July 2026. Sheffield. The boys wanted to visit Dad with me, so we all popped down Saturday after a night of fringe fun. Tramlines “proper” is Sheffield’s equivalent of Latitude (ugh), without the pashminas and laughing gas and dangerous proximity to Southwold. 3 days (no camping) of heritage (ugh) bands living off their 2000s hit.… Continue reading TASTES LIKE TRACK SONOMA. TRAMLINES FRINGE 2026.
FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (v) THE CRAFTY DRAGON
July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. A short post to end Whitchurch on a high. A 4pm opener, 12 minutes walk to the station, train to Crewe at 16:44. Perfect. And the Crafty Dragon, which I am going to call the Magic Dragon, opened a minute early. I like that in a pub. Opening half an hour… Continue reading FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (v) THE CRAFTY DRAGON
FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (iv) THE BLACK BEAR
July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. Two to go, before a dash to the station and a series of gaps between trains that weren’t quite long enough to fit in more “research” in Crewe and Stockport. The Black Bear is the pub in that Visit Shropshire guide, mainly because it’s a restaurant. A chap barges past me… Continue reading FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (iv) THE BLACK BEAR
ST. ALKMUND’S CHURCH, WHITCHURCH (NCSS 4)
July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. You can generate a mass of blog material in a 4 hour visit, even with 5 pubs and a 10 minute indecision about cheese purchase to interrupt your cultural exploration. As with pork pies, cheese is best heated up. Don’t @ me. I wondered what else the internet would reveal about… Continue reading ST. ALKMUND’S CHURCH, WHITCHURCH (NCSS 4)
FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (iii) THE OLD TOWN HALL VAULTS
July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. I picked up that Whitchurch pub trail leaflet at the Heritage Centre, thinking I could send it to Stafford’s Paul Mudge for his collection. One thing though; it seems to bear no relation to the actual pubs. And not just because of daft name changes. No Wheatsheaf, no Old Eagles, and… Continue reading FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (iii) THE OLD TOWN HALL VAULTS
THINGS TO DO IN WHITCHURCH WHEN POWELLS PIES IS UNEXPECTEDLY CLOSED
July 2026. Whitchurch. Salop. Apart from visiting (spoiler) five pubs in Whitchurch, what is there to actually do in this compact little borders town of 10,000 if the award winning pie maker is unexpectedly closed ? Well, I could have got my hair cut at a barbers with the best window display in decades, and… Continue reading THINGS TO DO IN WHITCHURCH WHEN POWELLS PIES IS UNEXPECTEDLY CLOSED
“Ain’t that just lil ‘ol England”. DODINGTON, WHITCHURCH
July 2026. Dodington. Whitchurch. “Ain’t that just lil ‘ol England” is a line said to me by (wait for it) an American tourist in Haddenham (Oxon) a few years back as she stared at a street of coloured timber. Several Haddenhams, and many Whitchurches. Our Shropshire one has all the usual features of a Borders… Continue reading “Ain’t that just lil ‘ol England”. DODINGTON, WHITCHURCH
FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (ii) THE OLD EAGLES
July 2026. Whitchurch. Shropshire. By law all blog posts must show where the subject of your writing is in relation to Wrexham. Well, Whitchurch must be close, as I had Magic Dragon’s beers in three (3) pubs last Thursday. A fourth was Joules from Market Drayton, practically the next town down, and the nap hand… Continue reading FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (ii) THE OLD EAGLES
FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (i) THE WHEATSHEAF HOTEL
July 2026. Whitchurch (Shropshire). OK, they’re not all “wonders“, but illiteration innit ? Whitchurch (Salop, there’s loads of them. See also : Newport) is a pretty little town, overlooked by those on the way down to bigger hitters like Shrewsbury and Ludlow and Cwmbran. Famous for clocks, I later learn. The half mile from station… Continue reading FIVE WHITCHURCH (SALOP) WONDERS – (i) THE WHEATSHEAF HOTEL
TAKE THE FIRST TRAIN TO MILFORD HAVEN
July 2026. Heading towards Wales. Regular readers will know that “family issues” have conspired to keep our travels to a circuit between Sheffield, Cambridge and Tunbridge Wells these last few years, with a few interludes in the Balkans and along the Leeds- Liverpool canal to break the monotony. On Thursday I broke the shackles and… Continue reading TAKE THE FIRST TRAIN TO MILFORD HAVEN
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