retiredmartin

July 2025. Blackheath (or is it Old Hill ?)

What a perfect Monday morning in the Black Country; scratchings, German isotonic beer, a new micro, and now a crusty cob enjoyed waiting for my GBG newbie to open.

NCobSS 3.5, I reckon, the crusty exterior the highlight. Good job I succumbed to that temptation as the Old Bush Revived was still awaiting its deliveries. A couple popped theirs heads in the door to enquire about the cobs, and moved on when give the bad news.

Black Country Ales have just brought up a quarter century of well-run pubs, extending the definition of “Black Country” and West Midlands as far as Ludlow and Stafford.

I only have one concern about their pubs;

nine pumps seems ambitious, though the bellwether Pig on the Wall would again prove a winner, cool and chewy (NBSS 3.5).

I might also tell you the interior decoration looks the same as in Shropshire or Leicester,

but it’s comfy, you can overdose on mid-80s pop and if they’ve really got folk who drink 500 pints to win a polo shirt then I’m impressed.

Lovely staff here (“There ya go babs“, “See ya later“), and some thoughtful touches in the Gents.

A shame the A4100 out from town was closed off, hope it didn’t muck up trade for long.

I’d had the foresight to book a through ticket to Old Hill rather than Rowley, and bounded down the hill to the station back to Brum.

Is that the Lickey Hills in the distance ?

That’s definitely a canal. Birmingham has more miles of canal that Venice, but you knew that.