Tamworth Pub Explorations

My explorations of the Midlands town began with a lunchtime pint in a pub named after a 19th century prime minister...

Sir Robert Peel (13-15 Lower Gungate, Tamworth, B79 7BA)
This is a cracking town pub, as agreed by the folks at CAMRA who honoured it as part of their 50th anniversary golden awards.
Step inside and the bar is to the left, with some seating on high stools under a skylight, then more conventional tables in the adjoining room.

Five cask ales on offer, the three from my picture below and Vocation 'Red' or Nuttycombe 'Doonicans' a little further down the bar.

The Sir Robert Peel is the kind of pub that I really like - great ales and a good atmosphere, with a decent number of customers present to say the clock had only just ticked past midday.

The Robert Peel has a great choice of artwork, breweriana, and oddities adorning the walls throughout.  From my seat I was checking out the (authentic?) signed Oasis pic, old Guinness adverts, and classic Monsters of Rock posters. 
And Slash is on the wall overseeing the Gents... 

A little further along the same road you'll find the Kings Ditch.
I didn't visit this micropub on this 2024 visit for the good reason that it was closed on the day I was in town.  But I did call in a year ago in May 2023.  That was one of my great unwritten blogs (there's a fair few of 'em), as I got sidetracked by important real world adult stuff. 

Kings Ditch (51 Lower Gungate, Tamworth, B79 7AS)
That 2023 visit was an unusual one in that I found the front door locked with a 'sorry closed' sign on it despite there being a fair few chaps sat within supping their pints.  The landlord took pity and poked his head out to explain that they'd run their stock down as they were off on a two week holiday the following day.
"So, we're closed because we've run out of beer", he said..."unless you like dark beer".
Yup!  Dark beer's great!
And so I was permitted entry to do my little bit in helping them finish the barrel of Leatherbritches 'Bohemian Dark Export'.  A hefty 5.9% porter that was delicious, but may have contributed considerably to my roundabout route on the trains to get home which I suspect my ticket wasn't valid for.

The Kings Ditch opened in 2014 in a premises that was previously a cycle shop.  Well worth a visit for an interesting selection of beer, a super cider selection, and a friendly local crowd.

On the other side of Gungate is a grand old-school pub...

The Globe Inn (Lower Gungate, Tamworth, B79 7AT)

An older inn on this site was brought by Aston-based brewery Frederick Smith Ltd at the end of the 19th century. They promptly knocked it down in order to built something more striking in an era when breweries were keen to make a statement with their impressive tied houses.  The current building was opened in 1901 as hotel and public bar.

It's a spacious pub within, open plan with distinct areas leading off to the side and rear.  Plenty of TV screens dotted around for those who want to watch the sport.
Here's Tamworth's Manchester United fan.  They weren't winning...

Two regular cask ales are available in the Globe, with my attention solely on the Bass.  It was on brilliant form here - a thoroughly enjoyable pint.

Heading straight back down the same road towards the centre of town and the shops, I elected to call into a pub I didn't know much about.  Maybe swayed solely by a chap sitting on the table outside drinking Belgian beer from the proper glass.

The Sheriff of Tamworth (10 Colehill, Tamworth, B79 7HE)
Cask ales on offer were Church End 'Vicar's Ruin' or Titanic 'Mild' on cask, alongside a good keg selection and Belgian big-hitters in the fridge.
No space for me to sit in the small bar area to the right of the door, so I had to go exploring the different options with my Church End ale, ending up lonely in a side room.

I had Alannah Myles's 'Black Velvet' playing in the background to entertain me, strangely coming on twice in a row.  Followed by The Cars 'Drive'...TWICE in a row.
Then Alien 'Only a Woman' which actually started up for a THIRD time in succession, at which point I decided it was time to go!

There is actually more to do in Tamworth than traipse around from one pub to another, so I feel obliged to pause briefly before heading onward to the Pub of the Year.
St Editha's church was looking good in the sunshine... 

If you fancy swapping beer drinking for roller coasters, Drayton Manor amusement park is just down the road - my annual trips there when I was a youngster were always a highlight of the year. 
Then there's the Snowdome, TripAdvisor's top attraction in the the town, where an unbalanced PropUptheBar tottered down the slopes trying to learn to snowboard.
And there's the castle and the pleasant park surrounding it...

But of course, 90% of Tamworth's visitors are here for the Tamworth Tap...

The Tamworth Tap (29 Market Street, Tamworth, B79 7LR)
This is the fourth pub to have been handed the accolade of CAMRA Pub of the Year twice, the only one to have done it two years in a row.

The award is for more than just beer choice of course, but the beer choice was magnificent.
Eight casks in total, serving beers from Three Hills, Green Duck, Thornbridge, Stone Daisy, Bristol Beer Factory, Sarah Hughes, Bathams, and Attic.
Strewth, what to pick?  The chap at the side of my pic below was waving his glass at me and telling me I had to have the Dark Ruby Mild.  Any other time, maybe, but I past needing a 6%er.

Instead I ended up with a golden ale from Birmingham brewers Attic called 'Beams', which probably wasn't the best pick of the bunch.
This is a great pub...lots of nooks and crannies, tons of beer signs and breweriana all over the walls, a pleasant upstairs overflow, and a courtyard out back overlooking the back walls of the castle.

You'd think after such a variety of good pubs in the town I'd be able to resist a visit to Wetherspoon's.  But it was handily close to the Travel Lodge where I was staying and it would have been odd not to at least poke my head in.

The Bole Bridge (8 Bolebridge Street, Tamworth, B79 7PA)
This pub is named after a long-gone pack horse bridge which once stood at the end of the road, providing a crossing over the River Anker.
It has a narrow frontage with some alarmingly steep steps, then stretches a fair way back, with the furthest seating bright under a glass ceiling.

What had really attracted me was the fantastic endorsements of the beers on offer from Emma B on Untappd...

As well as those above, there was Theakstons 'Old Peculiar', Titanic 'White Star', Elgood 'Golden Newt', and Black Hole 'ALEien Invasion', supplementing the Spoons regular bitters.
I went for the latter of those, a tasty pale ale, from the Derbyshire brewery with beer names to keep a sci-fi fan happy.

NB: Mine is a very dull and predictable pick of Tamworth pubs - see Life After Football's 2022 crawl around the town for how to do it properly!

Atherstone Pub Crawl

An afternoon spent in the north Warwickshire market town Atherstone, situated midway between Tamworth and Nuneaton.  Home to just over 9,000 people, it was once a centre for hat making, has one of those free-for-all pancake day football games, and a pretty impressive number of public houses.

I arrived on a Sunday lunchtime, strolling down the main street to the market square which has three pubs/bars facing onto it and is overlooked by St Mary's church, featuring an impressive octagonal embattled tower.

A few steps from the church is the Angel Ale House, with a place in the Good Beer Guide '24.

Angel Ale House (24 Church Street, Atherstone, CV9 1HA)
Atherstone's sole current Good Beer Guide entry has a fair few regional pub of the year awards hung on the wall and was serving a decent range of real ales when I visited.
Five pump clips, and miniature bottles for you to check the colour, offering up beers from Oakham, Woodfordes, Vale of Glamorgan, and Leatherbritches.  I went to the dark side with a lovely Beowulf 'Chocolate Porter'.  Everything reasonably priced between £3.60 to £4.20 a pint.

 

Sadly the turntable next to the bar wasn't in action, the piped music featuring the lesser-heard Aha 'Take on Me', and the very frequently heard Boston 'More than a Feeling' and ELO's 'Mr Blue Sky'.

There were a reasonable number of punters for a Sunday afternoon, some taking drinks out onto the tables on the square.  The retirement bash seemed to be favouring coffee over real ale, although perhaps the hardcore ladies continued their celebrations by hitting the Bass in the New Swan later in the day.

Talking of Bass...

The Black Horse (156 Long Street, Atherstone, CV9 1AE)
This was one of a handful of pubs in the town promising to serve a pint of Bass and I wasn't to be disappointed on that front.  Two hand-pumps in the Black Horse, although the second had it's Doom Bar pump clip turned around, not causing me any disappointment whatsoever.

The trouble with the Black Horse is that - despite looking like it would be from the outside - it wasn't very pub-like.  There was just one alcove in the front room with proper pub seating by the fireplace.  Beyond that we were into the realm of functional high-backed restaurant chairs.

I took my pint into the back room and decided this would be a good a spot for lunch.  So here's my Sunday nut roast - lacking a Yorkshire pudding - but a good feed for the day.

The attentive staff apologised that it took so long, explaining they had to cook nut roast to order 'cos they don't get many vegetarians.  Still, better than one pub in North Devon I visited recently that didn't do any veggie options as "we're a farming community and we don't have vegetarians round these parts!"

Glancing at the map, I realised that I could continue straight down the road for about a mile and it would take me into the neighbouring village of Mancetter and a heritage pub.
That seemed a good way to walk off lunch instead of just crossing the road to the Old Swan.
The Blue Boar makes for a good pub picture..

The Blue Boar (Watling Street, Mancetter, CV9 1NE)
The current pub was rebuilt around 1940 for Mitchells and Butlers on a large corner plot, car park in front of the sizable building.
I stepped through the door into a loud and raucous public bar, where the local folk had chosen to stand around the bar shouting to each other rather than utilise any of the seating.

On the bar were three beers from the local Sperrin brewery: golden, ruby, and mild.  Alongside Doom Bar.  A pint of the mild for myself, taken into the peace and quiet of the lounge.

Mild on great form.  Local CAMRA mag to read.  Lovely surroundings EXCEPT for that wallpaper!

The Blue Boar has a design typical of large pubs built at the time, where a number of rooms surround a central bar.  Beyond my seat in the lounge was the old Smoke Room which has been extended and turned into a restaurant area.
Here's the PropUptheBar bench seating picture of the month...

Finishing a very satisfying mild, I trekked back along the road to Atherstone.
Long Street really didn't need the boy racer driving up and down it at 80mph.

Back where I was 45-minutes earlier, the Old Swan sits straight across the road from the Black Horse.

The Old Swan (175 Long Street, Atherstone, CV9 1AH)
Another pub with a mention in the Heritage Pub guide, this time because the interior remains little changed since a '60's refurbishment.  The front room has a dozen surprisingly sweary and cheery-looking locals on the three tables facing the bar.  There is a second section to the right of the front door with good trad seating, a busy back room, and a fair few people opting for the garden on this sunny afternoon.

Cask on offer was Banks's Amber or Courage 'Directors', the latter with a cardboard make-shift pump clip.  The Old Swan served a decent Banks's and was a pub I was pretty settled in.

 

Just a short way along Long Street was another destination that I'd got marked down for a pint of Bass.
The Hat & Beaver (I'm reliably informed this is now the only pub with that name in the country) looked every bit a proper boozer.

Hat & Beaver (130 Long Street, Atherstone, CV9 1AF)
Sadly it was a little bit too quiet within.  There are two sections to the bar, one facing the back room and a counter in the front room where you'll find the cask hand pump.
A couple of old boys sat on the bench seating chatting to the landlord and keeping half an eye on footy on the TV.  A handful of folks had picked the table right at the far end of the back room.  I un-sociably sat right in the middle on some well-worn cushioned bench seating, enjoying the Bass. 

After a quiet pint in the Hat & Beaver, I returned to more signs of life in the market square.  I figured I'd call in to the Market Tavern which had a good crowd and a bunch of motorbikes outside.

Market Tavern (21 Market Street, Atherstone, CV9 1ET)
It looked like the Market Tavern was making an attempt to challenge the Angel for a beer guide place.  Pump clips stuck on the beams and lots of signage advertising the real ales and ciders.  There were five handpumps across the bar with two from Windsor & Eton Brewery, a breakfast stout from a brewery I didn't identify, 'Swoop' from Brass Castle, and - my pick - an Unbarred 'Joosy'.

This was a cracking place to finish a crawl around the town.  There were a fair few customers, the sun was shining through the windows, there was some lively music pumping out the speakers, and the very crafty 'Joosy' went down so easily.
All-in-all, a town I knew little about beforehand that was well worth a visit for a crawl around some of the pubs.

Dunstable and Luton Pub Explorations

Treat this as a note of caution...
First you browse the Good Beer Guide and count how many pubs in your home county you've been to. Perhaps add some ticks or colour the map.
Wonder how feasible it would be to visit all of them and maybe those in the neighbouring county too...
And before you know it, you're pub ticking in Dunstable on a Monday evening.

My first point of call was the Globe - a fine trad street corner pub, the front door open on a warm evening and the sounds of conversation and laughter drifting out as I approached.

The Globe (43 Winfield Street, Dunstable, LU6 1LS)
Step inside and the main space has wooden floors and lots of bench seating down one side.  Bottles on ledges, old brewery signs, and a bookshelf packed with beer books and GBG's from the past 25 years or so.  There's also another area to the right of the front door with some sofas for those who prefer to sink into their seating.

Cask options on the bar were locals Vale 'Black Beauty' and Tring 'Colley's Dog', and the less local Wadworth '6X' and Exmoor 'Gold', the latter with a homemade cardboard and marker pen pump clip.
I took a decent Black Beauty to a big table towards the back of the pub and marveled at how much noise the handful of locals were managing to make on a Monday evening.

Just under 10 minutes walk away, down the main drag, then right at the crossroads towards the police station is the second current beer guide listed pub... 

The Victoria (69 West Street, Dunstable, LU6 1ST)
This looked traditional - red and white frontage, wheelie bins, and Union Jack.
Stepping inside, The Victoria is a small basic old fashioned boozer of the type lesser seen in my neck of the woods.
In the L-shaped room there is a grand total of 4 regular tables and 2 round posing tables with stools at them.  Games machine next to the door, darts board tucked in a corner.
My wide-angle photo option to capture the whole pub hasn't done that chaps belly any favours - sorry!

The Victoria was quiet, the locals speculated to the chap at the bar that he'd be closing early.

Two beers on offer: Adnams 'Ghost Ship' and my, rather ropey, house beer, Tring 'Victoria Ale' 

The jukebox fired into action by itself - The Easybeats 'Friday on my Mind', rather rushing the week away on a Monday evening.
The locals berated Premier League football players and this weeks ludicrous friendly between Spurs and Newcastle in Australia.  (They're too tired to play FA cup replays remember).

Tring beer drunk, I bade the few folk in the pub farewell and wandered down the street to catch a bus to Luton.
Handily completing my Dunstable sightseeing en-route...

I missed the bus by seconds, but was happy to discover it was only 6-minutes to the next one on a frequent service.  Dunstable and Luton are connected by a busway - where buses turn onto a dedicated track and little wheels kick into action to guide them for an 8-mile stretch.

It was opened in 2013, utilising the disused Dunstable railway branch line, closed by Beeching in 1965.
I've been keen to travel on this ever since getting over-excited by the Cambridge to St Ives busway.  Single-deckers on this one, scuppering my picture. 

From Dunstable to the cosmopolitan environs of Luton.
So where to?  The Bricklayers Arms, I think.  A beer guide pub that I hadn't previously visited, located in the High Town on the northern side of the train station.

The Bricklayers Arms (16-18 High Town Road, Luton, LU2 0DD)
I do quite like the giant Spoons with its ever-present security guards, but I reckon the Bricklayers may possibly be my favourite Luton pub.
It has a great feel to it - wooden floors, a few big barrels to perch on, two rooms, loads of Hatters memorabilia.

There was also a good choice of ales on offer from Ossett, Oakham, Vale, and my delicious Roman Way 'Ad Astra'.
It happened to be pub quiz evening, so the front room was busy, relegating me to a perch in the back where I contemplated the questions for the first couple of rounds and figured I wouldn't have been a great deal of help to any quiz team.

Just a short walk along the bustling and interesting High Town Road took me to the Painters Arms.  

The Painters Arms (79 High Town Road, Luton, LU2 0BW)
This is the local Heritage Pub gem, featuring tiling, old fireplaces, and big wooden partitions.
A doorway leads you into a wood panelled porch with doors to the Bar, Saloon, and Jug Bar. 

 I headed through to the saloon, where they've gone all out with the Luton Town flags.

There's no real ale on offer here and even the John Smith's smooth was off, so Strongbow or Guinness is your best bet to sip whilst admiring the heritage interior and watching horse racing on TV.
They did have the best soundtrack of the day - a bit of Hendrix, AC/DC, and Fleetwood Mac met with my approval.

I'm glad I've visited the Painters and I enjoyed my cheese & onion Tayto's.  Not sure I'd want to rush back and stay until the 3am closing time on a weekend, though.

Back across the other side of the railway line, on the pedestrianised street leading into town, you'll find another pub that gets a mention on the Heritage pubs site.

The Great Northern (63 Bute Street, Luton, LU1 2EY)
I've visited this old pub a couple of times and there's something I quite like about it.  Step round the corner onto Guildford Street and there are young folk on benches playing dubious music and smoking pungent reefers.  Venture into the Great Northern and you're in a whole different world of old blokes singing along to Smooth Radio and talking about WWII fighter planes.

They only have the one ale on: St Austell 'Tribute' this time, but it was Tribute on pretty good form.

That was to be my last pub in Luton on this occasion.
Maybe there will be a surge in real ale pubs when CAMRA move their HQ to the town later this year.

I hopped back aboard a busy bus and whizzed along the busway again, returning to Dunstable.  The remainder of the evening was to be spent in a very modern Wetherspoon's pub...

The Gary Cooper (Grove Park, Court Drive, Dunstable, LU5 4GP)
The outdoor patio had been packed earlier in the afternoon, in a pleasant location next to Grove Park.  Only the hardcore remained outside in the evening chill and most seemed to have gone home with the high-ceilinged expanse inside pretty empty at 9.30pm.

The Gary Cooper has retained a place in the Beer Guide for a fair few years now, with Evan Evans 'WPA' and 3 Brewers 'IPA' the guests on offer alongside spoons regulars.

And they're definitely in contention for a place in my Best Statues in Spoons list...

That was the end of my Dunstable pub explorations...for the time being at least.
My appreciation for anyone who's stuck with the post and read the waffle or just looked at the pictures of pubs in these lesser loved towns.
Cheers 🍻