14/07/19 - Heart of England Way - Stage 28 - Blockley

Distance - 6.5 Miles
Pubs - Great Western Arms, Hooky Gold
Geocaches - 0
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, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21, Stage 22, Stage 23, Stage 24, Stage 25, Stage 26, Stage 27


More Cotswold loveliness on the Heart of England Way - and like Stage 27 - this is a multi pub walk.

What's not to like?

I'm starting from Blockley.    A sizeable village that is as handsome as any of the more famous ones in the area but without the visitors.   Must be the lack of antique shops.   Starting at the Great Western Arms and heading north, I save the village centre until the triumphant return.

Its North - on paths shared between the HOEW and the Monarchs Way - first wheat fields and then some bovines to negotiate.

Path Sharing

Friendly Bovines on the HOEW

At Campden Hill Farm, I dog leg North East onto some fairly hopeless paths.   Quite surprising that major long distance paths in the Cotswolds can be so overgrown through lack of footfall.   Its a battle to get into Broad Campden but the reward is mid ramble refreshment at the pub I visited on the last leg.

Bakers Arms - Broad Campden

The way back is on paths that are in much better condition - with views opening out to Cleeve Common.

Cleeve Common Views

Wheat Fields

Woodland, marked on the map as "The Warren" provides a change in walking conditions and it's into Blockley, walking the length of the high street filled with honey stoned cottages and reaching the impressive Norman Church.

Norman Church

There are two pubs available and I'd already made up my mind to shun the Crown Hotel in preference of the Cask Marque accredited Great Western. 

Usually, you can't go wrong with a Hook Norton tied house.

But something was quite wrong with my Hooky Gold.

The Great Western Arms

Soup of the day - £4.10

Only two other customers at 2:15pm and they were both on Coffees.

I wish I had joined them.

13/07/19 - The Lamp Tavern, Birmingham

Good Beer Guide Tick - 399

What to do in Birmingham, before the pubs open?   Shoppings not really our thing, so we head to Hurst Street and take part in the Birmingham Back to Back House tour, presented by the National Trust.

Its a really well thought out way to spread visiting 5 houses across a two hour living museum tour.   Each house is set in a different time period - from when they were built in the 1840s to their final use as shops at the turn of the 2nd millennium.

Mrs M having a cultural monring out

Once over, its a question of where's the nearest unvisited Good Beer Guide Tick?

Lamp Tavern, Barford Street, Goffs Brewery Cheltenham Gold

It's a short walk from the Centre - showing just how many brownfield sites are close to City.  Increasing levels of destitution before we reach the Lamp.

Mrs M's day is going to get better and better

You know you are going to be in good hands when the Bible lists the landlord's name.   You can say "Hello Eddie", pre-armed with the knowledge that he is friendly.

He busied himself with the pub jobs of the day - sorting out motor racing on the pull down screen, pulling through a Hobsons Mild for all of twenty minutes and explaining to us how he imports genuine Tayto crisps from Ireland.

It was at this point my 21 year old lad perked up.   Apparently, these are Liam Gallagher's favourites.

With Rock Star endorsed snack of the day sorted, it was just a case of which beer to go for.   Somehow, Goffs Brewery from the Cotswolds have two of their ales on - and the Cheltenham Gold was superb condition.

Sometimes, you can pay to get into museums.   Others are included in the price of a round of drinks.

You can't think its going to last forever and it was an honour to have experienced it.

Way a pub should be - 5 hand pulls, two Guinness and no wine in the chiller

11/07/19 - Bathams Pub Walk - The New Inn, Wordsley

Distance - 3 Miles
Good Beer Guide Tick - 398
Full list of Bathams Pub Walks



Wordsley - a special place in the Mappiman household.   For it was here, 25 years ago, that our first born came into this world.   In a hospital, not a Bathams pub, I should add.   It was 48 hours that will live long in the memory for being the weekend I read 1984 in one sitting, watched my only ever episode of Eastenders and helped a hugely muscled man with a pair of forceps recreate a scene from the children's book, "The Enormous Turnip".

Even my eyes watered when he put his foot on the gurney 

But there's more to Wordsley than PTSD - for there is the New Inn, the penultimate one in my "Walks from Bathams Pubs" series.

A look at the OS Map and there looks like a nice bit of greenery to the West of the pub but I couldn't really hope for as good a walk as it delivered.

Out the pub car park and the best part of a mile along Lawnswood Road - dipping into George V park for a break from the diesel fumes.

Park Life

When you reach the Roe Deer Pub, take the public footpath south, which provides access into the proper rambling country of Lawnswood.   Excellent paths through a mature strip of woodland.

Lawnswood

With Proper Countryside Views

After a lovely mile, you'll cross the River Stour and pick up the canal at Bells Mill Bridge.    Head east for a pleasant half mile or so of canal walking, which will deliver you to the Glass House - found on a previous walk from the Unicorn.

Smashing stretch of Canal Walking

Could take in the Unicorn and turn this into a proper pub crawl

Turn left, and head uphill for your deserved refreshments.

Bathams Pub #10 Walked From

I started the day reading the predictable news about how 3 pubs a day are closing down.   Sad to see the Old Cat opposite this one now derelict.   But the market is there, when the produce and the price is right.

I've never been in a Bathams pub that hasn't been busy, regardless of the time I visit.   Today, it was old boys propping up the bar, placing bets on when the thunderstorms were likely to hit.  Evens on 3pm but the bar staff will probably win with "there will be no thunderstorms today".

I saved my pennies for a proper Black Country Lunch.

Cheese Cobs, Best Bitter and Bags of Character

And I can never resist a map perusal - even when I am sure there are 11 Bathams Pubs available.

The Bathams Nine?

09/07/19 - Two ticks in Stourbridge

Good Beer Guide Ticks:  396 and 397.

Interesting hobby, this Good Beer Guide Ticking malarkey.  Its a sisyphean task will last a life time and can never be completed.

I started with the Good Beer Guide 2017.   Stourbridge had three entries - Royal Exchange, Duke William and the Waggon and Horses.   I thought I had done it.

Cue a mid week geocaching trip and a quick check of the 2019 Guide to see what has changed.

The Duke William - arguably the best pub in town - has gone.   There's four new entries (thankfully the Mitre isn't one, otherwise I'd take up trainspotting) and the total is 6.

So more work to do.   But when did Stourbridge get so scary?

The Old Bank, 28 High Street, Ma Pardoe's Bumblehole

Navigating a rubbish bag filled high street, plagued by bmx riding hoodies that cannot be up to anything community based, I arrive at what Mrs M always said was a Wetherspoons.

A converted bank... you can see where she was coming from.

The JDW Approach to architectural reclamation

... right down to the Mezzanine floor

First thing to do is check out what everyone else is on.   Lads on the pool table on cooking lager.  Chaps outside on Peroni and Chardonnay (individual glasses, not a weird black country cocktail) - so I'm getting no inspiration there.

And there are nine hand pulls available.   Who is buying this stuff?   How long has it been on?

Trusting the bible, I request half of Ma Pardoe's Bumblehole.    This is a drink, rather than a piece of her anatomy.  Its also in perfect condition.

Taken outside to admire the closed French restaurant that will surely be burnt down once Halloween brings Brexit and the Black Country Bunting.

All of two minutes pass before aggressive tramps start hassling me for money.   I thought this was a London thing.

Hoping its not permanent

Red House Boutique, Foster Place, Holdens Golden Glow

Back down the High Street, with more requests for my loose change, I head to an end of Stourbridge previously unvisited.   There's a cluster of pubs - one of which is the Bible approved Red House Boutique.

It wore the inverse livery of Bass Beer but that's where the nod to tradition ended.   It's a converted Hogshead Bar - so has a very 1990s wine bar feel to it.   The music was also deafening.   I was almost tempted to sit outside but I'm not making that mistake twice in a night.

Back behind the Velvet Rope

Three extra-ordinarily drunk men prop up the counter.  I would say for a Tuesday but I doubt if they would be more pissed at a weekend wedding with a free bar.

The reason may have had something to do with £2.70 a pint.    Not paid so little since I fell out with JDWs after the dog ban.

The Holden's Golden Glow was a good as ever... marred only by being in a cider Glass.

Adding a dart board to mask the wine bar feel.  Real Ale in a Real Cider Glass

Barbridge and Badelynge Bar to tick off... until the 2020 edition is released and its all up for grabs again.