Thanks to Ethelred for the title; the usual pint of Doom Bar winging its way to you as soon as they start canning it as a craft beer.
Well, my attempts to speed up Shifnal are going about as fast as the town itself. Not very.
Pub 4 was the Wheatsheaf. Pubs called the Wheatsheaf rarely let you down, do they ?
A Banks’s house of the old but loveably scruffy persuasion,
The Golden Hour clearly starts early in the Wheatsheaf, whose pub snacks collection would have looked more enticing if we weren’t stuffed with fish and chips.
All human life was here. Perhaps that’s the advantage of not having a Spoons in town.
An unusually eclectic music mix included early O’Jays, and these two;
Big band, soul and alt-folk. No prog for Mudgie, mind.
At some point I managed to take this photo of Stafford Paul’s famous maps, strangely reminiscent of the AA guides to away grounds published in Coventry City programmes in 1972.
With it not being in the Guide, it was clear the Wheatsheaf would produce my beer of the day, and so it was. 3.5 for the Mild.
We didn’t want to leave, and ten minutes later we wished we hadn’t.
Old and scruffy, sounds familiar.
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Oi, you talking about me 😱
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Could be any number of suspects.
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But my maps serve their purpose and I don’t mind.
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Better than Sat Nav.
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A great looking pub with the added bonus of no nearby Spoons to spoil the day.
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It can depend.
I think that – for reasons which we had perhaps best leave aside – the Brown Bear in Sheffield, say, might be improved by a nearer Wetherspoons.
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In that case I’d swerve both.
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But surely Tim’s The Benjamin Huntsman is only a cockstride from Humphrey’s Brown Bear.
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Yes, “near” is relative – and the people whom I imply probably couldn’t be bothered with even that moderately shorty walk for similarly-priced beer, Paul.
Then again, it, might be improved by, er, not being a Sam Smith’s pub in that part of town for my money.
There, I’ve said it.
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Etu,
I don’t really want to get drawn into a discussion on the definition of “near” but near is nearer than it was before my knees failed.
I certainly wouldn’t mind the Brown Bear being within walking distance of my house.
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Mrs RM and I used the Brown Bear earlier this year after reopening and found it very welcoming indeed, and much smarter that Tim’s Banker’s Draft we’d just left.
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Me neither, and if just popping out for a swift pint I’d undoubtedly prefer it to Spoons.
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Oh good, I’m glad to hear that.
I’d perhaps prefer the Corstorphine Inn, or Three Pigeons Halifax within walking distance of my house though.
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Well I would like the Great Western, the Beacon, the Laurieston, Bath’s Star and the others of my top ten pubs within walking distance of my house but that’s just plain greedy.
More realistically I would like a Sam Smiths pub in Stafford to save me going to Chester, Stockport or London so often. ,
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I think Shifnal is too small for a Spoons and, although it has quite a few pubs, doesn’t give the impression that its shops really generate very much footfall.
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The lack of shops was noticeable. Telford has expanded its indoor shopping centre significantly in recent times.
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“Shifnal is too small for a Spoons” – so which is the smallest town blessed / plagued by a Wetherspoons ?
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Perranporth or Pwllheli, both with a population of around 4000.
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Sounds right. Pwllheli was really good.
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Thanks Leon,
I’ve thought Pwllheli to be one of Tim’s better venues but it’s not without its problems.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-claims-told-leave-wetherspoons-13001027
I always knew that children are more trouble than dogs !
And which is the largest town without a Wetherspoons ?
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I was there that very month. Staff couldn’t have been nicer.
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I can’t fault the Pen Cob.
I choose 23 minutes rather than 143 minutes between trains there and that’s enough time to get served and quaff a pint in that one.
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Catching up here but love the undertone of gentle piss taking throughout the whole of this piece!
Great looking pub with proper punters and 🍺
Like the Cov City line!
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LAF,
It’s okay. My maps can take it !
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Your maps are one of my very favourite things, Paul. They’re very similar to Simon’s (BRAPA) plans.
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Thanks for the billing, Martin.
I haven’t actually seen the film Withnail And I.
The late, and much lamented Vivian MacKerrel – on whom Withnail is based – a one time regular of the Falcon at Nottingham’s Canning Circus, related all its main scenes to us anecdotally, some time before we knew that the film was even proposed.
The pictures are still so vivid in my mind that I didn’t want to overwrite them, rather like my father’s account of the Battle Of Arnhem, perhaps, and A Bridge Too Far, even if in an utterly different vein.
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I haven’t seen it either, or any Star Wars films, but I still feel I know it.
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Yes, when I say I haven’t seen it, I mean all at one go and deliberately. There have been so many clips that it’s unavoidable.
I’m the same on the Star Wars.
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Spoiler : Spock dies.
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I wish we were sitting there. We only visited the White Hart and Plough on our quick visit. Oh, we also stopped at a bakery.
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A late contender for best blog title of the year.
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Credited to Etu 😉
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