Google directing me onto a number 4 bus, then insisted I'd reached my Blackheath destination when we pulled up next to The Bear in Bearwood. Only about 4-miles off target, Google.
I realised it wasn't going to Blackheath but stuck with the No.4 anyway. Almost as good as an open top sightseeing bus - as long as you're happy without an open top and content that the sights are the estates of Langley Green.
It eventually deposited me in Oldbury, where a quick check for anything worthy pub-wise brought up a heritage inn.
The gloriously red-bricked 'proper'-looking Waggon & Horses is situated right next door to Wetherspoons, which possibly hasn't helped a few turbulent open-shut years. They've risen to the Spoons challenge by unbolting the doors early in the day and advertising some ridiculously cheap pints on the blackboard out-front.
The basic main bar with well-trodden wooden floor boards and trad furniture was fairly busy with scruffy tradesmen and scruffy blokes. I fit in well.
£2.15!
A big TV in the corner pumped out the Pet Shop Boys 'What Have I Done to Deserve This' on a music video channel with extended adverts for foot massagers every couple of songs.
I perched in the corner for a while before pondering if I was missing the heritage features. What's in the rear smoke room?
Okay, I had sit on my own in silence, but what a great room. The TV above the fireplace spoils the effect a little, but the bench seating was superb, old bell pushes still visible from the days that someone would have come to serve you at your seat.
There's a nice bit of pub tiling in the corridor too...
I figured I may as well pop into Spoons whilst right next door.
This Grade II listed building was originally a jail and courtroom. Somewhere behind locked doors and beyond the three areas of seating that make up the pub are original cells still in good condition.
The staff probably wish they could pop the odd customer in them, starting with the chap who was keen for an extended debate about why breakfast service had stopped at midday.
Beers from Conwy or Batemans complemented the usual cask suspects at Spoons. I opted for a £1 half of the Batemans 'XXXB', an EPA that I haven't had for years and which went down a treat.
Blackheath - just a short hop southbound on another bus. My destination turned out to be a bit chaotic, a confusion of diverted traffic and roadworks which were transforming central Blackheath (...into a hub of excitement and charming buildings? Possibly not).
For the time being I passed straight through and headed south to Shell Corner.
Located in a residential area betwixt Blackheath and Halesowen, this is a pub that was saved from bulldozers in 2014 by local campaigners. Paving the way for the Black Country Ales makeover.
It's an open-plan pub with a dog-leg shape generating two distinct areas either side of the bar in the middle.
I procured a cheese and onion cob and a half of 'Maybug' from local brewery Kinver. A top-fermented German style lager apparently, which may not have been my first choice had it said that on the pump clip but it actually proved a winner to wash down the cob.
Although I snapped a picture of the empty room, there was a procession of locals wandering in and all tables around me ended up occupied in a short space of time. All ordering their own cobs (and black pudding sides); none phased by the onion, so it was just me with my eyes watering.
Departing from the Swan, I had a trek through residential estates to reach a second Wetherspoons of the day, this one a Beer Guide regular.
It's a bit of a rarity in the JDW chain as it was actually built as a pub in the 1950's rather than being converted from something else.
The Britannia (124 Halesowen Street, Blackheath, B65 0ES)
That said, for all the traditional feel to the outside, it's a typical Spoons within - vastly extended to the back and side to create a large open plan room of regimented tables. And I bet the original pub had toilets that didn't require a trek up to the first floor!
There was a good selection of cask on offer, including locals from Fixed Wheel or Byatts. But the one that jumped out at me was the Burton Bridge 'Masterpiece' - always love these recreations of historic recipes.
That said, for all the traditional feel to the outside, it's a typical Spoons within - vastly extended to the back and side to create a large open plan room of regimented tables. And I bet the original pub had toilets that didn't require a trek up to the first floor!
There was a good selection of cask on offer, including locals from Fixed Wheel or Byatts. But the one that jumped out at me was the Burton Bridge 'Masterpiece' - always love these recreations of historic recipes.
Cyder & Cob is listed in the 2025 guide, but now appears as permanently closed on Google. That appears to have shifted a couple of miles south to Halesowen and converged with the Shell-ter micro bar.
But there is still beer to be drunk in the original Cyder & Cob address...
The original site of Cyder & Cob was taken over in January '25 by the folks from the coffee shop next door. The coffee shop which I've managed to photograph from the street instead of the bit that's the bar.
This was a typical modern micro made up of one rectangular room and a half dozen high tables and vertiginous seating.
Music from Madness, the Beatles, and Sting.
Beers from Black Iris, Hobsons, Rowton and Bluntrock breweries. A robust Rowton 'Equinox Porter' from Shropshire for me.
This was formerly a Marston's pub before being taken over by BCA in December 2022 and becoming number 46 in the chain.
At number 46 they're still diligently sticking to the tried and tested formula - horticulturally patterned sepia wallpaper, busy carpet, dark wood, tartan fabric on the bench seating.
And a screen above the fireplace listing the beers, from which I picked a Front Row 'Red Roses'.
"They're crusty and chewy", warned the landlord.
They're burnt, aren't they?
Apparently the last bunch had been really pale and he'd asked for the next delivery to be given extra time in the oven. Well, someone's taken that on board.
So I chewed my extremely well-done, very crusty cob ("we'll be offering jaw massages tomorrow for anyone who's had one") with a bit of Springsteen, Gerry Rafferty, and Yahoo as background music.
The Old Bush had obviously been pre-warned of a sweaty pub ticker en-route and had prepared the bathrooms accordingly.
Britannia Pub & Brewery (18 Rowley Village, Rowley Regis, B65 9AT)
Possibly one pub too many on a hot 'n' sticky afternoon...my beer guide is bigger than my belly, or something like that.
I'm sure I would have done better to visit on a Saturday with a crowd of folk rather than on a midweek afternoon when I almost had the place to myself.
The Britannia also appears to be more pub than brewery, despite the name. There is a suggestion online that you'll find house beers from Fownd, but not on this occasion. That's not to say the Wye Valley duo of Butty and HPA, Titanic 'Plum Porter', Ludlow ESB, and a Green Duck pale didn't make for a solid cask line-up.
And so this post ends, with a decent Green Duck 'ᴙevolution' ensuring the use of a new special character on the blog.Possibly one pub too many on a hot 'n' sticky afternoon...my beer guide is bigger than my belly, or something like that.
I'm sure I would have done better to visit on a Saturday with a crowd of folk rather than on a midweek afternoon when I almost had the place to myself.
The Britannia also appears to be more pub than brewery, despite the name. There is a suggestion online that you'll find house beers from Fownd, but not on this occasion. That's not to say the Wye Valley duo of Butty and HPA, Titanic 'Plum Porter', Ludlow ESB, and a Green Duck pale didn't make for a solid cask line-up.
Lesser-heard pub music from Chacka Chan.
And the realisation that it takes a long time to get back to civilisation from Rowley Regis on public transport.
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