March 2026. Burton-on-Trent.
A third Bass in rapid succession, perhaps too rapid, but breaking up pints with espressos leads to madness.
The “We ❤️ Bass” Facebook page had suggested the Roebuck and the Devvie for the best 🔺 in Burton, but I was heading east of town,
over the actual Burton Bridge, past Stapenhill cemetery,
to a pub that self proclaims its superiority.
Well, the Elms was the best tonight.
Friday evening trade helps, and there was fantastic Bass trade here, the sort you get in the Vaults or the Star.
As different from the flat🔺in the Coopers and the more trad thick head in Burton Bridge, this settled to a tight, silky head that almost made it Top 10 (NBSS 4.5).
If anything, the pub was even better than the Bass, a mix of rooms reminding me of the Coachmakers in Hanley, another 🔺stronghold.
A joyous soundtrack,
and joyous locals in the Gents.
“Y’allright mate ?”
“Course, Friday innit ?
retiredmartin 
I’m honestly not sure if I’ve had a Bass but I shall make a point of doing so, now!
How does it compare to Smithwicks?
Ever heard of Macardle’s ale ? (It’s brewed in Dundalk, Ireland, I believe.)
Cheers!
James
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Bass would be smoother than Smithwicks, without carbonation. Used to be a regular in the Crown in Belfast.
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Thanks for the info, Martin.
I’ll seek it out!
J
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Well worth the little walk that one certainly out of the town centre. I remember staying in a pub on the left corner across the road once you crossed the bridge going out of town. It was a Hardy and Hansons and has a dormitory room with about 10 single beds in it great cheap place to stay. I’m sure someone will help me with the pubs name.
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The Swan
The name of the pub derived from the first letters of the villages of Stapenhill, Winshill, Ashby and Newton Solney, each of which can be found by taking one of the roads leading from it.
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Yes that’s the one bought back some nice memories crazy I see it closed in 2009. What a great bit of information on how the pub got its name must be unique. The last time I was there I just turned up on
spec to stay the night and they’d stopped they kindly found someone who lived round the corner and they put my mate and me up for the night.
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Definitely a classic, and well worth the walk out from the centre of Burton and across the Trent Bridge. After what seemed like weeks of rain, it was a gloriously sunny, March day, back in 2020, a day full of joy and high expectations for future.
Such a shame then for COVID to have been lurking round corner, and sad too for us to have said goodbye to both Peters (Pub Curmudgeon and Sterchley Pete).
..
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Looks to be stunning scenery around bridge. Any pub with a dog biscuit jar is good by me.
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That looks like a cracking pint. The gravity poured Bass in Bath Star does not have the same allure. It’s a long drive to Burton but …
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The Bass in the Star certainly does have the same allure to me !
I think this shows just how much Bass differs. A pint in the Star is completely different to a pint in the Sun or the Elms !
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Always a good Bass in The Elms and it should win every year just for the signage! That banger of a tune was what Solihull Barons used to come out to in the 80s – boring but true fun fact.
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There’s a certain sort of “bubbly” 70s soul I always associate with the Midlands. American ice hockey teams use that tune after victories.
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That’s probably where the Barons ripped it off from
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