ELECTION DAY, TENBURY WELLS

May 2024. Tenbury Wells.

Election morning in Ludlow, where I almost overslept the free period in the car park and then nipped out to get the shot of the famous Feathers Hotel, which has seemingly ditched cask and converted its bar to a Starbucks, so lose/lose.

We sleep surprisingly well in the campervan, as long as Mrs RM has a loo close at hand, but I reckon two days in the wild is enough before I need a hotel with shower and WiFi, so Day 2 of the Marches Tickathon had to be meticulously planned.

Focusing on completing Shropshire (4 pubs) and Herefordshire (also 4) I’d somehow missed forgotten to check for Worcestershire outliers,

and frankly I wouldn’t have been certain Tenbury Wells was in Elgar country, anyway, so rare are its GBG appearances.

But those tricky Black Country Ales folks had arrived in town, guaranteeing Guide entries and noon opening, and I knew Mrs RM would find something to blog about, if only the startling smell of cow on the 20 minutes detour off the A49.

That something turned out to be the polling centre in the pumping station, surely one of the most picturesque places in England to cast your vote for, well, whoever you like, they’re all great.

We never actually saw anyone enter, or leave, that building; perhaps the transport arranged to bring Conservative gentlefolk from near and far had broke down.

Tenbury looked little changed in a decade, a newish bakery/chocolatier the pick of the crop. I left Mrs RM in the Italian cafe composing her Instagram post, and nipped to the Market Tavern, next to the market, surprisingly.

It’s a small but perfectly formed market, centred on plants,

and a small but perfectly formed Black Country pub (there’ll be in Cambridge soon the rate they’re expanding),

centred on a lengthy line of hand pumps.

All pies and pasties and cobs £3

Actually, “only” seven plus cider,

and one of those is Mitchells & Butlers. Sadly not the Mild,

but they did have mild in the shape of Pig on the Wall, a cool, rich 3.5.

BCA are in a rich vein of form at the moment, the Sheffield Wednesday of the pub chain world. OK, their conversions are a bit identikit, but they’re always cosy, they serve simple pub snacks, and the soundtrack was a delight.

And any town centre pub that can attract lone gentlewomen drinking their daily latte as well as lone blokes on the mild is to be applauded.

But if you’re looking for something a bit “earthier”, well, Tenbury has that too…

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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.

18 thoughts on “ELECTION DAY, TENBURY WELLS”

    1. I go through phases, Paul. Having found the Pig on the Wall increasingly disappointing (due to turnover rather than the brewer, as always) I feel compelled to try it, and am delighted to say it seems more popular than I thought (my next pint of it that day in Hereford’s Orange Tree was even better). But yes, Brew XI too good to miss, really.

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      1. If the pub is owned by the brewer, isn’t the condition of the beer also, ultimately, the brewer’s responsibility?

        At least, any brewer who cared about what people thought about their beer should be making sure it is kept and served in a way that demonstrates their command of the brewer’s art. When the brewer is also the pub owner, there’s an ideal opportunity to offer just as many beers to the drinking public as they are likely to drink before the beer deteriorates.

        In other words, the brewer (as pub owner) bears responsibilty for the turnover too.

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      2. Agree. It’s a key responsibility of the brewer as pub owner (as opposed to the actual Head Brewer) to ensure their beer is sold in places where it can be served as its best. Of course, few beer is actually enjoyed in brewery-owned pubs these days.

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      3. That’s exactly why I mention it in this instance.

        I’m glad your Pig on the Wall was up to scratch this time.

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      4. It’s almost like we’re in agreement on something, but I’d hate people to think that.

        Black Country just have too many beers on, and not even very exciting one these days if you like That Sort of Thing.

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      5. England having a higher proportion of tied houses than anywhere else in the world, the tied estates having been established from the late nineteenth century to ensure beer being served well, was how cask conditioned beer survived into the 1970s. The higher proportion of free houses in Scotland and Ireland, from being sparsely populated, helped S & N and Guinness to replace proper beer with their well known keg products. 

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  2. “perhaps the transport arranged to bring Conservative gentlefolk from near and far had broke down”

    They all have postal votes.

    BCA’s “identikit” refurbishments have ruined some very nice pubs. The Orange Tree is one of them.

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      1. Is it controversial? It’s definitely true. And one of the reasons why tories do better in elections if the weather is bad on polling day.

        BCA are planning to bring the Old Bulls Head up to brand standard too. 😦

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      3. Ah, hadn’t worked out what you were saying was controversial. 🙂

        I know what you mean, although not all of these pubs have been “rescued”.

        I suppose it’s a personal thing, many like consistency of product/environment/etc. That’s just not my taste. I think I spent too much of my early pub-going life in soulless John Smiths and Greene King pubs and these identikit type pubs remind me of those.

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      4. Bit like Joules, on a bigger scale. I probably go in 3 new BCAs a year (first ones would have been the Wellington and the Black Country Arms in Walsall, and it’s only now the identikit nature, right down to the beer range and pub snack pricing, is really evident.

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      5. Andy,

        I don’t doubt that BCA’s refurbishments have “ruined some very nice pubs” but my nearest ones, two in Stafford and one in Penkridge, previously had interiors of no consequence.

        It’s the new Joules that have wrecked some historic interiors, especially in Eccleshall and Newport.

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    2. Well, at this distance from voting day, in a summery beer garden, I was still treated to the well-worn trope, from a bunch of youngish estate agents “…people round here, if you stuck a red rosette on a donkey, then they’d vote for it”.

      It did at least get me thinking though. They might as well have said “…people round here, if you stuck a red beer mat on a rhinoceros, then they’d gather round and play dominoes on it” or “…if you stuck a red bicycle bell on a giraffe, then they’d go mountain biking on it”

      It’s enough alone to justify beer gardens.

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