March 2024. Wolverhampton.
A hotchpotch of a day in the Black Country, where I’d caught up with The Two Pauls on their Big Black Country Day Out,
but after pints in the wonderful Old Swan and Beacon I’d had enough of waiting for Dudley buses, and had a plan to get back to Sheffield for tea with James at the new Himalayan NEVER turn down tea with your children; you never know when they might start to listen to “Mumford & Sons” and you’ll have to disown them.
A quick hop back on the No.1 from Sedgley to Wolves, regular train to New Street, direct line to Sheff, home by 6.
I’d reckoned without the reliable unreliability of West Mids buses.
22 minutes I stood, cold and alone, at High Park Crescent in Sedgley, wondering whether the Crown was any good.
One cancelled, one late, but at least I was back at Wolves by 15:57, and I’d only missed one connection to Brum.
Oooh, 20 minutes till the next. Most folk would do the Great Western, but it’s best not to follow the herd, and I’d long wondered about the state of the Posada.
Brilliant in 2016, but in and out of the GBG and with some withering assessments of the beer of late.
Packed with drinkers at 4pm on Friday,
none of whom were typing their ales into Untappd, I’d wager.
Well, it may not be the most exciting beer range,
but I can assure you that at least today it was the best beer. Wye Valley glass,
but that’s Banks’s Amber from half a mile away; cool, crisp, foamy (NBSS 4.5, £3.20), and I NEVER lie about quality. It was the most cask I’d seen pulled in quite a while.
Note also the famous “I still hate* Thatcher” sign above the Banks’s sign, as iconic in its way as “You Brew Good Ale” at Brierley Hill’s Bull & Bladder, or “Good Times Guaranteed” at Maidenhead’s Honeypot.
A little gem,
but no museum piece,
though the jukebox was pumping out some heritage classics;
Three pubs in three hours from the CAMRA Heritage guide (worth ticking, definitely),
all of them essential, all living pubs.
Those notes are as copious as those of another famous Staffordian, who at that very moment was no doubt drinking Batham in the Britannia.
I felt a pang of regret, but it passed.
*It never pays to hate anyone, or anything, folks. Except tasters.
retiredmartin 
Sorry to sound a dissenting note, but on my last visit here last year I found it very disappointing. It seemed tatty and run-down, with just a clutch of drinkers around the bar and only one cask beer (HPA). Plus there was no toilet seat, which is never a good sign.
I’ve been in a few times over the years and never been impressed.
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I’d seen a few dissenting comments, so I wasn’t expecting much, which I was surprised by the quality of the Banks’s, almost as good as the one the Marston tour guide pulled in the sampling room.
Cask lottery, indeed.
It’s not posh !
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Nay, lad, it were t’ sign!
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“22 minutes I stood, cold and alone, at High Park Crescent in Sedgley, wondering whether the Crown was any good”.
It’s unfortunate you didn’t know that my wife’s sister lives on the corner of High Park Crescent opposite the Crown.
You could have knocked a warm drink back in well under 22 minutes.
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Next time.
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When we were in the Posada, it was full of Wolves fans drowning their sorrows after exiting the FA Cup to Coventry and aging punks who, like us, were waiting for doors opening time for the Stranglers gig.
I thought it was great and had a pint of very nice pint of (checks spreadsheet) Bath Gem.
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I know what Pub Curmudgeon means, it could seem a bit scruffy to someone from a posh suburb of Stockport 😉, but you tend to not notice that when it’s busy as it was last week.
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And busy almost always makes the beer better.
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I imagine the heritage status helps a bit; it attracts a few older drinkers who wouldn’t be attracted purely by beer range.
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