Blog Tracker
26-03-2024, 21:50
Visit the Paul Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://baileysbeerblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/to-black-country.html)
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Last Friday's visit to the Black Country was something of afirst for me although, spoiler alert, I had been to the region once before.That was only briefly when, as a student I visited the Lamp Tavern in Dudley,with a friend from university, who lived in nearby Staffordshire. My friend hadbeen enthusing about the local Batham’s beer, which like nowadays, was onlyavailable in a handful of pubs, and so on a weekend visit to his parent’s housein Rugeley, drove the pair of us down to the Black Country for an evening atthe Lamp Tavern.
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We put away a fair few pints that evening, or at least I didas my friend was driving, and whilst that was getting on for 50 years ago, the memoriescame flooding back as Stafford Paul and I rode past on the bus last Friday,whilst on our way to our first pub of the day (also a Batham’s house).Incredibly I recognised the pub, despite it being dark during that first visit,such was the impression that the local beer had made on me.That was a one off, so let's wipe the slate clean and regardmy recent trip as the first proper visit I’ve made to the Black Country. Thearea gained itsname in the mid nineteenth century due to the smoke from the many thousands of iron-working foundries, forges and thick seams of coal which were easy toexcavate due to their shallow nature. Because of the physical nature of coalmining and iron smelting, workers in the region would have developed king-sizedthirsts, so one legacy of this is the large number of breweries and pubs thatgrew up as a result of this industrial activity.
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It had long been an aim of mine to visit and enjoy some of thearea’s richheritage of unspoilt pubs, and afterexploring this idea with local Pub Man, Stafford Paul on the Beer & PubForum, hosted by Tapatalk, the logistics behind such a trip were graduallysketched out. We narrowed the number of pubs down to half a dozen, and workedout an itinerary that would enable us to visit each one, whilst allowingsufficient time to fully appreciate each individual hostelry. We called thisplan as a Black Country Walkabout, and originally scheduled the visit forAugust last year. That was when COVID decided to raise its ugly head again,because just four days before our scheduled tour, I went down with what turnedout to be my third bout of the plague.
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The trip had to be cancelled, although fortunately Iobtained a partial refund on my pre-booked, Advanced rail ticket. With a chunkof autumn taken up with holidays and other distractions, followed by Christmasand New Year celebrations, it wasn’t until mid-March that a mutually convenientdate became available for a re-arranged Black Country Walkabout. And so, early on Friday morning I made my way down toTonbridge station and boarded the first London bound train that arrived at theplatform. Strictly speaking, accordingto the terms of my ticket, I should have taken the train specified on my travelschedule, which was actually the one that was two departures after the one Icaught. I’m of the opinion though, that it’s best to make any onward connectionsas soon as possible, especially as I’ve been caught out before by delays on theUnderground.
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I alighted at London Bridge and took the Northern Line in anortherly direction towards Barnet. The carriages were packed as far as Bank station,but after that, the journey onward to Euston was fine, and I even got a seat. Ididn't have too long to wait for my Avanti West Coast train to Wolverhampton,which was completely different from my experience at the beginning of December.On that occasion, I travelled to Macclesfield, and there were cancellations poppingup all over the place.
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This was a welcome change and with plenty of space on thetrain going north, I was thinking could this be proof that Avanti have startedto deliver, when it comes to service and reliability. I say this because the journeyhome, from Wolverhampton, was just as seamless and trouble free. It was ratherdisconcerting then to read, the other day, that the government we're looking atstripping Avanti of their franchise and take ownership of services on the WestCoast Main Line back into public ownership. We shall see!
Once seated, I settled down to enjoy the journey and as wellas gazing out at the countryside, which is quite familiar to someone who hastravelled this route dozens of times in the past, I also found time to read mylatest book. This was “Cask”, Des de Moor’s magnum opus on what he describes as“The Real Story of Britain’s Unique Beer Culture.” I had knocked off severalchapters by the time we reached Birmingham, after which I put the book away inmy backpack, switched on my phone, and noticed a couple of messages. These werefrom Retired Martin, who was supposed to be joining Stafford Paul and myselffor part of our Black Country Wander.
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The train pulled into Wolverhampton, right on time at 10:29,and after stepping off and walking along the platform, I spotted Stafford Paul whowas waiting for me, after travelling down from the town that is the first partof his nickname. It was quite a reunion as after all, this was the trip thathad been pushed back from August last year. We walked across to Wolverhampton’srecently constructed bus station, where we waited for the bus that would takeus all the way to Brierley Hill where the Vine, our first pub of the day, was located.We climbed up to the top deck, in order to appreciate the view, and it was achanging one as we moved from 1930’s suburbia, towards some more open, and alsomuch hillier countryside.
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The journey took the best part of an hour, as it followed anurban, dual carriageway route which Paul said had been constructed back in the 1930’sas a job creation scheme, to assist workers affected by the economic depressionthat was affecting much of the area, at the time. To our left we could see the imposingruins of Dudley castle, high up on a hillside, and later in the day, we passedthe same castle from the other side of the hill, whilst on our way back to Wolverhampton.
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We visited five pubs in total that day, all of them classicand totally unspoilt pubs several of them on CAMRA’s list of national, heritagepubs. Every pub visited, offered beers packed full of flavour and character,produced by a handful of long-established, Black Country breweries. The namesBatham’s, Old Swan (Ma Pardoe’s), Sarah Hughes, and Holden’s might not meanmuch to today's’ drinkers, but they represent a heritage that stretches backthrough several generations of hard-working, local family brewers. Join me next time, as we move onto the main part of this visit to the BlackCountry and learn about how Paul and I enjoyed some of the finest, and alsosome of the cheapest traditional beers in Britain. Furthermore, we enjoyed themin some of the most unspoilt and unchanged boozers in the country.
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Last Friday's visit to the Black Country was something of afirst for me although, spoiler alert, I had been to the region once before.That was only briefly when, as a student I visited the Lamp Tavern in Dudley,with a friend from university, who lived in nearby Staffordshire. My friend hadbeen enthusing about the local Batham’s beer, which like nowadays, was onlyavailable in a handful of pubs, and so on a weekend visit to his parent’s housein Rugeley, drove the pair of us down to the Black Country for an evening atthe Lamp Tavern.
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We put away a fair few pints that evening, or at least I didas my friend was driving, and whilst that was getting on for 50 years ago, the memoriescame flooding back as Stafford Paul and I rode past on the bus last Friday,whilst on our way to our first pub of the day (also a Batham’s house).Incredibly I recognised the pub, despite it being dark during that first visit,such was the impression that the local beer had made on me.That was a one off, so let's wipe the slate clean and regardmy recent trip as the first proper visit I’ve made to the Black Country. Thearea gained itsname in the mid nineteenth century due to the smoke from the many thousands of iron-working foundries, forges and thick seams of coal which were easy toexcavate due to their shallow nature. Because of the physical nature of coalmining and iron smelting, workers in the region would have developed king-sizedthirsts, so one legacy of this is the large number of breweries and pubs thatgrew up as a result of this industrial activity.
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It had long been an aim of mine to visit and enjoy some of thearea’s richheritage of unspoilt pubs, and afterexploring this idea with local Pub Man, Stafford Paul on the Beer & PubForum, hosted by Tapatalk, the logistics behind such a trip were graduallysketched out. We narrowed the number of pubs down to half a dozen, and workedout an itinerary that would enable us to visit each one, whilst allowingsufficient time to fully appreciate each individual hostelry. We called thisplan as a Black Country Walkabout, and originally scheduled the visit forAugust last year. That was when COVID decided to raise its ugly head again,because just four days before our scheduled tour, I went down with what turnedout to be my third bout of the plague.
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The trip had to be cancelled, although fortunately Iobtained a partial refund on my pre-booked, Advanced rail ticket. With a chunkof autumn taken up with holidays and other distractions, followed by Christmasand New Year celebrations, it wasn’t until mid-March that a mutually convenientdate became available for a re-arranged Black Country Walkabout. And so, early on Friday morning I made my way down toTonbridge station and boarded the first London bound train that arrived at theplatform. Strictly speaking, accordingto the terms of my ticket, I should have taken the train specified on my travelschedule, which was actually the one that was two departures after the one Icaught. I’m of the opinion though, that it’s best to make any onward connectionsas soon as possible, especially as I’ve been caught out before by delays on theUnderground.
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I alighted at London Bridge and took the Northern Line in anortherly direction towards Barnet. The carriages were packed as far as Bank station,but after that, the journey onward to Euston was fine, and I even got a seat. Ididn't have too long to wait for my Avanti West Coast train to Wolverhampton,which was completely different from my experience at the beginning of December.On that occasion, I travelled to Macclesfield, and there were cancellations poppingup all over the place.
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This was a welcome change and with plenty of space on thetrain going north, I was thinking could this be proof that Avanti have startedto deliver, when it comes to service and reliability. I say this because the journeyhome, from Wolverhampton, was just as seamless and trouble free. It was ratherdisconcerting then to read, the other day, that the government we're looking atstripping Avanti of their franchise and take ownership of services on the WestCoast Main Line back into public ownership. We shall see!
Once seated, I settled down to enjoy the journey and as wellas gazing out at the countryside, which is quite familiar to someone who hastravelled this route dozens of times in the past, I also found time to read mylatest book. This was “Cask”, Des de Moor’s magnum opus on what he describes as“The Real Story of Britain’s Unique Beer Culture.” I had knocked off severalchapters by the time we reached Birmingham, after which I put the book away inmy backpack, switched on my phone, and noticed a couple of messages. These werefrom Retired Martin, who was supposed to be joining Stafford Paul and myselffor part of our Black Country Wander.
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The train pulled into Wolverhampton, right on time at 10:29,and after stepping off and walking along the platform, I spotted Stafford Paul whowas waiting for me, after travelling down from the town that is the first partof his nickname. It was quite a reunion as after all, this was the trip thathad been pushed back from August last year. We walked across to Wolverhampton’srecently constructed bus station, where we waited for the bus that would takeus all the way to Brierley Hill where the Vine, our first pub of the day, was located.We climbed up to the top deck, in order to appreciate the view, and it was achanging one as we moved from 1930’s suburbia, towards some more open, and alsomuch hillier countryside.
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The journey took the best part of an hour, as it followed anurban, dual carriageway route which Paul said had been constructed back in the 1930’sas a job creation scheme, to assist workers affected by the economic depressionthat was affecting much of the area, at the time. To our left we could see the imposingruins of Dudley castle, high up on a hillside, and later in the day, we passedthe same castle from the other side of the hill, whilst on our way back to Wolverhampton.
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We visited five pubs in total that day, all of them classicand totally unspoilt pubs several of them on CAMRA’s list of national, heritagepubs. Every pub visited, offered beers packed full of flavour and character,produced by a handful of long-established, Black Country breweries. The namesBatham’s, Old Swan (Ma Pardoe’s), Sarah Hughes, and Holden’s might not meanmuch to today's’ drinkers, but they represent a heritage that stretches backthrough several generations of hard-working, local family brewers. Join me next time, as we move onto the main part of this visit to the BlackCountry and learn about how Paul and I enjoyed some of the finest, and alsosome of the cheapest traditional beers in Britain. Furthermore, we enjoyed themin some of the most unspoilt and unchanged boozers in the country.
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