The Annual Awards post is always the hardest to compile; the fear of making it too long, or missing out something vital or witty. So I’m pleased to put that one to bed and get back to the diary, even if it returns us to, 7th December 2022. The number of pub visits ticked past… Continue reading STAFFORD CRAWLING PART 2
Tag: Bird in Hand
COB, PINT OF MILD, FIRE
Yes, more Stafford, it never ends. Next we did the cultural bit. For a bit, anyway. Oh, yes, the Hovis street, I wanted Will to see that. “What’s keeping you ?” said Paul, who’d made the Bird In Hand half an hour before. His pace is undiminished in 18 months. Now this was Black Country… Continue reading COB, PINT OF MILD, FIRE
The mystery table explained
You’ll remember this table. Mrs RM putting her score for Burton Bridge onto Untappd, I guess. Should have paid more attention to the bag under her feet. Yes, that’s her posh fold-up winter coat (useful this last week) which we finally traced back to the Bird in Hand after numerous phone calls and a forensic… Continue reading The mystery table explained
CHEADLE (NOT THE CHESHIRE ONE, THANKFULLY)
Nothing wrong with Cheadle, Cheshire/G.Manc, of course, it’s almost Stockport. But it lacks the, er, earthiness of the mysterious town in the Staffordshire Moorlands enjoying its first Beer Guide entry for a decade (stat fans). This Cheadle is a workmanlike old mining town whose economy rests on the JCB factory and presumably the need to… Continue reading CHEADLE (NOT THE CHESHIRE ONE, THANKFULLY)
WORD(SLEY) UP
We left the last post with my drinking buddy already two pints of 6%+ beer up, before the 6pm witching hour, and with two ticks left. Not a good place to start the a walk up the A491 to Wordsley. This is where geography gets complicated. I put Wordsley in the box marked “Greater Stourbridge”,… Continue reading WORD(SLEY) UP
SALTFORD’S RED HAT MAN WITH COMPLEX BAGUETTE INSTRUCTIONS
Not a post that will detain you long, but I thought Saltford’s Bird in Hand deserved a mention on my blog to illustrate the joyous contrasts you get in English pubs two miles apart. The main A4 through Saltford is the sort of dull parade of shops and Greene King Pizza Pub you travel to… Continue reading SALTFORD’S RED HAT MAN WITH COMPLEX BAGUETTE INSTRUCTIONS
ROBINSONS IN STOURPORT
Another Midlands catch-up with my old work colleague Charles last night. I finally found a decent guesthouse in Stourport, the Victoria having that delightful combination of cheery welcome, clean bedlinen and cold milk. A gem. Stourport is no Bewdley, and pubwise no Kidderminster either. But the two Beer Guide pubs it does have are corkers,… Continue reading ROBINSONS IN STOURPORT
HALSTEAD’S BEER HEROES
I was reading the Morning Advertiser and noticed the finalists in the Great British Pub Best Beer Awards; Bunch of Grapes, Pontypridd, South Wales Purecraft Bar & Kitchen, Birmingham The Craft Beer Co, Leather Lane, Clerkenwell, Central London The Griffin, Halstead, Essex The Grove, Huddersfield The Sheffield Tap, Sheffield Hard to argue with the five… Continue reading HALSTEAD’S BEER HEROES
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