Shrewsbury Pub Explorations

I mentioned at the end of the Shifnal post that there was a pint of Bass waiting for me in Shrewsbury.  It just wasn't where I expected it to be.

Arriving at 3:30pm on a gloriously sunny day, I strolled through the county town, birthplace of Charles Darwin, pop group T'Pau, and England goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Only one of those has a statue outside the library (so far)...

This was my second visit in recent years to Shrewsbury, the last being in November 2019 which is why there are a few obvious omissions from today's selection of pubs. 
On that visit everything had been very grey and miserable, but today the sunshine was bringing out the best of the city.

Just don't get distracted by A-boards when photographing olde-worlde buildings.

"▲Bass sold here"
A diversion on the way to the hotel? Don't mind if I do!

Kings Head (48 Mardol, Shrewsbury, SY1 1PP)
This old 15th century inn was once named The Last Inn being the final hostelry on the route out of town towards the Welsh border.  It was renamed The Kings Head around 1780 and looks the part as one of Shrewsbury's oldest remaining inns.
Well, outside at least.
A bit of research tells me that there's an ancient wall painting of the last supper within the pub. So, typical that instead of photographing that, this uncultured soul was busy taking pictures of his beer...

Other cask options on the bar were Old Speckled Hen or Butty Bach.
I'll be honest, my Bass wasn't bad, but wasn't great either.

The Kings Head is kitted out as a typical town boozer with shiny wooden floors, games machines and a neat paint job, failing to match up to the stunning exterior.  It didn't feel very loved or lived in, perhaps the new management noted on the A-board not having had a chance to make their mark yet.

Springsteen played quietly in the background - introspective Bruce rather than Born in the USA Bruce.
Whilst I quaffed that pint of Bass and made ready to move on and check into my digs for the night.

My accommodation was another Wetherspoon Hotel experience, this time in the Good Beer Guide listed Shrewsbury Hotel, the fine weather attracting crowds to the tables in front of it.

My room was on the back with a view of rooftops and kitchen ventilation ducts rather than looking out over the al-fresco Spoons crowd.
Bag dropped off, layers shed, I emerged back out into the mini hotter-than-the-Med April heatwave and found my way back to oddly named Dogpole street...

Cromwell's Tap House (11 Dogpole, Shrewsbury, SY1 1EN)
At one time this was private housing, prior to being converted into the Warwick Hotel in the '40's.  It looks a big place from the outside yet the bar is surprisingly compact, with stone floor and beamed ceiling and a fair bit of character.

There were two beers from Weetwood on cask, plus the Hobsons seasonal 'Harlequin' which I picked.  And lots of interest on the keg lines too.
Most custom was out in the back yard, but I stayed in on a high stool to listen to the B52s, Carly Simon and Starship.

I had a little further to walk to the next pub: across the River Severn and suburban Shrewsbury.
I was on my way to a family-run Beer Guide regular which is a reliable Bass outlet.
Although a key part of the livery on the front is missing... 

Any reports of residential properties near the Blind Monkey in Sheffield recently erecting 'Bass' above their front doors?

Cross Foxes (27 Longdon Coleham,Shrewsbury, SY3 7DE)
You can tell this is a glorious little pub the moment you walk in the door. It's confirmed once you take a sip of the beer and the staff turn up the volume of Erasure's 'A Little Respect' in response to an impromptu singalong by the least likely looking Erasure fans sitting at the bar.

If you don't fancy Bass (😱) there is Wye Valley 'HPA' and 'Butty Bach' on offer, plus the tempting Three Tuns 'xxxx'.
The pub is L-shaped, with dart board in one quiet corner and most of the punters settled on tables to the rear.

Sticking to the same side of town, I walked a short way to my final pub of the evening.

The Prince of Wales (30 Bynner Street, Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, SY3 7NZ)
This is an award-winning backstreet gem that ticks plenty of boxes for me:
☑ Great quality beer - superb choice.
☑ Bookshelf of old Good Beer Guides.
☑ Local football team memorabilia.
☑ Bowling green out back.
☑ Customers who politely ignore my hiccups.

On reflection only one of those is actually essential.

There were seven cask beers available, including beers you've heard of, local favourites, and a dark ruby mild.
Never turn down a dark ruby mild - in this case brewed by by Magic Dragon in Wrexham and at 3.6% rather more sensible in strength than the Sarah Hughes variety. 

I took this out to the pleasant rear decking overlooking the bowling green where a match (game?) was just getting underway.  There's a great football touch here too, with some of the seats at the edge of the green having been rescued from Shrewsbury Town's old Gay Meadow ground.

As evening blue sky gave way to dusk, I called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

For those wanting an Untappd check-in of something foolishly strong, you should head straight off the train into the Tap and Can, instead of searching out A-boards advertising Bass of dubious quality.
On my second day, I made sure to make it to pay it a visit...

Tap and Can (13 Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, SY1 2AB)
This was one of those places with too much to pick from, with a blackboard listing 10 keg lines and 4 cask. Oof..Holy Goat sour? Spaten Helles? Duration super-pale ale?
In the end I picked the Tartarus 'Harlequin' on cask.

I didn't know Tartarus did cask. In fact, I didn't know Tartarus did anything under 10%.
The Tap and Can is a micropub-style bar, decorated with pump clips, most of the seating on German beer-fest long benches.

They specialised in music I'd never heard of: Slow Fiction 'Brother' sounded great, less convincing were Ora Cogan or Van Houlten...who?
What we needed was a rendition of Paradise City...

I stayed for an unwise Cloudwater 'Chubbles' TIPA, a hefty 10%. A hefty £6 for a third.

I'd thoroughly recommend the Tap and Can and know that it'd be a challenge getting Mrs PropUptheBar past it and onward to the other delights Shrewsbury has to offer.
Such as Bass in the Woodman 

The Woodman (32 Coton Hill, Shrewsbury, SY1 2DZ)

Butty Bach, HPA, White Rat, Lemon Dream, and Bass - your discerning cask selection, all priced at £4.35 a pint.
A recognisable soundtrack of EMF, The Beatles, Depeche Mode and Peter Gabriel.
Some serious dart throwing, a game of dominos in action and Warwick Davis presenting Tenable on the telly.

What more could you ask for?
It's a proper pub to end the evening in, although I've visited twice and missed the heritage lounge bar on both occasions.  It's almost as if I wasn't thinking straight after a 10% triple IPA.

That's Shrewsbury explored.  Next up: a trip into western Shropshire to Oswestry.

The Shifnal Shuffle

With a couple of nights booked in Shrewsbury I was looking at the train route from Birmingham New Street for a stopping-off point, somewhere I'd not been before where I could visit a few new pubs, grab lunch and get a decent pint.
Shifnal provided three Good Beer Guide entries, but it was the appearance in Paul Bailey's blog, reporting on a proper day out in the town which sealed the deal.
Just gone midday, I was hopping off the train at  eastern edge of Shropshire.

Wandering down the ramps and steps to escape the elevated train platforms, I made a right-hand turn out the station and reached the first GBG-listed pub in five minutes, complete with a wonderful pub sign and parked mobility scooter.

The Plough Inn (26 Broadway, Shifnal, TF11 8AZ)
This old 17th century building operated as a pub for years before closing and becoming D'arcy's eatery in 1996.  Against the odds in a town with a fair few drinking establishments close together, it was revived as a proper pub in 2011.

The cask choice on my visit consisted of the local ales: Hobsons or Noble Craft from Market Drayton; alongside Millstone from Greater Manchester and Hopback from Wiltshire. 

I picked the Noble 'Charge' - the one that was new to me and had the most impressive pump clip.  A fruity golden ale, made with US Summit and Ernest hops and proving to be a fine, flavoursome first pint of the day.
Although it took an age to pour, one of those beers where more seems to be heading to the drip tray than the glass, with the staff stating it's 'lively'.

The pub has two sections to the front divided by wooden beams that would have once been a wall, a back room and suntrap back garden.
Towards the rear, they're displaying their football allegiance...

Wolves do seem to be supported by an awful lot of publicans from Worcestershire to the Black Country to Staffs.  Seemingly more-so than any other team in the region.  I've never knowingly found myself in a 'Villa pub'. 
I avoided sitting under the signed shirts and grabbed a table in the window, a quiet pop soundtrack playing in the background ('Sweet But Psycho' by Ava Max, 'Born Again' by Lisa said Google; "Who?" said PropUptheBar).

Finishing my beer, I walked another five minutes up the road to my next planned destination.

The White Hart (High Street, Shifnal, TF11 8BH)
I'd known there was one Black Country Ales pub to visit in Shifnal, but this came as a bonus BCA tick (not that I ever seem to get any closer to visiting them all).  It had only opened a couple of weeks earlier, aroma of paint still in the air, fixtures and fittings in immaculate condition.
It's a sizable place open-plan place with various corners and nooks and crannies.
My picture shows the empty left-hand section, complete with BCA beer list on a screen, although the rest of pub had people scattered throughout and was doing a decent lunch time trade.

It was still new enough for locals to be popping in to see what they've done with the place, one lady poking her head around a corner and commenting that "my mam and dad used to sit on a table in this spot every day in the nineties."
There was the usual huge choice of ales, Moonraker, Purity, Salopian, Beowulf the Black Country Ales alternatives.
I resorted to picking beer based on pump clips again...

And swerved the planned trad cheese & onion cob when I saw they served lunchtime jacket potatoes for £6.50 with two fillings and something called 'salad' at the side of it.
A great pub with a wide range of punters, good quality beer and some much needed nourishment.

Next stop, back in the centre of town, the micro:

Kings Yard (2 Cheapside, Shifnal, TF11 8BN)
Nestled between chips and kebab emporiums, the Kings Yard opened in May 2021.  It veers away from the original Kent micro format with keg, spirits, bottle fridge, TV and comfy seats.
Real ale options were three from Wye Valley plus an Osset stout.

The foolhardy me would have had the Verdant 'Tippy IPA' on keg for £4 a third at 10%.  But sensible me dominated this afternoon and picked the Wye Valley 'Samurai' - a "cutting edge amber", which was fine but I would probably have enjoyed the West Midlands fave Butty Bach more.

The chap behind the bar staff was vocally cheery about Villa being knocked out of the Champions League.
"You're not a Villa fan, then?" asked the fella on the next table to me.
His follow-up question being, "'Baggies'? is that a nickname for Wolves?"
Always do your football homework.

I enjoyed the Kings Yard - a comfy and reasonably characterful micro which benefitted from a decent amount of pub tat, proper seating and retro charity collection box.

My next target was the older Black Country Ales establishment...

The Anvil (22 Aston Road, Shifnal, TF11 8DU)
This was another of the town's pubs that shut down in recent years and was headed towards conversion into residential use.  Black Country Ales arrived in 2018 after the Anvil had been shut for 18-months, gave it the usual yellow-hued makeover, modernised the WCs and the back patio and adorned the bar with a long row of pump clips.

Today, however, I think everyone had gone to check out the shiny new Wheatsheaf and abandoned the Anvil...

Apart from one chap who popped in, sunk a quick half and moved on, I had the place to myself, sat at the back of the room on comfy bench seating with a pint of Saltaire 'Mr Jinx'.
With it being so quiet I was worried about all the cobs stuffed into a cabinet at the side of the bar, so figured I should reduce it by one, lest they go to waste.

Second lunch: some good rings of red onion there, but the proper cob aficionado in me believes it should contain one enormous slab of cheddar instead of grated cheese.

More unfamiliar music which could only be identified by modern technology - Jelly Roll 'Save Me' - I was destined to not hear a single track I recognised in any of the Shifnal pubs playing music.

A quick check of train times suggested I could squeeze a half in one more pub, for which I picked the mustard-coloured Jaspers. 

Jasper's Arms (15 Victoria Road, Shifnal, TF11 8AF)
It's certainly a looker, inside and out, although the sun being in the wrong place means I haven't done justice to the stand-out colour and mural on the side.  Parked cars, scaffolding, people and the weather continue to scupper my pub photography.
Step through the door and there is an island bar, up-market leather seating, wooden floors and pump clip collection on the ceiling beams.

Greene King 'Abbot', Wye Valley 'HPA' and 'Butty Bach' on offer, but I had eyes only for the Holden's 'Golden Glow'.

A decent end to a couple of hours in this well-pubbed town.
I missed the Winking Frog (the one Martin paid extra attention to avoiding a typo on), the Crown and the Wheatsheaf, any of which may have been worthy of being added to my itinerary.
But there was a pint of Bass in Shrewsbury with my name on it.

Welcome to Kings Heath

An afternoon's excursion into south Birmingham, where I planned to visit a micro, a cricket club and a backstreet heritage pub.
This was my first visit to Kings Heath and, to be honest, it didn't shout out 'look what you've been missing!' when I disembarked bus number 35 on the High Street.

So, what have I learnt about it?
Kings Heath was originally part of Worcestershire pre-1974 and lost its apostrophe in a contentious grammar issue in 2009.  There's a plaque on the Hare & Hounds (which I maybe should have visited in hindsight) due to UB40 playing their first gig there.  And residents include comedian Joe Lycett and Anthony E Pratt, who created the board game Cluedo.

Right, that's enough knowledge about the area, where's the micro pub?

Hop & Scotch (9 Institute Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7EG)
This is a shop conversion tucked between Timpson's and Iceland, opened in 2018. Sofas in the spot by the window, high and low tables throughout the rest of the place, stark concrete ceiling and ventilation ducts, plus a superb choice of cask, keg and cans.
Arriving just at the time a group of blokes were being served meant craning to see the pump clips beyond them. I could see Neepsend, Bank Top, Kinver and Phoenix, whose 'Monkey Town' dark mild I picked.  A superb beer. 

Hop & Scotch have been the recipients of a fair few Local Pub of the Year awards - they've just been credited as Birmingham CAMRA Pub of the Year for the third year on the trot.
Although I'm not quite sure how I'd feel if I gave them a nice framed award and found it had been hung in the WC.

The top right 'best pub in the solar system' is the one you really want to win.

I could have stayed and picked another beer from the blackboards listing these at the side of the bar (yep, didn't see that when I was trying to peer past other customers on arrival).  But I needed to move on and keep to schedule.

Is that Life After Football on the corner of Institute Road, supplementing his income by knocking out the Blues merchandise during the Easter holidays?

Resisting a flag or scarf, I strolled south of the heart of Kings Heath, veering right at All Saints and down Vicarage Road.

Time to find a picturesque pub...

Red Lion (229 Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7LY)
The Red Lion was built by the Priory Estate Company in 1904 to serve the new middle-class housing which they'd just built in this area.  It was one of a new era of 'improved pubs', during which time the plan was to grant fewer licenses and ensure the ones given were to a better standard of pub.
And how better to make a statement that pub-going was a savoury pastime and the Red Lion a respectable place than to design it in a medieval religious style with carvings of monks quaffing ale. 

It certainly looks great from outside and was welcoming and comfortable enough inside too.  There were several rooms although I made it no further than the main bar where I was confronted by this beer choice...

The picture below gives away that I picked the one with the "I'm Hazy" tag hanging from the pump...

There was an odd mix of Shrek on TV and 'Last night a DJ Saved My Life' piped out the speakers, Shrek being watched avidly by one chap and ignored by everyone else.  

A toddler in a Birmingham City top, part of a pan-generational birthday bash in the back room, waddled behind the bar every time he wasn't been watched. "Start 'em young", said the bar staff when the youngster was retrieved - I'm not sure if that was encouragement for drinking, relaxing child labour laws, or supporting the Blues.

Other than that there was a pleasing mix of custom in the Red Lion, doing a decent trade on a Saturday afternoon.

Moving on, I took a bit of a long way round the quiet residential side-streets as I made my way back to the A35 and down to the cricket club. 

Kings Heath Cricket and Sports Club (Charlton House, 247 Alcester Road, Kings Heath, B14 6DT)
Ah...beer guide clubs. Sometimes great, sometimes less-so, often with the precarious feeling that you shouldn't really be there.
This one comes with the disclaimer on WhatPub that the "bar may only be open to members" and something about ringing the buzzer and signing in.
I bowled in confidently, hoping everyone would take me for a regular, only to find myself in a completely empty room.

The bar looked out two ways onto a sports bar full of frivolity and laughter, protected by a key-card lock, and onto the function room on t'other side where I'd found myself.
Oh well, at least I got served a pint of Yorkshire Heart 'Silverheart IPA' with no fuss (Wye Valley 'HPA' and 'Butty Bach' being the other options).

I timed my departure - cheerio empty room - just right to hop aboard a bus across the road and travel up to Moseley.

Hitting the bell and alighting at a crossroads in Moseley, Spoons next on the agenda...

Elizabeth of York (12a St Mary's Row, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 7JG)
It's not an especially glamourous one - the low ceiling variety stretching some way back from the road, with a staircase leading to a small balcony.
It gets to be named after the wife of King Henry VII due to Elizabeth giving the plot of land opposite the pub for the building of a chapel, where St Mary's Church now stands.

Not the biggest cask line-up on this occasion, a couple of lines being cleaned leaving a choice from the guests ales of Salopian 'Darwen's Origin' or the IPA from Cov...

There's an odd sculpture rising up to the balcony which I later learnt commemorates JRR Tolkien, resident nearby from 1896 to 1908.  It was surprisingly quiet for an afternoon Wetherspoon's experience, making for an uneventful half-hour spent browsing through Tim's propoganda mag and enjoying the Byatts beer, which tasted stronger than its 5.5%.

I could have and should have hopped aboard another bus to reach the next pub, especially as I managed to take a wrong turn somewhere and ended up lost in the streets of Edgbaston.

Twenty-five minutes later I found myself outside The Old Moseley Arms, a pub that I'd intended to make it to for some time.

Old Moseley Arms (54 Tindal Street, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, B12 9QU)
This is a real gem.  Which I've typically struggled to photograph outside due to parked cars and inside because...well, let's just say it had been a long day and the care-taken for quality pub pictures had diminished by this point.
Here's the great wood panelled bar counter in the right-side front room, the one to the left being a mirror copy but stretching further back.

Enville Ale, Butty Bach and HPA were on offer, but I wasn't going to turn down a pint of Bathams Best when given the opportunity in Brum.  A great trad best bitter, which ended my day nicely.
Accompanied by a paneer bhuna from the Tandoori menu and Arsenal on an enormous screen just above my head.

That completed minor explorations of a bit of Birmingham that was new to me, although I appreciate I missed a couple of one-star heritage pubs, the place where UB40 first played and the chance to bit intrepid with some 'tastier' looking boozers.
Can't do everything - as I keep on being told.