retiredmartin

May 2023.

Own up. How many of you could place Alcester (pop. 6,273) on a map ?

Probably only Mark Crilley, who reads all my posts thoroughly and saw the map in my 2017 post. Except I see that I only gave you an extract of the town itself 6 years ago, so here’s a map of the Worcs/Warwicks hinterland for you. Life After Football has played for 23 teams on that map.

The highlight of that 2017 overnighter was a curry with Curry Charles. Sadly the Romna II Balti appears to have died in the interim (nowt to do with Charles or I), but Alcester otherwise is unchanged, bar the population decline following the brutal riots caused by Waitrose ending their free coffees in 2018.

OK, the gentlefolk were all in that Waitrose rather than in the cobbled streets around the church,

but the cafes were ticking along, and it remains a place with quiet charm, the “lil ol’ England” that Americans come to see. And there’s more GBG entries than Stratford-on-Avon, one of the worst pub towns in England.

I had the opportunity to walk every cobbled lane in town, as the Royal Oak had recently moved its Wednesday opening from 12 to 3 without telling anyone, except by way of a sign on the door.

This creeping late opening of town pubs is the hot topic in 2023, and no doubt the next GBG with Iron Maiden cover will explore that issue with Bruce Dickinson in detail; you have to be a real trooper to tick pubs with such unpredictable opening.

The inconvenience of an hour’s wait was eased by the smell of fresh buns from the Butter Street Bakery; if you come from the Black Country you’ll know them as cobs, of course.

Even plain, they were gorgeous.

The Royal Oak was a bit plain,

but the young barman was as cheery as anyone in Alcester had any right to be, the beer range was Old School,

and the seating comfortable. Nice floor, too.

The first of many Wye Valley beers on the trip was cool enough (NBSS 3), but I’m knocking 0.25 for the relentless pap playing in the background.

By the time I left there were a fair few folk popping in, which made me wonder why the opening time had been put back, but it never pays to ask too many questions.