May 2024. Kinlet. Cleobury Mortimer.
The great May Marches March continues southwards, well away from industrial Wolves and Kiddy, into rural South Shropshire and tiny Kinlet.
Bing Maps reckons the Eagle & Serpent opens 12-3 and 5-11; What Pub says 4-, and again What Pub is correct. You may be disappointed to learn I’ve had far fewer Opening Times Fails of late, which is a bonus of not ticking micropubs.
So obviously lunchtime dining has been quietly dropped till Friday, and drinking starts at the Golden Hour.
Perhaps we’re an hour too early, then, as it’s just as and a really friendly landlord in this plain but cosy pub just after 4.
Not very often you see Descartes in a pub these days,
or hear “Last Train To Clarksville“, come to that.
I’m sure there’s more breweries serving the Marches than Wye Valley, Hobsons and Ludlow, but I never see them in the GBG pubs,
and the Town Crier was a cool, crisp NBSS 3.5 so why change.
The “Cleobury Clarion” certainly never changes, bracing its readers for the assault of Artificial Intelligence on a front page led by an advert for a chimney sweep.
We headed into “Cleobury Country” now, parking up to boil the kettle in one of two (2) car parks in a village of 3,036 according to the 2011 census. Someone will know why Wiki hasn’t got the 2021 census data, and with fertility rates in the UK plunging below 1.5 I’ll bet the trend is downward, unless they’re attracting folk out from Bewdley to retire.
What Pub reckons there’s half a dozen pubs (all serving Hobsons, Wye Valley and Ludlow) for those 3,036 souls, but I’ve only ever been in the King’s Arms in 30 years of GBG ticking,
and frankly the only excitement was a drunk bloke stumbling out of the Stables crying “to Punchestown !“.
20 minutes was enough to confirm my preconception that Cleobury is a one street town,
with sturdy church (NCSS 3),
“The Wells” (it’s no Tunbridge),
2 Chinese takeaways, a nice line in humour,
and a hint of menace.
I’ll take that.
retiredmartin 