HOLDEN’S v BATHAM’S IN THE GREAT WESTERN

April 2025. Wolverhampton.

And so to bed, or at least, the hotel next to our last pub on the Grand Wolves Tour. Lenny Henry should promote this Premier Inn (£39) for its pub crawl potential.

In truth, I’d stopped taking notes well before the Great Western, and the photos aren’t great (see here for better ones),

but the ones I did take include a bloke (hiding behind the pumps) laughing, which is what it’s all about.

And at last, your chance to see the Sheffield Hatter’s notes.

Rumour has it that the Spoons Pub Museum put in a bid of £85 for Will’s notes, but Mr Larter wasn’t doing business with JDW.

I can’t deny it, there was a time when I thought the Great Western a bit overrated, a bit self-aware of its importance and rarely delivering the quality of beer you’d hope for.

No such concerns these days. Look at my pint of Golden Glow bottom right (NBSS 4.).

I had a pint of Glow in the Gornals that looked that good once; it is on its day a majestic pint. But I did have to tip a half of Bathams (NBSS 4) in that glass for comparison.

The other pub specialty is grub that arrives at your table before you get back.

One of our number was tucking in to the (I think) grey peas and bacon.

But you won’t be surprised to read where I was heading for tea.

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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.

14 thoughts on “HOLDEN’S v BATHAM’S IN THE GREAT WESTERN”

  1. The Great Western seems a lot more “lived-in” now following its Covid-era refurbishment, which initially appeared rather stark.

    All the beers I tried were in good nick. Well justified its place in my Top 10 pubs.

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  2. Not my notes, Martin. (I didn’t have Holden’s Mild in the Stile and I only had a half of Enville in the Royal Oak.) You’re right, though. No way would I sell my notes to Wetherspoons.

    But aren’t those my beers? That’s how I lined them up for my own photo. Three halves: Holden’s Mild and Bitter, plus Bathams Bitter. All NBSS 4 or better.

    Tremendous pub.

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      3. “£5”, “£10”, “£20” or “£50” printed on them and they’d be claimed before you could say “look at those lacings”.

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  4. I approached the Great Western from that direction when I went to it more than a decade ago, leaving the main entrance of the railway station and then going under that bridge. It was dark and rainy and for some reason it reminded me, at least externally, of the prole pub Winston Smith goes to in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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  5. I’ve long thought that Golden Glow is a deliberate copy of Bathams, but I bet the Bathams outsells it in the GW, even though it’s a tad weaker and a quid more expensive.

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    2. AP,
      With only being allowed three casks of it a week I doubt if Bathams outsells Golden Glow in the Great Western.
      From its launch thirty years ago I noticed how similar Golden Glow was to Bathams Best Bitter.
      Maybe the brewery’s three greatest successes in recent decades have been Johnathan Holden ( born 1971 ) devising Golden Glow and his father Edwin ( 1945 to 2002 ) purchasing the Great Western in 1988 and opening Codsall Station in 1998.

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      1. If Bathams was bought out by Marston’s would CAMRA declare it “incompatible with their aims of supporting independent businesses” and see folk deriding it as dull beer ?

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      2. Quite likely though as Marstons is now only a pub company it could probably do with a brewery.

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