August 2025. Tamworth. The trip from Sheffield to Atherstone is quite straightforward; head down to Tamworth on CrossCountry, then one stop on West Midlands Rail towards Euston, not much over an hour. HOW MUCH !!!! No wonder it had taken so long to take Stafford Paul’s advice and head for North Warwickshire’s unsung pub town.… Continue reading FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE TAMWORTH TAP

August 2025. Atherstone. And finally, our seventh Atherstone pub of the day, and an actual Beer Guide entry (GBG 25, anyway). The Angel looks classy, if a bit plain, and it has the beers, including a healthy Leatherbritches contingent. I had a good half of Cherry Bock (3+), but my only memory, after a day… Continue reading “The year of the cat”. THE ANGEL, ATHERSTONE

August 2025. Atherstone. Part 6 of the Atherstone Ale Adventure, and a sign that I must be approaching middle-age as after five (5) pints I was ready to retire. So I left the hardened Leicester/Marple/Sheffield contingent to the White Horse (mixed reports, about to change hands, revisit next week), and joined Stafford Paul on the… Continue reading “ELEGANT”. THE MARKET TAVERN TAP, ATHERSTONE

August 2025. Atherstone. Will had given us a superb itinerary for our Alcoholic Adventure in Atherstone, but he’d inexplicably missed out one of the few GBG entries of old. Oh, I remember why. The Hat & Beaver is what we call “unimproved“, or unspoilt if you like. Leaving Will to explore shopfronts, the rest of… Continue reading WHIPPETS AND BASS. THE HAT AND BEAVER, ATHERSTONE.

August 2025. Atherstone. First things first, or thereabouts. It’s great to have Russ back on the blog, after a Lost Weekend that went on for two years, and not just as my unpaid spellceker. And for the delight of another North American reader, news that I’ve found King Dick’s Hole, just north of Atherstone near… Continue reading MY LAST PINT OF BANKS’S FROM WOLVERHAMPTON. THE OLD SWAN, ATHERSTONE.

August 2025. Atherstone. The itinerary for the 3rd pub on the Atherstone Ancients Alldayer saw a group conflict over directions. Inexplicably, Will took the Leicester & Marple contingent on a detour down the canal path, the sort of thing I do to annoy Kentish Paul, while I decided to go with t’other Paul down Long… Continue reading DRINKABLE HOMEBREW SHOCKER ! THE BLUE BOAR, ATHERSTONE

August 2025. Atherstone. 10 minutes along the canal path to Pub No. 2 on our Artisan Atherstone Adventure, another pub I’d never heard of. That’s what makes these days out so fun, not knowing what reception you’ll get or what word folk use for a bread roll. In truth, I thought the pubs beat the… Continue reading BASS ALERT ! MAID OF THE MILL, ATHERSTONE

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 ?