Another day, another old school Midlands boozer in the Beer Guide for my delectation. I really am encroaching on LifeAfterFootball territory now, and without prior written permission.
Listed under Chapel End, the Salutation turns out to be in suburban Nuneaton near the old mining village of Hartshill. It’s an uphill walk both ways, but the GBG taunts me with a promise of Draught Bass.
As so often (and because my time is tight) the photos tell you all you need to know about a boozer without pretensions.
I enter to the left, the handpumps are to the right.
It’s all true !
The Old Boys have no interest in the Bass or the weird homebrew. Or me, though I sense I’m interrupting their swearing contest. Plain blokes pubs like this don’t get in the Beer Guide anymore in places like Cardiff or Chester (or Stockport, to be honest).
Well, that was a hard choice.
A bit TOO creamy, if I’m honest, almost like the Worthington Bitter you get in clubs in West Wales. Somewhere between 2.5 and 3. Not all Bass has to be Great Bass, of course.
But no-one goes in the Salutation to rate the Bass. They go to listen to acoustic Americana competing with “All I Want For Christmas Is You“, Mariah winning, of course.
And they go to watch Chelsea and Arsenal playing European giants on Thursday nights.
They’ll never have the joy of a pint with lacings like mine.
Still don’t comprehend the geometric feasibility of a journey starting at one height, taking in an uphill destination, and ending up being up hill back to the starting point? Please clarify (or is this some quirk of the completers/bloggers unique universe?).
HNY BTW
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I saw it on the science programme. Doctor Who ?
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Pub bloggers’ version of Electric Brae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqOYbeTaqs
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I think it’s the equivalent of the Goon Show where they go right round the world to sneak up on the castle from the other side. 🙂
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You had me worried with this one. I thought I’d got the wrong pub name in Hartshill. Also you could have visited my grandad’s old pub in nearby New Arley.
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Wagon Load of Lime ? Always wanted to visit that.
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Fir Tree Inn. Unlikely to be a tick, more likely to be a housing estate.
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It’s a simple,unarguable fact of life.
Any pub that has a veneered plywood counter top will be shite.
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The Royal Oak at Ockbrook has some formica-covered plywood as I recall. It’s brilliant.
Are you at least partially reassured?
Incidentally I love the ladies’ sign, apparently written by someone like the David Walliams character in Little Britain.
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P P-T
The best pubs are those without any bar counter like the Manor Arms at Rushall near me and the Rose and Crown at Huish Episcopi in Somerset.
In such proper pubs selfish twits can’t sit at the bar counter hindering other customers getting served.
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To answer your question, they play in the Azerbaijan Premier League.
Long trip when Arsenal play them away. Does our Scottish colleague do overseas grounds and, if so, has he visited this one ?
I’ve always been fascinated by the Russian sides such as Vladivostok, from the east coast, who travel nearly half way around the world for away league games !
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I think the presence of M&B mild as well as Bass gives it even better kudos 😉 I prefer a creamy Bass 🔺 but I’ve yet to see you give a duff beer review so average bass it is…. Nuneaton is to Coventry as Coalville is to Leicester I reckon….great post and the interloping on to keg friendly estate style pubs can continue apace…
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I would have liked to bring you pictures of quirky Nuneaton but it was raining !
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Some pubs don’t always lend themselves to photos!!!
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I had to look up Qarabag, and as for those fonts, I swear they get larger every year – or is it just the camera angle?
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They get larger every year, Paul. Guinness is losing market share and responds by doubling the font size !
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Ha! I must say these gimmicky beer pumps can put me off whatever beer they’re supposed to be promoting. Has a faintly desperate air to it, as if they are fearful their product might otherwise be unworthy of attention.
For me the ideal is a substantial-looking pump clip, like those used by London Pride or Wainwright. (Not to say those are necessarily my ideal beers– I’ve never even had Wainwright to be honest!)
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Wahaay.
The first bastard quarter to four of 2019.
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– or the first one when you weren’t still awake from the previous night ?
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Commensurate with my New Years resolution – to speak only the truth: Draught Bass can never be great, not since Bass stopped brewing it in their own brewery. Like Rolls Royce can never be a true grand marque since being sold to others, it can only be a pale imitation of what was.
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You lied last year?
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No, always say it as it is, is my motto.
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On that basis Brass Castle beer can never be great since they sold out by moving from a garage in Pocklington to a mega-beer factory in Malton. Them’s the rules.
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Your front room’s bigger than the Brass Castle Brewery! Besides, it’s the same people, with the same ethos and principles. They haven’t sold out, been enveloped within a multi-national corporation and then asked some chavver in Wolverhampton to make it for them … just kid on it’s still made in Burton mate, nod, nod, wink, wink, they’ll never know.
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That’s right, leaving your plain East Yorks market town for the bright lights of North Yorks isn’t selling out to the man, is it ?
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Mmmm, Not sure Malton is the bright lights ???
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It is compared to Pocklington and Market Weighton, saw a pashmina shop there once.
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Brilliant canvass and leather maker in Malton.
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And on that basis Oakham beers can never be great since they’re brewed in Peterborough.
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Oh yes, good call. Sell out.
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You found more to report on than I did (think our visits were an hour or two apart). Naturally I had the Ainsty beer as I am afraid Richard is right. In 2019 the truth must be spoken! Though it’s good when it’s good. Never been to Qarabag or to Azerbaijan though suspect you might have been there it af least nearer there than me.
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“for my delectation. ”
Look, if you’re going to go all “Pashmina” on us I may have to go elsewhere!
“Listed under Chapel End”
I swear you’re trying to make me go blind with these teeny OS maps… and my wife is doing a good job on that all on her own. 😉
“It’s an uphill walk both ways”
You forgot to mention the snow; and the dark; and the fact there was wolves. 🙂
“Smart phone quiz”
So… you type the question into your Smart phone and it yells out the answer?
“Love the Guinness font”
But the Coors Light one stands above them all (bleh).
“It’s all true !”
I still get confused about that. 🙂
“Not all Bass has to be Great Bass, of course.”
Bass is a bit like one’s missus*; it doesn’t have to be on top form all the time, but any time you drink from it is bloody nirvana mate. 🙂
“Who are Qarabag anyway ?”
Beat me to it.
“They’ll never have the joy of a pint with lacings like mine.”
Yup. My better half in lacings makes NBSS scores go right out the window, mate. 🙂
Cheers
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Enough, Russ, enough or my blog will need an “18” certificate !
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Anyone under 18 shouldn’t be reading about beer anyway!*
Cheers
* – In Canada legally they can read about weed. 🙂
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