August 2025. Birmingham Well, that’s what they say, though we didn’t have a tape measure so couldn’t confirm that. Mrs RM had a Brum checklist. Civic buildings, Digbeth, Ozzy trail, canals. For many years Birmingham canals meant  Gas Street basin with its Tap & Spile survivor (looked pretty good to be fair), and the huge… Continue reading MORE CANALS THAN VENICE

August 2025. Birmingham Much more of this and I’ll be changing my name to Brummie Martin. Mrs RM had her blog material for Digbeth, bar the Sabbath mural behind the Anchor, the weird Selfridges shot, a car park on Allison Street with great art, and that aforementioned pint of Hooch in Kilder. Expect cask Hooch… Continue reading THE SPOONS IN BRUM’S CHINATOWN. ODDLY WONDERFUL

August 2025. Birmingham. Mrs RM now had enough material for a future (November ’26) blog on Digbeth, as we headed through the tunnel alongside the Digbeth branch canal (a bit too quiet for comfort, in honesty). We’re heading towards that second great expansion on the Brum map, the great HS2 works at Curzon Street. I… Continue reading THE WOODMAN. LIKE HS2, GETTING THERE.

August 2025. Birmingham. Sad news that the Great British Beer Festival didn’t bring in the crowds last month, despite the pull of seeing myself, Mrs RM AND Blackpool Jane drinking 8% DIPAs at the NEC. But this blog likes Birmingham, the ruined and the repaired, the gorgeous and the goths. Next to the JFK memorial… Continue reading DIGGING DIGBETH

August 2025. Birmingham. Take a look at the OS map of Brum, to the right of New Street Station. Two big white holes, the upper one the HS2 works, the lower a huge empty car park that ChatGPT tells me will soon be a 687 home development called Pressworks, That bit of brownfield marks the… Continue reading BACK TO BRUM TO FILL IN THE BLANKS

August 2025. Birmingham. Another one to upset the “I thought this was a beer blog” mob as we head from tranquil Tanworth-in-Arden into central Birmingham via southern suburbs called Hollywood and Brandwood End that have never seen a GBG entry*, into a suburb that has. Stirchley, home to our much missed Pub Man Peter and… Continue reading THE DEN, STIRCHLEY

August 2025. Tanworth-in-Arden. (Not to be confused with Tamworth, which isn’t in Arden.) A bit of slow tourism for you, a night in rural Warwickshire before Mrs RM’s assault on Brum’s tourist attractions and my own attempt to tick the West Mids. It must have been a bargain late rate due to cancellation or summat,… Continue reading BRYTER LAYTER. HAPPY HOUR IN TANWORTH-IN-ARDEN

August 2025. Warwick. Yes !  An actual, bona fide, GBG chapter completion. 3 years on from The Big Completion, I still enjoy that pinking of a map, even when there’s only a trio of new entries. My final Warwicks pub is in the county town (is it a town ?), and I’m frankly dismayed that… Continue reading WYE VALLEY REACHES WARWICK

August 2025. Lowsonford. Into the heart of middle England now, an England of canals, wonky roofs on country pubs in tiny villages, and pies. The Fleur de Lys is the home of the eponymous pies, a style I’ve never heard of but no doubt one of you will inform me. These are the high beams… Continue reading “BEWARE THE LOW BEAMS !” FLEUR DE LYS, LOWSONFORD

August 2025. Stratford-upon-Avon. Mrs RM is in the MAD museum next to Shakey’s birthplace when I call her to suggest a half in The Garrick, “potentially” one of Stratford’s oldest pubs. “It’s 4 minutes walk, round the corner in the High Street. You can’t miss it“. Oh yes she can. To be fair, I could… Continue reading THE GARRICK, STRATFORD. NOT BAD FOR SHAKESPEARELAND