Rugeley Pub Explorations

An afternoon hop into the town of Rugeley, where I had a Spoons cinema conversion, Heritage Pub, brew pub, and micro pub, to visit.

The first port of call, handy for the Town station, is this grand old red brick cinema...

The Plaza (Horsefair, Rugeley, WS15 2EJ)
This purpose-built cinema opened as The Picture House in November 1934.  It was renamed the Plaza in 1940 and continued to show movies to the folk of Rugeley until 1996, when the last popcorn was sold whilst Will Smith saved the world in Independence Day.  After that final film had been shown, J.d Wetherspoon brought the building and opened it as a pub in 1998.

It doesn't really retain that much of an old cinema feel to it.  There's some booth seating at the very front where the old lobby would have been, then a couple of steps take you to the bar and a rear section with high ceiling and a balcony to the side.
No one bats an eyelid in the nearby Stafford  Picture House when you clambour up the stairs to take a picture of the pub, but I got some funny looks doing the same here. 

The cask choice on this visit (alongside your Spoons regulars) came from Enville, Green Jack, a single hop series offering from Acorn, and a pale ale from Nottinghamshire brewery Pheasantry.
Just £1.49 for the Pheasantry 'Excitra'.  

A perfectly fine pint (and who's going to complain for £1.49) but what I really wanted was to find some Banks's bitter...

For this, I headed through the very quiet streets of the town centre, then to Market Street for a pub in the Heritage guide.

Red Lion (19 Market Street, Rugeley, WS15 2JH)
This Grade II-listed inn dates back to the 16th century and was last refitted in the 1930's, at the same time that the Plaza was opening the doors for the first time and showing Shirley Temple in 'Pardon my Pups'.

Heading through the front door you're in a cosy bar with low beams, red quarry tiled floor, and wood panels.  The bench seating around the sides was busy with locals.  The pub poodle came to check me out and found me thoroughly uninteresting.

I procured my pint of Banks's Amber - just the one cask ale, making for an easy choice.
The bar and carpeted side room were busy, so I squeezed around the side of the counter and through the door into the basic room with darts board to the right-side of the pub.

Shame there was no space in the main bar, as I had this room all to myself, other than when a chap popped in, rearranged his shopping bags, and popped out again.
Boston's 'More than a Feeling' played in the background and was very predictably followed by 'Don't Stop Believing'.  Then a run of three Foreigner tracks - as much Foreigner as I need this year. 
And the Banks's amber went down a treat.

Moving on from the Red Lion, I had a 15-minute walk ahead of me into suburban Rugeley, in search of a micro.
Down here somewhere...

In the corner of the Fernwood Shopping centre...
Would it be worth the walk?

The Rusty Barrel (Fernwood Shopping Centre, Green Lane, Rugeley, WS15 2GS)
I timed my arrival just after the 4pm opening but there were a half dozen in already and by the time I drained the last of my pint all the tables were taken.

This is a single room micro pub with some pleasingly simple wooden high-backed bench seating, a run of barrels down the middle, and a satisfying display of pump clips on the ceiling.

There were four interesting cask ales to pick from, plus crafty kegs and real cider on offer.  I opted for a pint of the Green Duck 'Duck Dastardly', a dandelion and burdock stout, which sounds dubious but was pretty darn fine.
I did enjoy the Rusty Barrel and was glad I'd made the effort to walk out here.

I made the trek back through the housing estates toward the town centre, pausing to take my first random photograph of someone's driveway since Plymouth last August.
Is it really necessary to park the 4x4 there, rather than, say, in the big garage?  Or are they just showing off its off-road prowess?
I'd wake up in a cold sweat wondering if I'd put the handbrake on properly.

Time for some marginally more conventional pictures of the pub, as I reached the Vine Inn.
Parked cars on a sensible level surface, but getting in the way of my photo.

The Vine (Sheep Fair Close, Rugeley, WS15 5AT)
This doesn't strike me as the most obvious looking pub - I may have mistaken it for housing had it not been for the sign on one wall and Bass light amongst the foliage above the door.

It's a pleasing basic place within, with a multi-room layout including a couple of spacious seating areas and a snug.
There were two cask ales on offer, one from the Vine's on-site brewery, the other from Staffordshire micro Blythe.

A home-brew best bitter for me, supped in the window seat with wood cracking away on the stove to my side.
That heady blend of dandelion and burdock in the 5.2% stout must have gone to my head by this point, judging by the blurry photo.

I may have only been there for one midweek afternoon, but I think I've done the best of the Rugeley pubs.  I'd certainly done four completely different places and had four decent beers.

Drinking up at the Vine, I made my way to the bus station and the number 826 to Stafford.  That would be my base for the night and the source of some Titanic stouts - somewhere I'll be waffling on about on the blog sometime soon.
But before that, some Bass...