SECURING SARAH HUGHES. A MAD DASH TO THE BEACON HOTEL.

March 2024. Sedgley. Dudley.

Two Pauls and a Retired Martin do the Black Country ctd.

I knew we were cutting it fine to catch last orders at the Beacon, with its Old Skool 3pm close.

So many great photos in the Old Swan, and then 5 minutes negotiating the maze to get from the old bar to the lounge in order to escape. And then we find that one of our group doesn’t have a death wish and wishes to wait for a pause in the traffic before crossing to the bus stop.

So, despite leaving Ma Pardoes at 13:55, with a change of bus in Dudley (I kid you not, our bus left early),

we found ourselves trundling past the White Horse contemplating a mad dash to secure our Sarah Hughes.

And then, just south of Sedgley at Gate St, the bus stopped completely at 14:33, well short of Bilston St.

Like Pheidippides and Captain Oates, a pub crawl needs a hero, and I volunteered to run to the Beacon.

Of course, no sooner had I jumped off the bus than it started to move again, but on I pressed, a pint of 6% my only reward for arriving bang on 14:45.

It had been 10 years or more since I last entered the Beacon; in fact I think the White Lion across the road (on the market for £495k) was in the Guide back then.

The Beacon has possibly changed even less than the Old Swan.

Oh yes, THAT hatch !

“Last Orders” was called about 2 minutes after I returned from the hatch with 3 pints of Ruby, a cob and crisps.

Paul and Paul arrived 5 minutes later, and to be honest as the clock ticked towards 3 I saw no sign of the pub winding down.

“Pretty marvellous” the verdict on Sarah Hughes iconic strong mild; in truth I’d have loved to have stayed for a pint of Surprise. But that’s life.

And life in all its fullness, as John 10:10 says, is the hallmark of the Beacon. Folk from all walks of life, there to chat, and rarely about beer.

Utterly wonderful, though I’d by now had quite enough of Dudley buses, thank you, and left the Pauls to negotiate a route back to the Britannia as I went round the rear of the brewery and to the stop back to Wolves.

And there I waited. And waited.

NB Kentish Paul’s report is here.

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.

13 thoughts on “SECURING SARAH HUGHES. A MAD DASH TO THE BEACON HOTEL.”

    1. I should have. I didn’t even make it back for tea with Christine and James at 7 having left you at 3:30, Paul. Buses delayed, trains at New Street too crowded to board, train cancelled at Derby.

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  3. I toured the Black Country brewery taps in 2012, having done the same thing earlier that summer in Franconia, and found it a very similar experience: atmospheric, friendly pubs, superb beers in styles that you don’t find anywhere else, a challenging local dialect, and a choice between a patchy bus service or a longish walk from the nearest railway station.

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    1. That’s a very good observation, Matthew. I made a note in the Beacon about the conversation being unintelligible (and definitely not Brummie).

      Your comment reminds me I really need to get back to Franconia, and Forcheim in particular.

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      1. We’ve got our accommodation booked, nearly opposite Schlenkerla, for a week in late June. 🙂

        We also need to get to Ma Pardoes, haven’t done that one yet.

        Reading about The Beacon, Britannia, Vine, Posada, brings back fantastic memories of our recent trips north.

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      3. Unfortunately, Ryanair from Stansted to Nürnberg. We had booked BA from Gatwick, but they cancelled it. Stansted always seems a long way from Worcester.

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      4. That’s the route I took when I did that trip a few times. I just saw one cheap flight that arrived in Nuremberg just before midnight and was worried that the metro wasn’t running.

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  4. Martin,

    “Trundling past the Britannia” but pictured through the bus window is the White Horse, the pub my late mother-in-law used most.

    We were ever so grateful to you for rushing ahead and getting our Ruby Milds in.

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    Paul,

    I presume “the Beacon keeps old-fashioned opening hours” because it still has plenty of lunchtime drinkers and evening drinkers and doesn’t need any inbetweeners.

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    Matthew,

    Ar day notice “a challenging local dialect”.

    But “definitely not Brummie”.

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    1. Thanks for the correction, Paul. I felt there was something wrong with labelling a Banks’s pub as a Batham pub as I wrote it !

      One thing concerns me though. I was sure I got off at Gate Street, opposite St Chads, as I then walked a small lane behind the old Dudley Inn past Queen Vic primary school, coming out at Bilston Street, and so I wouldn’t have seem the White Horse from the bus as it’s a way further on.

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