retiredmartin

May 2023.

Worcestershire’s handful of Guide new entries (a half dozen in GBG23) always delight.

Expect somewhere posh in the hills below the A456, a heavily timbered town pub recently acquired by a small home brewer, a new Black Country Ales opening as they achieve world domination, and a micro pub in a Worcester suburb. Actually, that’s exactly what you get this year.

And, of course, the pub the community thought lost forever, like the Masons in Wadborough (pop. too small for a church).

Closed pubs revived by a community, either by their buying shares so they can have a private restaurant or because a local really cares about keeping their pub alive.

So well done to Lydia, a local school teacher who re-opened the Masons in 2021. I wonder which excellent brewery ran it before;

I turned up early, as always, and a couple of tradesmen were quick to tell me “It’s a brilliant pub, that” as I took a quick pic. Always trust the views of tradesmen, whether fixing the plumbing, adding the thatch, or converting the outhouse into a micropub.

No idea what the Masons was like before its Guide debut, but Lydia has certainly rang the changes since taking over.

I liked it. You’re never going to get much bench seating round here in Pershore, are you ?

Anyhow, I stood at the bar anyway, as the incredibly cheery barmaid and local were discussing Worcester pubs and I always feel duty bound to chuck in unhelpful lines like “The Amber there is always a 3.5” and “Paul Pry is never open, is it ?“.

I’m warming to the Wye Valley HPA; this was cool and rich (3.5), and sticking to beers the tradesmen (all in the garden) have heard of is the way to get trade in the Golden Hour.

Not sure about the positioning of that dart board, mind.