on consecrated land in the UK. It is indeed housed within the Churchyard of St John the Baptist but book two says it is one of two, without providing details. AI confirms that the Ring O'Bells in Kendal is the other. With a name like that, it certainly sounds plausible.

Both books agree that during 1947 renovations, the silver head of a bishop's crozier was recovered, hidden in the walls. Handed to the Bishop of Worcester, it has been used in annual celebrations since.

Ghost tales? The usual hysterics in Haunted Pubs of strange noises, dogs that won't settle, and the tapping mallet going missing. Both books comment on a haunting by a ghost from the English Civil War - who goes to the front door, shouts "Beware!" and then heads to the church to play the organ.

No organ playing today, but it was "doors open".

The pub is as higgledy-piggledy as you would expect. The front room packed with solo men drinking. No photos from there, but it is the obvious place to see the wares and order. HPA and Butty Bach are a rather pedestrian offering for this part of the world.

A rear dining room offers fine views of the Malverns and a large mural painting by someone whose main career wasn't art.

The distant Malvern

How the pub looked in 1745

Finally, a smoke room/snug - where mugs hang from the rafters and a fox's head is nailed to the wall.

Butty Bach in fine condition

A perfectly good GBG recommendation and surprisingly easy access to public transport. Waiting for the 303 back to Kidderminster, every other car is flashes me as I look out for the bus.

The drivers of Worcester giving it to the man. Speed traps ahead.

19/02/26 - The Eagle, Cookley

Spin Eagle

The Eagle at Cookley is filed under "Locals" in the Worcestershire Historic Pubs book. Centre of the village and providing sustenance for the workers at the local metal-working factory. We then have some details of its names since inception in 1834. The Spin Eagle, the Eagle and Spur and now simply the Eagle.

First - a walk, which meets the requirement well. No mud. A jaunt down the Worcester/Staffordshire Canal - including the tunnel that cuts directly under the village houses. (For future reference, it is possible to get to the village - Google maps was unclear on planning). Solid paths through agricultural land connected to Lea Castle and back to explore the village.

Joining the canal near Caunsall

Which came first? The tunnel or the houses?

Surprisingly mud free

Entrance to Lea Castle

Inside St Peters

It looks like Cookley supported three pubs - The Red Lion is now a convenience store. The Bull and the Eagle sit side by side in the village centre, opposite the chipper.

Impressive in size, if not in colour

The Eagle is multiple houses knocked together, which provides a higgledy-piggledy internal experience, bars lead to corridors, which lead to a lounge containing the king of pub furniture.. The Chesterfield. The cask also needs to be hunted - the main bar looking disappointingly keg only. Two hand pulls on another bar - Wye Valley Pyoneer and HPA.

Walk Details

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 6

Walk Inspiration

04/12/25 - The Black Star, Stourport

My Local

A familiar walk from home - inspired by the pages from the book "Worcestershire's Historic Pubs". Sometimes, it's good not to have to wait at bus stops whilst your plumber drives past, winds down his window and hollers "Bus W*nker!" at you.

I'll try not to repeat text on this familiar walk over Burlish Top, Ribbesford and back over Stagborough Hill.

Blackstone Rock, observed from the other side of the river.

Hermit home of the baby rescuer of Bewdley

Ribbesford Church, I've still not completed as much research as this page. There's no need. They have done the work for me. At long last, I have paid attention to the tympanum - a carving above the North door. It shows a hunter, a skinny dog and an unidentified animal, rumoured through folklore to be a duck billed platypus. Not that we have many of those in Worcestershire. I also noted how the original Norman church is much extended, with an extra arcade supporting the roof with oak beams.

Ribbesford Church

Tough to photograph - a hunter, a skinny dog and whatever that is on the right

Space and airiness created by an extension

The trig point at Stagborough Hill logged and recorded in the relevant ticking app.

Views over Ribbesford Woods

See - I told Mrs M I wouldn't get bored in retirement. I'm still finding things to record on very familiar walks. A "busy fool" is what she calls me.

Which brings me on to my local. The Good Beer Guide regular, The Black Star. 

No point creating work. Here is my PubsGalore review;

Ha - my local, so I suppose I ought to review.

The current owners have just celebrated their 10 year anniversary. Its no exaggeration to say they saved the town but doing the basics very well. Exceptionally kept beer that is just about the cheapest I find outside spoons. Butty Bach currently £3.80. Decent food, cobs, pork pies. Live music everyday of the weekend.

There was simply nowhere to go for a decent pint before they took it over. As a result of the "grey pound" coming back out, other pubs have come from the ashes (Swan), upped their game considerably (Hollybush, also in GBG). We even have a micropub and a brewery in town.

The building is actually three terraced together - a front cottage. An old chapel and where the kitchens are, a former school. Decent outside patio.

Now a freehouse, it still has close ties with Wye Valley. All theirs on and usually LocALE breweries such as Ludlow Gold and Fownd from Kidderminster.

Always busy. It shows the demand is there for a well run pub.

Three buildings - the highest, a chapel, the smallest a school.

Let's see what the Historic Pubs of Worcestershire has to say;

Long Live the Local!

Walk Details

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - WikiLoc

14/10/25 - The Barnt Green Inn

Ghostly Tunnels

Barnt Green - just inside the Worcestershire border and a posh commuter village. Home at one time or the other to Big Ron, Jamelia, Private Pike and Jack Grealish.

I am here with the Ramblers for a magical mystery tour. All I know is where to meet - opposite the butchers with award-winning pork pies - and the distance of the walk, 5 miles.

It's all rather pleasant - south over the M42, new to me paths to Withybed Green and then the familiar along the canal and past the Bittell reservoirs.

Autumn views over North Worcestershire

Communal living on the Worcester-Birmingham Canal

Bittell Reservoir

Walk over and an Adventure Lab Cache guides me around the village. This of course, includes the wonderful Barnt Green Inn. A 16th-century house, converted to a pub, where their Facebook Page announces when Grealish comes in to talk about Cockapoos.

Surprisingly, for a pub that has so much history and in prime walking location, it appears in only one of my Worcesteshire pub guide books. The frankly ridiculous "Haunted Pubs of Worcestershire". From the book's size, it appears that every pub in Worcestershire is haunted.

The Barnt Green Inn

A poor scan of its horrible history

For those time-constrained, a man and his son - at different times - saw a ghostly woman disappearing into a hedge opposite the pub. The reason for blog inclusion? It collaborates WhatPub's rumour that there is a tunnel that runs from the pub to Cofton. Or Coughton (much further away), if you believe the Ghost Book.

An enjoyable visit to the gastro-pub to work out the ALC bonus calculations.... use of their facilities ran to the loos, a warm in front of the roaring fire but I couldn't quite bring myself to spend money on a Doom Bar of unknown quality.

I have a date with a Wetherspoons!

My maths - their fire - someone else's wine

Walk Details

Distance - 5.25 Miles

Geocaches - An Adventure Lab Cache

04/09/25 - The Bell at Pensax

The Lost Snug

Another book to work my way through. Worcestershire's Historic Pubs. No index and rather haphazard organisation - chapters on Mug Houses, Canal and Railway Pubs, Road Side Pubs and Locals. 

The Bell at Pensax is filed under "Road Side Pubs".

Proper Pub Queuing

Book published in 2007

The walk is from the Ramblers. Pensax and Menith Wood don't offer much for discovery. Half-hearted coal mining, but no evidence on the ground. I have to make do with hop fields, woodland and some fine views of the Worcestershire countryside.

At least I think they are hops. The Seek App identified them as "common weeds"

This is the third time I have walked past Burnt House. There's a hermit that lives in splendid isolation with an ever-increasing collection of junk. Last time I passed, a radio was playing but all was in silence today. The next field has a farmer chopping down a tree who confirms that the eccentric is still alive. Maybe he has run out of battery.

A similar photo from 2018

Pub Archaeology at Menith Wood. The OS Map shows the big blue cup of joy, but identifying the Cross Keys proves impossible. The internet provides only one nondescript external photo but a Facebook page hints at the joy within.  A closed pub is more than bricks and mortar; it is the fading of countless conversations, celebrations, and friendships.

The former landlady and slightly menacing landlord

We made our own entertainment. It was shite.

A return to the Bell at Pensax. It was a permanent feature in the Good Beer Guide and was probably my first serious attempt at blogging pubs. It was closed for a few years and reopened in 2023. But not to universal acclaim. CAMRA removed it from its "Inventory of Historic Interiors" when the snug was lost during the renovation.

Bell forged in 1886 - about the same time as the pub

The central serving hatch has also gone, but they leave the sign where Miss E Wallop has sold out her female sisters by insisting they know their place.

A pub is no place for discretion

A dining room to the left and the main bar to the right. Log Burner, flagged floors and a frankly unnecessary selection of 6 cask ales. No need, there are only two other punters on a Thursday lunch.

I'm counting four pales and two bitters.  Is there any need?

To be fair, the Ludlow Gold was pulled through with a full 100% "wastage". One pint for the sink, one pint for me.

Monumental sausage rolls and scotch eggs available under a glass dome. Alas, the Mappiman retirement budget only runs to a liquid lunch, despite the temptation of a wonderful smelling fish finger sandwiches delivered to the two other punters.

Hard, when the storms meant you didn't bother taking sandwiches on the ramble.

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - The Ramblers