August 2025. Atherstone. As usual each pub on the Atherstone crawl gets its own day in the sun, even if it’s only a minute’s read. We start just behind the station, and for the record I should confirm that this isn’t Paul Mudge’s train beer, as Paul doesn’t drop litter. The King’s Head is your… Continue reading A STEADY START. THE KING’S HEAD, ATHERSTONE.

August 2025. Atherstone. Warwickshire. In tests, 99% of Brits couldn’t place Atherstone on a map to within 200 miles, One of the 1% is my own father-in-law, who lived here before trading down to Kent, and our own Stafford Paul, who had been making the “curated pub exploration” community jealous with tales of Proper Pubs… Continue reading FOR WHAT IS ATHERSTONE ?

August 2025. Kidderminster. Mrs RM had mentioned “meeting up for coffee in a Persian café” in the Jewellery Quarter, but a mere 9 minutes (£2.90) connection at Stourbridge would give me a third new GBG tick (in 3 different counties) in 2 hours, and that clearly took precedence over pastries. I hadn’t set foot in… Continue reading THE CHESTER TAVERN, KIDDERMINSTER. AN INSTANT CLASSIC ?

August 2025. Kingswinford. “A beer guide sized package has arrived” texts Mrs RM as I endure the train trip back from Waterbeach last night. This blog “OBSERVES THE EMBARGO” so you won’t be getting any clues about the contents from me, mainly because I’ll still be writing about trips to the old Guide at Christmas.… Continue reading THE WEST MIDLANDS HAS FALLEN

August 2025. Wombourne Our last of 4 days in Brum, and while Mrs RM explored the Jewellery Quarter, I headed west for a couple of ticks in the hard to access bit betwixt Wolverhampton and Stourbridge. The fast train from New Street to Wolves takes a mere 16 minutes, but after that it’s a hard… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE OLD BUSH, WOMBOURNE, STAFFS

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