The Red Lion at Yarnton

I'm keeping it local here, with a short trip on a wintry Saturday to the recently reopened Red Lion in the village of Yarnton.
Throughout the day we found lots of dogs, an argumentative customer, Bass disappointment, and a raucous Saturday evening crowd in the latest incarnation of the Grapes.

Yarnton is just a 4-mile rush-hour traffic jam away from central Oxford and home to around 2,750 folk.  I can't find anything remarkable to report about Yarnton - typing it into Google brought up the local garden centre in 6 of the top 7 search results.

So, let's head straight to the pub, which very nearly disappeared.

The Red Lion (127 Cassington Road, Yarnton, OX5 1QD)
We did a minibus tour of half a dozen Oak Taverns pubs back in October, completing the day at the Crown in Marcham.  At the time, The Crown had just become the 15th Oak Taverns pub - since then,The Red Lion has become the 16th.

The stories of both are remarkably similar.  The Red Lion was closed by Admiral Taverns in the summer of 2022, the future of a village pub looking very uncertain.  An attempt by the local community to buy it failed; then Oak Taverns stepped in, gave it a lick of paint, and opened it with their drinks-led, community pub focus. 

The cask range wasn't quite as impressive as those we found on our October trip.  Butcombe from Somerset, St Austell from Cornwall, XT from Buckinghamshire providing the local option.
We started on the cider, being dispensed from a box at the back of the bar in the picture above, before I returned to the bar for the XT '3' - a sessionable IPA on good form.

What was nice to see was that the Red Lion was doing a good Saturday afternoon trade, including families, ladies talking needle craft, and LOTS of dog walkers.  There was an impressive collection of muddy wellington boots by the door by the time we left.

I figured we should really check out the other pub on the edge of the village whilst in the vicinity.

The Turnpike Inn (2 Woodstock Road, Yarnton, OX5 1PJ)
These buildings were originally a set of roadside cottages which were converted into an inn called the Bunch of Grapes.  It picked up its current name when the road on which it stands became a toll booth controlled turnpike in 1719.

Entry is via the back door from the car park, leading into a small area by the bar which offers up a couple of tables for the casual drinker.

Our arrival coincided with a lady having an extended argument, waving the menu at the manager.  What it was about I have no idea, but it was long-winded.  I felt sorry for the husband, sat well out the way, then given cup of coffee and told to drink it quickly as we're leaving.
The manager had remained professionally calm, but pulled the Purity hand-pump more aggressively than necessary when I was eventually served my 'Mad Goose'.

Not a bad pint, to be fair (Doom Bar being the alternative).
The rest of this large place consists of tables very much set up for dining within the refurbished old rooms.  No photo's to remind me what it looked like but, for reasons now forgotten, I felt it important to get a record of the botanic wallpaper in the gents...

We hopped aboard the next Oxford-bound bus, alighting partway down Banbury Road.
Our destination was North Parade, which is one of Oxford's great little streets and contains two pubs - the consistently good Rose & Crown and the Gardeners Arms.

The Gardeners Arms (8 North Parade Avenue, Oxford, OX2 6LX)
It used to be a bit like a time-warp stepping into this place, a former Morrell's pub, opened in 1872.  The same tenants ran the Gardeners for 30 years before retiring in 2022.
Reopened in October '23, it is now being operated by the Morgan Pub Co.

And they delighted me with the rare - nay, unheard of - sight of Bass in Oxford city centre.

A short-lived delight, as it was way past it's best, murky with aroma of egg.
Our beers were changed with no fuss for the other cask option, Brew York's 'Calmer Chameleon', a session strength tropical pale ale.  But no substitute for the Bass.

This a narrow pub with some classic leather-padded bench seating in the front section, bar in the middle and a handful of tables to the rear.
Nice to have the evening Premier League match on TV for us to keep an eye on, although this is one of those pubs where there really isn't a suitable place to stick a large screen.  Only the departure of the folks on the high stools enabled me to see it.

We ordered veggie hot dogs then felt rather guilty that the one chap behind the bar seemed to be jack of all trades, whizzing upstairs to prepare our food, then back to man the bar.

Fed and watered, we just had time to call into the Grapes on George Street, also in the hands of the same pub company as the Gardeners Arms.

The Grapes (7 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AT)
This is somewhere that has gone through a number of identities in recent years and spent some time closed.  But it seems to be back to it's best in the latest incarnation.

Okay, the high tables aren't going to be to everyone's taste and I'll probably fall off one of those stools one day.  But it's tastefully decorated with a plethora of pictures filling the wall opposite the bar, vinyl lined up next to a record player, a stack of board games, and big TVs now installed to show sporting fixtures.

And the choice of beer is superb - six hand pumps offering Harvey's 'Sussex Best' (my pick this time, an easy NBSS4) alongside five constantly changing guests.
Taps line the length of the bar back and offer Mrs PropUptheBar the chance to pick something sour and complain that it's too sour.

This proved a rewarding local day out.  With three of the pubs we'd visited having recently spent time closed it was super to see them open and doing a good job (that Bass excepted!).

Hockley and Birmingham Pub Crawl

Another fine day out in Birmingham, in which we covered Heritage pubs, a desi pub, a brewery tap, Black Country Ales, and a foolishly strong craft beer as a nightcap before the train home.
Now that's what I call a good bit of variety.
Here's the route we took, nicely clocking up the mileage throughout the day...

We started in the Jewellery Quarter at a pub that I've stood and photographed before, but never set foot in...

Rose Villa Tavern (172 Warstone Lane, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JW)
The Rose Villa Tavern was built for Mitchells & Butler in 1919 by architects Wood and Kendrick for the princely sum of £15,000.  It's not as un-spoilt as some of the other red-bricked gems in the city, but can boast some pretty stunning windows and decorative tiling within.

I'm really sad to see the Barton's Arms (visited on my last pub crawl around this neck of the woods) has recently shut it's doors again.  There's a plethora of pubs on the Birmingham heritage list with red 'currently closed' notices under their entries. 
It briefly looked like the Rose Villa may join them when it closed at the end of 2021, but Star Taverns rapidly installed new tenants and opened the doors after a bit of a spruce up.

It was doing a roaring trade for just gone midday when we visited, the main bar busy and loud with most tables taken.  Too loud for me - Michael Jackson and Abba not my lunchtime music of choice. 
I took my Timothy Taylor 'Landlord' (the sole cask option, hidden to the side of the bar) through to the quiet room behind the servery, which also happens to be the best place to admire the spectacular tiling.

 

The Rose Villa Tavern provided a nice pit-stop in our trek north of the city centre.
We had another 20 minutes ahead of us past Gib Heath Park, dodgy housing estates, light industrial units, and some depressingly prolific fly-tipping.
Would it be worth the effort for lunch in a desi pub?  Oh yes!

Soho Tavern (407 Park Road, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 5SR)
At one point the Soho Tavern was on a steady downhill slope to closure.  There's a picture on the Lost Pubs Project, showing it with cream tiles on the lower half, impenetrable thick bottle glass windows, and a proper old school M&B pub sign.

The current owners took over in 2014, introduced Indian food, and saw a whole new customer base rock up through the door.  It's been enough of a success to see them open several more venues of the same name throughout the West Midlands.

It's now very shiny and modern.  I'd love to know what it used to look like, but I'll guarantee it's unrecognizable today, with the possible exception of the not so shiny and modern WC's.

There was no real ale available, but keg options Blue Moon or 'Jute' from Salt seemed a safe bet with your lunchtime curry.  As was the MB keg Mild that I picked, then went back for more of.

We'd ventured into West Brom territory here.  The Soho Tavern was pretty full with supporters getting a pre-match drink and bite to eat prior to the local derby against Birmingham City.  The tattooed chap with curry-induced sweaty brow at the next table checked if we were here for the footy and if we were 'blue noses'.  Having found a mix of both sets of fans on the next table there was no ire for the visitors from across town, both seeming to share a distaste for Villa instead.

We didn't have far to go to our next pub.
The Heritage-listed Black Eagle is little more than 50 meters down the road.
And the pub sign has to be up there with the best I've seen...

Black Eagle (16 Factory Road, Hockley, B18 5JU)

Re-built in 1895, it feels as though not a great deal has changed since then.  This is a cracking proper pub with four rooms around a central bar where the staff can shuffle between counters looking out onto three of the drinking spaces.

The tap room was the busiest, the two hand pumps serving up Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' or 'HPA'.
"What's yours love?", asked the cheery lady behind the bar.
As the chap in front was carrying away three pints of freshly poured foaming HPA I opted for the same.  £4.00 for a quite superb pint that I'm beginning to think may have been worthy of more than the 4* I gave it on the CAMRA scoring thingy. 

The pub quietened down a little towards the end of our visit, many of the punters obviously heading off to the Hawthorns.

We had a 25-minute walk ahead of us, willing the drizzle not to develop into proper rain and soak us between pubs (I have a habit of getting soaked between pubs in Birmingham).
Burning Soul wasn't going to quite match the heritage pubs as far as the photos are concerned...

Burning Soul Brewery (Unit 1 Mott Street Industrial, Hockley, B19 1HE)
With limited opening on Friday and Saturday only, this tap room has always eluded me when I've been in the vicinity.
It's a pretty down to earth tap room, with a handful of beer-fest style benches and a couple of sofas that I can attest are hard to get out of once you've sunk into them.  The brewing kit lies in the back section beyond the bar counter, a small group getting a tour whilst we were there.

Burning Soul was set up by enthusiastic home brewers who decided to procure some proper kit and make their concoctions commercially available.  They moved into this industrial unit in 2016 after it had been vacated by Two Towers Brewery - who were themselves moving to the Gunmakers Arms.

The beer board advertised 11 choices, 10 on the taps and one cask ale which I opted for - a most enjoyable 'Mild Obsession'.

Next up, a bit of a diversion from the straight-forward route back to the city.  My central Birmingham beer guide ticks were missing the Prince of Wales, tucked between a couple of tower blocks and the International Convention Centre.

The Prince of Wales (84 Cambridge Street, Birmingham, B1 2NP)
This dates back to 1854 and is the last standing of what was once a row of three storey buildings along Cambridge Street.
The pub has been in the hands of the ever-reliable Black Country Ales since 2022. 
So you know there will be a long run of cask ales to pick from...

Beers came from Beowulf, Wantsum, Silhill, Salopian, an M&B Brew XI, and the four regular Black Country Ales offerings.
I picked the Silhill 'North Star', a jet black smooth chocolatey porter.
We got the last available table right at the far end of the single room.  It's Six Nations time again and a fair amount of the customers in the Prince of Wales were glued to the screens.

Right...almost there.  The final leg of our route took us close to Snow Hill Station and to the magnificent-looking Old Contemptibles...

The Old Contemptibles (176 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2HB)
Originally an 18th century pub, this was redeveloped as the Albion Hotel in the 1880's with a nod toward the gin palaces which were popular at the time.  It was renamed in 1953 in honour of a British Expeditionary Force who fought in France in the First World War and later made the pub a regular meeting place.

There's just the one sprawling, long, room with high ceilings and impressive big windows.

A relatively familiar Nicholson's beer range was on offer, including 'London Pride', Nicholsons 'Pale ale', 'Doom Bar', 'Old Peculiar' and 'Plum Porter'.
I did raise a quizzical eyebrow and question the £9.15 price tag for a pint of Plum Porter and a half of Old Peculiar.  Strewth.

Sitting in the corner of the pub, sipping our beers, we checked train times for our return journey and discovered we had a fair bit of time to spare thanks to a cancelled train.
Which provided Mrs PropUptheBar the opportunity for a last-gasp Craft Beer Diversion in time added on.

Kilder (5 Shaw's Passage, Digbeth, B5 5JG)
I had no idea there was a craft beer bar in the arches underneath Moor Street station and perhaps this is a dangerous bit of knowledge for future Birmingham trips!
Kilder is a stylish railway arch, with a range of seating, including comfy leather padded benches at the sides, and moody lighting.

The tap list provided us with 14 options: lagers from Verdant and Duration; stouts from Siren and Porterhouse; continental brews from La Trappe and Weihenstephan.
But, of course, I went for the strongest - a Gamma 'You Sure About That' 10% TIPA.
"You sure about that?" asked Mrs PropUptheBar, rightly predicting that I'd fall asleep on the train on the way home. 

The West Midlands had come up trumps again with a great set of places for us to visit on this day out.
And I'll be back, as I still have plenty more Birmingham heritage pubs, brewery taps, and desi pubs on my 'to do' list.

From Beeston to the Malt Cross Tavern

In which we make a short hop out of Nottingham to the town of Beeston.  You've got a choice of train, tram, or bus to make the 3-mile journey.  We took the train on which we barely had time to settle into our seats before it was time to get off and admire Beeston's hilly scenery.

According to Wikipedia, Beeston has one of the highest concentrations of pubs in the United Kingdom.  Which makes me feel a little guilty that we were only making a flying visit to the three current beer guide entries.
First up: The Crown...

The Crown Inn (Church Street, Beeston, NG9 1FY)
The entry in the 1975 Good Beer Guide, when this was a Hardys & Hansons pub, tells us it's a "splendid example of what a pub should be".
It also notes that it is "under threat of modernisation" and I guess the results of that are what we encountered on arrival, entering through the second door to the right hand side of the building.  This led into a comfy spacious area which was the result of a 1976 extension.  There's a large bar counter in this section, some not-so-old wooden beams, plenty of proper pub seating, and old black and white pictures of the town on the walls.

I took my Dancing Duck '22' golden ale on an excursion through the pub to explore the older bits.
The locals were gathered in the warm and cosy games room where the darts board was proving popular.  A stone floored corridor leads through to the front door of the pub with another busy small room to one side and the original public bar to the other. 

This is a wonderful pub room - a bench under the window with three small tables lined along it and a minuscule partitioned snug at the far end.

The Crown is a multi-award winner, with a choice of drinks that could easily keep you here all day.  Other than the Dancing Duck brew I picked, casks served up beers from Oakham, Shiny, Dark Star, Marble, Abbeydale, and Nene Valley.  Plus crafty kegs and real ciders.

The 'three seat confessional' snug

We moved on, walking back around Middle Street to the The Star Inn which looks out across at the tram stop and the enormous Tesco Extra.

The Star Inn (22 Middle Street, Beeston, NG9 1FX)
The first thing that I noticed about the Star was the Boon mural next to the bins on the side wall; the second was the marvelous Shipstone's Brewery windows.
There were several rooms leading off from the central hallway - main bar to the front, lounge to the rear, and sports bar extending into the building at the side.

We settled on a high table by the bar.
Beers were helpfully listed on a board on the wall with pump clips placed on a light-dark / low-high ABV grid.  There was Marstons 'Pedigree' or Oakham 'Citra' for those wanting something a bit familiar, plus lots of local choice, few of which I recognised.

I picked an Alter Ego 'Incognito' from Alfreton, over the border in Derbyshire, and settled in the main bar with a pub cob (not up to the standards of the Black Country, but it filled a gap).

A 10-minute walk took us to the third Beeston beer guide entry.  The Alexandra Hotel is a big Victorian red-brick building located next to the railway line and handily close to the station.

Alexandra Hotel (85 Dovecote Lane, Beeston, NG9 1JG)
The pub dates back to 1899 when it was constructed by Ind Coope & Co.  It ended up in the hands of Allied Breweries who let it fall into disrepair, finally to be rescued by Castle Rock (Tynemill at that time) in 1994.

Faced with a gamble of which door to pick on the way in, we headed right into a self-contained square room with high red ceiling and loads of old brewery posters on the wall.
The main bar was actually through the door to the left and we didn't get to see this.  I'll revisit and sit in the other bar one day, when I return to Beeston and do the town more justice

I enjoyed a quick half of 'Foxx' session IPA from Derby's Little Brewing Company, my pick from the third great selection of beers of the day.
Our visit to the Alexandra was short as we checked the train times and raced out the door to catch the next service back to Nottingham. 

Where we headed to the Bunkers Hill Tavern (36-38 Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 1FP) which was packed to the rafters with the majority of punters settled in to watch Forest on the telly.
I've watched footy here a few times and really like the place - cracking atmosphere and a couple of decent pints of First and Last 'Reiver', a best bitter all the way from Northumberland.

We then strolled up the lively streets of the Lace Market for a revisit to the Angel Brewery (7 Stoney Street, Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1 1LG).
A multi-roomed pub with a good crowd in, outside loos plastered with stickers, some good music, brew kit taking up a lot of space in the corner.

 

Then our final stop was a bit of a revelation - somewhere that was completely off my radar, but found by the friends who'd whizzed up to Nottingham to join us for the evening.

Malt Cross Music Hall (16 St James's Street, Nottingham, NG1 6FE)
I must have walked past this many time when it was a cafe in the late '80's, St James's Street being a regular haunt for my youthful CD shopping in Way Ahead Records.
It's a Grade II listed former Victorian Music Hall, which was built in 1877.  It's had a recent restoration in 2014 thanks to Lottery funding bringing this hall back to its former glory.
And it is now run on a not-for-profit model in conjunction with the YMCA.

Five hand pumps offered a stouts from Castle Rock and Magic Rock, a super Black Iris black IPA with a superbly devilish pump clip, and ales from Wiper and True and Tiny Rebel.
Not a bad selection, plus there were German beers and craft options on the kegs should the cask not take your fancy.

This was an incredible building to end our Nottingham trip in, remarkably quiet on a busy evening in town when the crowds were packing themselves into the much less remarkable 'Spoons just across the road.

Liquid Light Brewery, Nottingham

A second Nottingham post, this time heading over to the east of the city centre and a few drinking establishments around Sneinton Market.

We'd previously visited the Mist Rolling Inn micro pub which disappointed a little in respect that I'd thought it would be a bit more football orientated.

The micro on this side of town won't let you down on that front...

Partizan Tavern (13-15 Manvers Street, Nottingham, NG2 4PB)
Opened in July 2021, this pub is the work of former electrician Tony Perkins who has followed the Serbian football club Partizan Belgrade ever since he saw them play Notts County in a youth team competition in 1990.
Have a look around the walls and the picture frames contain ticket stubs, programmes, newspaper articles, and more, as well as there being a couple of football shirts hanging above the window.

The cask choice on the bar covered the south coast: Staggeringly Good 'Prehistoric Creatures'; Lancashire:  Farm Yard 'Sheaf'; and Northumberland: First & Last 'Chime IPA'.
But I opted to stay local with a Black Iris 'Madagascan Porter'.  A quite superb beer on top form.

Should those not take your fancy, the kegs aren't half bad and the Partizan has been crowned cider pub of the year by the local CAMRA folk.

Just a few steps away, on the edge of the market, is a Castle Rock pub that I hadn't yet managed to make it to.

Fox & Grapes (21 Southwell Street, Nottingham, NG1 1DL)
Previously run by Banks's and called Peggers (the old pub sign now hangs inside, next to the bar) Castle Rock refurbished and reopened this market-side boozer in 2017.
They reverted to its original name and opened up an old two room layout into a single, pleasant, L-shaped bar. 

Castle Rock always serve up a strong cask selection, providing us with a choice of four of their own beers alongside Abbeydale 'Wanderer' and a Kernel IPA.
I chose the Castle Rock ' Screech Owl', a lovely bronze strong bitter.

Sat on a table at the side of the room, we were entertained by a nineties grunge soundtrack, heavy on Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
After a while a chap sauntered over and said, "I know you!  I was trying to work out where I know you from and now I've got it."
Well, I grew up in Nottinghamshire, returned to watch many a live band and many a football match at the City Ground, so it's vaguely possible this fella may know me.
But no.
"You're that bloke from Metallica!"

That's the first, and last, time I've been likened to anyone in Metallica.  No idea where he got that idea from, or how strong what he was drinking was.

Here's a shot of me outside the Fox & Grapes...

Sneinton market was originally made up of rickety sheds around some pretty run-down housing and factory buildings.  Growing in popularity, the council marked the area for redevelopment in the 1930s, building the blocks of open-fronted units that we see today and naming the streets between them Avenues A, B and C.
They in turn fell into a state of disrepair before being given a new lease of life in 2013, creating a home for creative types, a beer hall, boutiques and bakeries.  

And a brewery which, or course, was where we were heading.

Neon Raptor Taproom (Unit 14a, Avenue A, Sneinton Market, Nottingham, NG1 1DT)
Neon Raptor founder and head brewer Adam Henderson started creating beers on DIY equipment in his kitchen before winning a 2015 Brewdog home brewer competition.  Joining forces with a couple more folk, the brewery on Avenue A of Sneinton market opened in 2018.

The taproom consists of a few picnic tables and precarious stools around barrels, of which we got the last available one.

There was a pretty stunning selection of 12 beers on tap at the bar.  Sensible folk can pick from the first three options and stick to the sub 5% offerings; whilst there's nothing under 10% on the last four taps - the ones I'm looking at with a mischievous grin. 
Peanut butter, chocolate and caramel imperial stout?  Oh yes please!  £5 for a third of  the 2023 release of 'Centaur Army' - a big, bold, decadent pudding of a beer.

Moody lighting and a fine demonstration of propping up the bar

It was just a short walk from Sneinton Market to reach another tap room.  We headed up Carlton Street, branching into the dark, quiet side streets where you just about decide you must have taken a wrong turn before seeing the beer barrels stacked up outside unit 9.

Oh dear - that's not my best brewery picture

Liquid Light Taproom (Unit 9, Robin Hood Industrial Estate, Alfred Street South, NG3 1GE)
Come in the summer months and it'll all be a bit more obvious with outdoor tables and the shutter wide open.  In the winter though, I tried the door with some trepidation, pleased to find that it opened and that there was the sound of music coming from somewhere within.

I'm unsure quite how my entrance has caused the reaction from the two guys in the middle of the picture.
Perhaps they think I'm the bassist from Slayer.

Or more likely this was their first encounter with the kind of odd individual who bowls through the door snapping pictures of a brewery tap room.

There were four hand pumps on the bar, two in use when we visited, plus seven taps on the back.
Let's make a sensible beer choice this time, Prop Up the Bar.
Ooooh...what's that?!....

What it was, was a Liquid Light 'Interstellar Hyperdrive - the heart of the sun 2023 2YBA'.  The cheerful fella in his beanie cap at the bar explained that just a small amount had been set aside in wooden barrels for the last two years, decanted into a couple of casks and limited number of heftily priced cans.

It was delicious, although it tasted every bit its 12.5% and needed tackling with slow sips.

This was a place I didn't mind loitering and taking my time over a beer.
The large speakers in elegant wooden casing were fantastic, the playlist projected onto the wall above the shiny brewing kit. 
Hendrix, Black Sabbath and the Beatles featured heavily.
Sabbath had never sounded so good.

This part of Nottingham city centre is well worth a visit and I've only scratched the surface here - there's a few more pubs within staggering distance of Sneinton Market which are worth adding to any pub crawl.
And I also hear that Neon Raptor have ambitions to expand into larger premises, which will give me another reason to come back and explore some more.
Cheers 🍺