TOP 10 COUNTIES – No.10 – STAFFORDSHIRE

Well, I teased you with a promise of my favourite GBG counties, offered a great prize, and then failed to tell you what they were.

Baa Baa Toure gave me a disapproving look at my lazy blogging.

OK, let’s start with Staffordshire, in at a respectable 10th for a landlocked county without a standout Chinese takeaway (but keep reading).

As you’ll see, Staffs could be immeasurably improved by returning to pre-74 county boundaries and reclaiming Wolves, Walsall and West Bromwich as its owns, but there’s at least three essential pub towns here.

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So let’s start with the pubs;

Staffordshire does Bass best.

Some of our very best Pubs in Staffs.

You’ll know this one,

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Coopers. Of course.

The best place to sample the Cooper’s beer is, of course in the Balti houses next door; Apne or Balti Towers, both great.

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but you might not know this one from Hednesford. one of many plain but lively boozers round Cannock Chase;

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Bridge, Hednesford

Plenty of Cheap Pub Grub about, too.

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Blue Mugge, Leek
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Cheslyn Hay

And fiery scratchings.

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The Bell, Whittington

Plenty of Hills in the Moorlands.

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and impressive timber in the county town.

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Stafford

Churches – yes, they have churches.

And finally, a National Arboretum

And, of course, it’s the home of top Pub Man, Paul Mudge. ’nuff said.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

43 thoughts on “TOP 10 COUNTIES – No.10 – STAFFORDSHIRE”

    1. Dave,
      Yes, I’ve managed well enough living in Staffordshire for sixty-five years.
      And yes Staffordshire could do with some seaside. Blithfield Reservoir and Chasewater aren’t quite the same.
      Equally good meals are a similar price in the Great Western and cheaper in the Bull and Bladder, both of which will return to Staffordshire come the revolution.
      I remember the Bridge at Hednesford as a keg only Ansells pub in the early 1970s.

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      1. That made me check – but Netherton is actually in historic Staffordshire, albeit very close to the Worcestershire boundary 😀

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      2. Stafford Paul, back in my student days, whilst staying in Hednesford, with a friend from uni, I ended up rather the worse from drink at a local pub. I’ve a feeling it was the Queen’s something or other (Arms or Head?), but I can’t find it on WhatPub.

        It was an M&B house – no surprise back then, so the beer must have been either Brew XI or Springfield Bitter.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. T’other Paul,
        Yes, the Queens Arms, a proper pub with Highgate Mild and Springfield Bitter.
        It was the regular of a school friend’s father. The last I heard she was living in Cambridgeshire.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Hopefully the new Backyard pub in Hednesford will make the new GBG, Heddins Ford is a cracking addition to the beer scene. Lovely curry house opposite too.

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      2. Martin,
        Maybe it’s just that I’ve never got to know the Potteries properly.
        Only last month I realised that, in t’other direction, I’ve never properly been to Bilston, Wednesfield and West Bromwich and that there’s plenty of pubs that way for a Proper Day Out on the Midland Metro, that’s if things ever get ‘back to normal’.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Huge Staffs shaped gap in my own blogging, mainly due to the difficulty of getting there by train from upmarket East Mids. I have a soft spot for the whole area after many years vomiting my youth around Stoke with friends, and numerous courses at Yarnfield with evening exploratories by bike around Stone and environs. Anything to avoid the M& B in the controversial Labour In Vain, talking of which…

    Yikes! Let’s hope that beer twitter/facebook don’t spot that lass with her (ahem!) ‘targets’-out lurking behind that cask in the Coopers! Could lead to yet another nasty WOKE pile-on, particularly as the Coopers haven’t gone ‘21st Century Murk’ yet so are clearly not moving with the times…

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    2. “Yikes! Let’s hope that beer twitter/facebook don’t spot that lass with her (ahem!) ‘targets’-out lurking behind that cask in the Coopers! ”

      I should like to point out that I noticed said lass (and targets!) but decided to be decorous in this instance. 🙂

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    3. Mark,
      As for “the difficulty of getting there by train from upmarket East Mids” Uttoxeter should be easy enough and you might then not want to venture any further. .

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Hour and a half, two changes (10 minutes each so a bit tight for delays), £26 😳

        Certainly not impossible, and Uttoxeter is definitely on my to-do list when I can be a bit more sure the pubs will be open midweek afternoons.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Mark,
        I didn’t realise it would be two changes.
        I remember about fifteen years ago a through Skegness – East Midlands – Uttoxeter – Crewe train.
        The Beer and Pubs Forum had a great Proper Day Out in Uttoxeter last year and you might find reports of that helpful.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I’ve got a couple of posts to go then I’m ‘doing a Beermat’ and mothballing the blog. It’s getting too difficult to get the material I want and it seems unfair on licensees and staff to be asking for special favours they wouldn’t reasonably afford others. It seems a bit pointless with all the games leagues defunct for the foreseeable future too. The skittles tables of Staffs will have to wait for better days I think…

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I’m a bit worried about your beer at the Bell, Whittington – I hope you took it back and got it changed. (You could have asked for a healthier snack, too, while you were there.)

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  6. For many years I thought that Shropshire was the place to live until I discovered that most of the places along the Shropshire Union Canal are,in fact, in Staffordshire! (As you head north, Market Drayton is the first major place that’s in Shropshire.)

    Purely from a canal/pubs viewpoint, Staffordshire would be my Number One County!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Pete,
      Yes, it should have been called the Staffordshire Union Canal but Thomas Telford thought that might cause confusion with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
      It is feared that the Anchor at High Offley won’t reopen.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. The canal between Autherley Junction and Nantwich was originally called the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction. The name “Shropshire Union” arose from a merger with other canals, large sections of which were in Shropshire.

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      1. Well yes, though there’s no denying that Derbyshire ( and Cheshire ) has some good bits of it.

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  7. “Baa Baa Toure gave me a disapproving look at my lazy blogging.”

    He always looks like that. Oh, and what’s that bit of pink up in the grey bit that isn’t ENGLAND (as it says in the photo). 😉

    “As you’ll see, Staffs could be immeasurably improved by returning to pre-74 county boundaries and reclaiming Wolves, Walsall and West Bromwich as its owns,”

    It would be smarter to nip out and snag Burton upon Trent.

    “Coopers. Of course.”

    As they say… ‘a little bit of heaven’.

    “Plenty of Cheap Pub Grub about, too.”

    Blimey! Looking at the menu below… I’ll say!

    “Plenty of Hills in the Moorlands.”

    The dismantled railway is the highlight of the map. 🙂

    “Churches – yes, they have churches.”

    Is that a second church behind the bloody big church in front?

    “And, of course, it’s the home of top Pub Man, Paul Mudge. ’nuff said.”

    Ah… that’s why his name starts with ‘Stafford’. 😉

    Cheers

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    1. Burton is in Staffs. Thinking about it, Staffs could be higher than No. 10.

      That church is Lichfield 3 spires cathedral, confuses me every time.

      The blob of pink is Glasgow or whatever it’s called. Duncan helped me finish that!

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