April 2025. Tonbridge. Kent. Credit where it’s due, I’m not sure I’d have fancied a 300 mile round trip and a lost weekend to see my Grandad sing Messiah when I was 25/23, and James and Matt (losing a day’s pay) did it voluntarily. Not even a posh hotel either side, just the satisfaction of… Continue reading STANDING UP FOR THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS
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PUB WALKS FROM CLACKET LANE SERVICES. No. 2 – TITSEY BREWERY TAP
April 2025. Titley. Tastsfield. Surrey. In 2017 I brought you the first instalment in my award-winning series “Pub Walks from Clacket Lane Services;, a visit to Botley Hill Farmhouse you could just about make within the 2 hours parking if you get a sprint on. It’s taken 8 years, the duration of Donald Trump’s current… Continue reading PUB WALKS FROM CLACKET LANE SERVICES. No. 2 – TITSEY BREWERY TAP
A FUTILE FORAGE FOR BEER AT FOURWENTWAYS TRAVELODGE
April 2024. Fourwentways. Cambridge. My father-in-law has had a rough time of it these last few years, so we’ve been trying to cheer him up with pub trips out from Tunbridge Wells, Chinese takeaways, and encouragement at his performance in Handel’s Messiah last week. Getting his two grandson’s down to Kent and back again via… Continue reading A FUTILE FORAGE FOR BEER AT FOURWENTWAYS TRAVELODGE
BIRMINGHAM BLOOMS, BEYOND THE BINS
April 2025. Birmingham. Always best to have a rest day after a Proper Day Out, so I’d booked my return from Wolves to Sheffield at times that ensured I wouldn’t get to a new pub. Clever, huh ? A late start from a Premier Inn room with sheets covered in crispy beef sauce (you don’t… Continue reading BIRMINGHAM BLOOMS, BEYOND THE BINS
UNLOCKING THE KEY TO WILLENHALL
April 2024. Willenhall. The only downside of my Big Day Out in Wolves was a lack of GBG pubs to tick, newbies in Wombourne and Kingswinford just out of reach due to what we pros call “Ye Hellishness Of Bumpy Buses Betwixt Wolves And Dudley“. But there was one option for a tick a ten… Continue reading UNLOCKING THE KEY TO WILLENHALL
HOLDEN’S v BATHAM’S IN THE GREAT WESTERN
April 2025. Wolverhampton. And so to bed, or at least, the hotel next to our last pub on the Grand Wolves Tour. Lenny Henry should promote this Premier Inn (£39) for its pub crawl potential. In truth, I’d stopped taking notes well before the Great Western, and the photos aren’t great (see here for better… Continue reading HOLDEN’S v BATHAM’S IN THE GREAT WESTERN
FIREBALL
April 2025. Wolverhampton. Congratulations to CAMRA members for rejecting that motion to reduce the number of Beer Guide pubs. Wolves typically has half a dozen central entries in the GBG; they all deserved their place on the PubMan visit. But there’s more to pubs than cask, and for many years I’d been eyeing up the… Continue reading FIREBALL
THE WHEATSHEAF – WOLVES UNSUNG WONDER
April 2025. Wolverhampton. If you’re getting the impression our intrepid cask warriors were having a good time last Thursday you’d be right, I nearly sat out our 5th/6th pub, the Wheatsheaf having been a bit too “earthy” even for your lover of earthy pubs last time out. A drinkers pub, we’ll call it. But the… Continue reading THE WHEATSHEAF – WOLVES UNSUNG WONDER
MID-AFTERNOON, THE POSADA, WOLVERHAMPTON
April 2025. Wolverhampton. It’s always good to report that the classic pubs are holding up well, even as cask sales decline a bit. Last year I met the two Pauls in a couple of Black Country gems (Ma Pardoes and the Beacon) and found them a joy, with a stop in Wolves’s Posada an unexpected… Continue reading MID-AFTERNOON, THE POSADA, WOLVERHAMPTON
A BRIEF POP ART INTERLUDE IN WOLVES
April 2025. Wolverhampton. Wolves looked great last Thursday. I realise these posts are largely about unrelentingly good pubs, but you could equally spend a day exploring the two nearby National Trust properties, alternating Asian and Caribbean snacks, and taking photos of slightly faded grandeur. We’d bee joined by the original and best Pub Curmudgeon at… Continue reading A BRIEF POP ART INTERLUDE IN WOLVES
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