July 2024. Stafford.
An hour in Stafford before the Official Curated Pub exploration. Will had arrived early and decided to do an extra pub, which sounds like cheating.
I stuck with culture.
Stafford only really has the Ancient High House and its pubs, but the former is a corker (and, more importantly, free).
The largest timber framed building (c.1595) in the country, with ancient wallpaper
and an historic inscription from the time Dale and Milly visited from Armitage.
There’s also a recreation of the visit of Charles I on 1643, as he closed in on a completion of the discredited 1642 Good Beer Guide.
The document below shows the seals of all the pubs visited by the King on that 1643 visit.
The house is a 3 storey gem, showing its uses throughout the ages, including a spell as an artisan bookseller,
and more recently an upmarket Air B & B (“creaky floorboards” – Milly, 2012.
I thought this might be a Young’s window,
but the only sighting of pub heritage is from the 2nd floor window across to the Bear.
Unless this chap was keeping craft cans under the counter.
The 3rd floor is given over to Staffordshire Yeomanry Regiment’s Museum. I’m sure I’ve seen that cafe somewhere before.
retiredmartin 
What a shame about the obtrusive and tawdry shop fronts at street level: given that it must be a listed building, you’d have thought the local council could insist on something sympathetic to the building’s age and design.
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Yes I meant to say that, John . It is I guess possible that Fone Giant and Savers are original 16th century businesses I guess.
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Before them it was the Gas Board, hence a quarterly visit to pay my bill, now done at a Post Office.
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