TUTBURY TICKING

October 2025. Tutbury.

As BRAPA will tell you, half the fun of GBG ticking is sitting down with the new Guide and working out legal routes to get to an isolated village by public transport.

Then giving up and getting your dad to drive you.

I’d forgotten Tutbury (& Hatton) had a station, just one stop from Derby, so another short hop from Sheffield and you’re staring at Nestle Tutbury, one of the UKs top instant coffee manufacturers.

A first visit since the blog started, so virtually no memories bar an oddly unsatisfactory micro.

Our new entry is the 50th Black Country inn. Assuming they can get Sheffield, Swindon and St Alban’s designated as midland towns I see their empire surpassing Spoons by 2035.

You know what a BCA looks like by now,

and I’m not gonna lie,

too many pumps meant the bellwether Pig was a bit too chewy, if you can imagine that (NBSS 3).

But the landlord, and the pub, are a joy. It’s a bit like the very first BCA in Long Lawford we popped in the other month.

Regulation BCA decor, but darts, two (2) fires, a mixing of ages, and a lot of life, the thud of darts competing with KC & the Sunshine Band.

You can’t come all the way to Tutbury without walking up to the castle ruins (closed),

but in truth the highlight are the peacocks that live in the graveyard at the approach.

Does it ever stop raining?

For a village town of under 4,000 souls there’s a fair few pubs, I guess the 15th century Dog & Partridge the best looking,

but I was saving my bladder for a second, rather less imposing pub to the east of Derby.

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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.

13 thoughts on “TUTBURY TICKING”

  1. I’ve noticed that the wind has to be in the right direction for the coffee aroma to enter the Uttoxeter and Derby train’s air conditioning system.
    The castle is about all of Tutbury that’s seen from the train but on the 402 Uttoxeter to Burton bus in mid August I noticed enough pubs to make the village worth a visit, maybe though not now till the spring.
    Angus’s target was fifty pubs, but he’s abandoned that now. Did I mention that I was in his Bridge Tavern on Sunday lunchtime when all ten beers would be drinking well ?

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  2. That wouldn’t by any chance be the same Angus, who once ran the Sir John Borlase Warren in Nottingham, would it, Paul?

    If so, then he’s doing very well for someone even older than me.

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      1. One of the unsung heroes of the pub world. I may sometimes complain that too many pumps directly affects quality but his places always seem good examples of the public house.

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  3. I went to four (4) of the Tutbury & Hatton pubs in December four years ago. I caught a bus out from Derby to Hilton, then missed my onward bus and had to walk. (See Pubs Galore for a longer description: https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/7128/ You, of course, would have walked the two miles without waiting for the bus at the wrong bus stop, and taken only 10 minutes too.)

    In Hatton I went to the Railway Tavern, now renamed just the Tavern to avoid confusion with the Railway Inn, which I also visited (but it has now been closed for over a year). Between the two is a shop called Edgar’s Collectables, where I bought a Bass glass.

    Tutbury is over the border in Staffordshire, of course. I went to just the Dog & Partridge and the Leopard, having neither the time nor the stamina for any of the others, but I reckon you are right: a decent day out could be had here.

    I advise doing the Tavern first, so as to be still sober enough to browse Edgar’s without knocking anything over. (Their website, which claims a large range of real ales, has different opening hours to the CAMRA website, so it would have to be a Friday or Saturday for noon opening.)

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    1. This might be the exception Will but I find that “it would have to be a Friday or Saturday for noon opening” pubs are rarely worth going out of my way for.

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      2. Yes Will, let’s hope so !
        Needing to catch the 4.17pm bus from Tutbury for the last Uttoxeter to Stafford bus ( on which I’ve sometimes been the only passenger all the way ) means that I will probably go by train although that will mean Titanic in the Bod rather than Bass in the Vaults ( but then Bass in the Railway before the bus home from town ).

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  4. “Then giving up and getting your dad to drive you.”

    (slow golf clap) 😁

    “Assuming they can get Sheffield, Swindon and St Alban’s designated as midland towns I see their empire surpassing Spoons by 2035.”

    Hopefully I’ll still be alive to see that.

    “too many pumps meant the bellwether Pig was a bit too chewy, if you can imagine that (NBSS 3).”

    (looks at pic above)

    Blimey! A plethora of pumps indeed.

    “But the landlord, and the pub, are a joy.”

    Bonza.

    “You can’t come all the way to Tutbury without walking up to the castle ruins (closed),”

    YOU can’t maybe; I’m sure others would be able to avoid the walk.

    “but in truth the highlight are the peacocks that live in the graveyard at the approach.”

    There’s some deep Zen-like thing buried in that sentence.

    “Does it ever stop raining?”

    Right with you there. Our 4th major wind/rain system in the eight days blows in tomorrow. Each having winds gusting to at least 70kph and rainfall anywhere from 25-45mm. And tomorrow (31 Oct) is Halloween. Not many nippers will be out, and we usually get no more than two dozen anyway.

    “I guess the 15th century Dog & Partridge the best looking,”

    Agreed. Quite luverly.

    “but I was saving my bladder for a second, rather less imposing pub to the east of Derby.”

    Sigh. I go whenever I get the chance these days.

    Cheers

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