Sunday, 31 August 2025

Stourport Pub Explorations

A diversion from Kidderminster pubs and football to make a debut visit to Stourport-on-Severn, where I planned to call in to the two 2025 Good Beer Guide pubs.

The town was built around the terminus where the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal and Birmingham canal converge.  Prior to the waterways there was nothing but a sleepy village here, the influx of barges, business and people warranting a new name for the place. Stourmouth at first, then Newport (which was thankfully changed because we've got enough of those and it's already confusing), finally settling on the name Stourport in 1771.
It now has a population of over 20,000, a couple of frustratingly busy roads through the centre, and a surprising number of amusement arcades.

I escaped the initial traffic chaos and challenging road crossings, making my way to the Holly Bush...
The Holly Bush (54 Mitton Street, Stourport-on-Severn, DY13 9AA)
I always think I must be getting close to completing all the Black Country Ales pubs.  Even with two more the day after this, I'm still nowhere near close.
I am a fan of them.  Yet how many beers are too many?
Eight in this case.  My pick of a Zest 'Timelord' was way past its best and almost certainly should have been returned to the bar.
The Guinness beer mat is past its best too...

At least the cob was a winner.  Onions in tuperware on the bar for you to add to your taste.

The Hollybush is a sizeable pub cosisting the bar room, two snugs, and a lounge on a lower level to one side, TV showing sports at the far end to an audience of none.
That lounge area used to belong to a cottage next door, the original fireplace at the end retained when the pub expanded into this space.

There were a handful of locals in a table by the bar and a couple of families in the snug, the Holly Bush busier than my pictures make out, but not busy enough for all those casks of beer to be drunk swiftly.
The crowds were up the road in the Black Star...
The Black Star (1 Mitton Street, Stourport-on-Severn, DY13 8YP)
In a great location, with the best outdoor seating lining the path overlooking the canal below.
Stepping through the main entrance the impressive snack display is the first thing that stands out.
The centrally placed bar has counters facing three ways into the small lobby and rooms either side.  Different handpumps depending which way you went, necessitating some back and forth for the fussy beer drinker. 
I settled on the Woodcote Brewing Co 'XPA' from nearby Bromsgrove.
 
Also available were brews from Wye Valley, the common-round-this-way Ludlow 'Gold, a Hobson's seasonal ale, and another from the Woodcote Brewing Co.
I avoided the more food orientated tables in the chapel-side, but was left perching on a stool by the window ledge in the busy boozier trad pub side.
And completely failed to get a picture to show what either room was like.
The Black Star is a pub I probably would have appreciated more with a decent table and the music a notch-or-two louder.  Top quality beer, mind.

Glass returned to the bar, I strolled through the streets down to the River Severn and the canal basins.
Not what I expected at all.

There were a host of ways to entertain yourself here from crazy golf to skateboarding to eating ice cream in rowing boats.
The Treasure Island fairground was a slice of seaside resort in landlocked Worcestershire.  I resisted agitating the dubious Zest beer by riding on the Freak Out frisbee or Sky Flyer.  I resisted a visit to the big Davonport's pub.  Instead walking a little further down the river to the more peaceful surroundings of the Angel.
The Angel (14 Severn Side, Stouport-on-Severn, DY13 9EW)
This is a Grade II listed red brick building standing above the river with some fine al-fresco tables.  It dates back to the mid 18th century with the different brickwork of the 3rd storey suggesing someone decided it needed to be one floor higher and added this at a slightly later date.
It's lovely inside: a central passage with the Georgian Bar to the left and a dining room to the right.

On the bar were two options from Stourport's own BOA Brewery: 'Peace Out' or 'Lock n Load'.  Or Banks's on keg, or ciders from the box, should you prefer.
I ordered the 'Peace Out', a light pale ale hopped with Citra and Enigma, at a very sensible 3.6%.  An enjoyable pint served in good condition.

Why do they put cushions on the front of bars?
All-in-all, a pleasant visit to the Angel.
'Last Man Standing', 'The River', 'Racing in the Street', and 'Thunder Road' making for a bit of a Springsteen fest whilst I was there.

Back up on the High Street I spied a bar bistro that was reputed to serve a well-kept ale.
Fedoras (6 York Street, Stourport-on-Severn, DY13 9EQ)
This was a fine micro (sort of) - a rectangular room with regular tables at the front by the window and some high stools towards the back where most of the Tuesday afternoon custom had gathered.
Here's your beer choice - three ales very frequently seen in these parts, plus the local Bewdley Brewery 'Baldwin IPA'.

Just a half pint of the very tasty IPA for me, drunk whilst sat next to Marlon Brando.
I grabbed the wifi code from bar, typed it in wrongly several times as per usual, then checked the bus times.  5-minutes until the next service to Kidderminster or face a long gap in buses.
I quaffed the ale too fast and felt a bit guilty about my visit to Fedoras being so short.  I was gone in the time it took Counting Crows to sing 'Mr Jones'.
Cheerio Stourport.

Friday, 29 August 2025

Hurry up Harriers...we're going down the pub

An trip to northern Worcestershire: visiting Stourport, grabbing a GBG tick in Kidderminster, and watching Oxford City play at Aggborough in the evening.

I arrived at Kidderminster station at midday, a smooth journey on the pricier route via Birmingham, as I steadfasty refused to sit on a bus replacement service between Morton-in-Marsh and Worcester for an hour and fifty minutes.
Midday.  Thirty-five minutes until the No.3 to Stourport.  A quick visit to the steam railway station pub, I think.
The King and Castle (Station Dr, Kidderminster DY10 1QX)
This welcoming pub is housed in part of the Severn Valley Heritage railway terminus.  It's not quite as historic as it looks, built in 1985 to recreate refreshment rooms that once stood at Ross-on-Wye station.
The main room of the King and Castle is a bright, airy space with perching tables down the middle and red cushioned bench seating serving the tables along each side. Black and white tiled flooring by the bar and an impressive carpet stretching the length of the room emblazoned with the GWR logo.
It was a bustle of activity when I arrived - the tail-end of the breakfast trade overlapping with the first lunch orders.  Space soon opened up for me to plonk myself on a comfy seat with a pint of BOA 'Bone Idle' pale ale.
Enough choice of ales to make them CAMRA award winners in the not-so-distant past - I only resisted the Bathams on the assumption I'd encounter it again later in the day.
Finishing my beer at the King and Castle I scooted across the road to await the bus to Stourport.
The riverside town deserves a post of its own so...

Fast-forward to a 4.30pm return, the bus depositing me in central Kidderminster.

No Bass in the Seven Stars.
So I figured I'd try somewhere I hadn't been before and strode into The Swan, located opposite the town hall - temporarily closed while it undergoes a 'major transformation'.
The Swan (Vicar St, Kidderminster DY10 1DE)
I'd read that the Swan was a Daveport's pub so was expecting the Gold or IPA with their retro pump clips.  But instead I found a well-known south-west duo of Butcombe 'Original' and St Austell 'Tribute' on the bar.  A 'Tribute' for me - on decent form, although it was replaced by 'Butty Bach' whilst I was there.  Which was odd, as I didn't recall anyone else ordering cask and it being declared as finished or past its best.

I have a bit of an issue with the beer board...
Fosters: location Australia.  S
houldn't that be Manchester? Ditto Birra Morretti.
I'd locate the Carling as coming from Burton unless the Swan are getting their supplies shipped over from Ontario.

This is a fine town centre boozer with tall tables and standing room around the front by the bar and a dining area stretching further back.  Sports memorabilia, blokes in tartan beanie hats, 
Trent Rockets v Manchester Originals in the Womens 100 on TV.
Moving on from the Swan, I made a fairly long trek through the underpass, up past the station, then into the side streets to find a short-cut to the town's 2025 Good Beer Guide pub that I hadn't previously been to. 
The Chester Tavern (211 Chester Rd N, Kidderminster DY10 1TN)
This cracking mid-terrace pub, with its striking flat-roofed extension jutting out the front, was re-opened in August 2022.  Dating back to 1855, it closed in 2019, fell into disrepair, and was looking set to become flats.
It now looks great - a modern refit which still retains plenty of older features and has gone for a proper pub carpet, dumpy stools and cushioned bench seating in the window bays.
The chap who brought the Chester back to life has now converted a church into a bar in the town which will have to go on the 'to-do' list for my next visit.

Cask ales were Arbor 'Everyday', Wye Valley 'HPA', Bewdley 'Red Hills', and a Brass Castle 'Bright'.  The 'Bright' for me - an easy-drinking pale ale with Citra and Chinook hops.

I'd like to have hung around and tried some of the good-lookin' crafty keg options.
Heck, I'd like to have hung around a few weeks to watch ex-Stiff Little Finger Henry Cluney playing at the Chester. 
A fine pub that I did enjoy and would happily recommend.

But on this occasion I was on a mission to get to the football ground with enough time to spare for one last pre-match beer.
The Harriers Arms (Harriers FC, Hoo Rd, Kidderminster DY10 1NB)
Not a bad option for a pre-match pint, eh?
A bustling social club doing a fine trade.  Pool table covered and pushed to one side. Cricket on the TV screens. Red-cushioned banquet seating bays.  And quality cask...
There was a Wye Valley beer alongside the Bathams Bitter - no contest on this occasion.
Served in a plastic pot because I foolishly said I was taking it outside, then spent about a minute standing in the yard before coming back in.
Waiting for a seat to become available I perched on a beer barrel alongside adverts for future events.
Why fill your squad with a host of international players whose names you can't pronouce properly when there's the extra marketing potential of signing players with happily rhyming names...
C'mon Forest...
Savoloy with Bryan Roy?
Jambalaya with Daniel Ayala?
Mac and Cheese with Dorus de Vries?

Aggborough is a proper football league ground, head and shoulders above most of the grounds at this sixth tier level.  Whilst many venues in the National League north and south ferry you in through one set of turnstiles and allow you to wander around all four sides, you're stuck in your designated stand here.

Oxford City brought a grand total of 38 supporters for a Tuesday evening match, although I'm suspicious that the 11 lads lined up along the railings on the terrace were one of the youth teams, ushered onto the bus to bolster the away support.
City scored first on 36 minutes, impressing in the first half with several decent chances and a free kick from midfielder Josh Ashby hitting the bar.  Kidderminster clicked up a gear in the second half, eventually volleying in an equaliser in the 81st minute. 

The game came to a close - honours even - under dark skies. I traipsed off the terrace and back through the residential streets towards the station.
The Weavers micro pub was a beacon of light and chatter tempting me in...
The Weavers Real Ale House (98 Comberton Hill, Kidderminster DY10 1QH)
It was buzzing.  A vastly different experience to when I was last here in 2021 with strange plastic dividers in the pandemic era.
There was an orderly queue to the bar where 9 hand pumps served up ales from locals Fownd, Hobsons, Bewdley, Froth Blowers, the slightly-less local Wye Valley, and the longest travelled Ben's Brewery 'Bazaar' from Chorley.

A Fownd 'King Korvak's Champion Porter' for me.  Gorgeous.

Against the odds I scored a tiny table in the corner, pondered what card game was going on to one side of me, then why the group in front had half a dozen pumpkins on their table.
"I'm drowning me sorrows", said one fella, such is the effect of dropping two point sto Oxford City. Especially seeing as the City goal was - they insisted - "a yard offside".

A decent point away from home for Ross Jenkins' team.
Good luck to Kidderminster for the season ahead - they're a club that deserve to be playing at a higher level, from a town that makes for a very decent pub crawl.

Friday, 22 August 2025

Pubs & Beer & 3-points for Oxford City

Oxford, August 2025
Becoming
 a little disillusioned by football's elite clubs (by which I mean Forest and Oxford United, of course) I set off on a Saturday lunchtime to watch Oxford's second team in action.
With a couple of pints in Headington beforehand and a couple of pints in the centre afterward, here's how the day panned out.

First point of call was the city's sole micro pub, the Tile Shop Alehouse, situated in a row of shops alongside barbers, printing press, charity shop and pizzaria.

The Tileshop Alehouse (10 Windmill Road, Headington, OX3 7BX)
We chatted to one of the owners when this first opened, who told us they'd sourced beers initially from Tring but would be expanding the choice in the future.  That never materialised, so the Tile Shop is still your Oxford go-to for the Hertforshire beer and not a lot else...

To be fair, the 'Ridgeway' was on decent form: a robust malty best bitter, poured straight from the barrel into your choice of handled or straight glass.  The cask coolers were just about doing their job in the unpredictable August weather, although I'd be wary on a day the thermometre tips past 30°.

The colourful tiled section in the picture of my pint is a memento of the former guise of these premises.  There were just half-a-dozen in on a Saturday lunchtime, 'Side Pocket for a Toad' and Franz Ferdinand's debut played in full not drawing in the masses.
A short stroll around the corner took me to the Royal Standard, a Greene King inn that I figured was worth popping my head into for a bit of footy on TV and to see what beers they had on.
Royal Standard (78 London Road, Headington, OX3 9AA)
Ah, not a lot..
"Coming soon" your house beer or 'IPA'.  Bet you can't wait.
Lilleys cider fans were well catered for with a dozen or so varieties boxed in the fridge.
I opted for the GK 'Level Head' on keg, a citrussy refreshing IPA which isn't a bad option in the summer months but always seems to be fiendishly expensive.  £6.10 in this case. 💸😲

I'd have done better with another sub-£5 pint in the micro, but then I wouldn't have gotten to watch the second half of the Villa-Newcastle match.
Here's Oxford's Villa contingent, claret and blue flag draped over another chair out of shot, just about to shout at the Magpie's keeper for breaking the 8-second rule.
The Royal Standard used to be one of Oxford's less appealing pubs but has benefitted vastly from a refurb a couple of years ago.  Okay, there's a lot of grey paint and dubious wallpaper, but some decent comfy seating, pool table, and small enclosed patio to the rear.
Villa's opening game of the season wasn't a thrilling affair and Newcastle playing in green was an oddity.  As it rumbled on to a 0-0 conclusion I drank up and walked into Old Headington village.
Time for a quick beer in the White Hart?
The White Hart (12 St Andrews Road, Headington, OX3 9DL)
This historic inn opposite the Parish church is somewhere I don't tend to get to very often, other than the annual trek to its wonderful back garden in May for their beer festival.
It's a three-roomed trad pub, with the most of the chatter eminating from the front bar where the locals congregate.

An Everard's pub, the ale choice was 'Tiger', 'Old Original' or a seasonal strong blonde called 'Predator'.  The staff member declared the 'Predator' to be at the end of the barrel and not servable - fair play for not trying to palm it off on me.  Except the 'Old Original' had a bit of an odd tang to it that I only noticed half-way through, so a bad day for the cask ale on this occasion.
And did I really need a hasty 5.2% ruby ale with kick-off 45 minutes away?  No, probably not.
At least it's all downhill from Headington to the MGroup Stadium, previosuly the RAW Charging stadium, probably best referred to as Court Farm.
Straight through the turnstiles, I poked my head in the club bar where I sensibly decided not to join the polite queue for keg fizz in plastic pots.
So what do I need to report on from this tie against National League North newcomers Macclesfield Town?
You'll be wanting to see the balloon arch creating jealousy for those without wristbands to get them to the VIP portacabin...

And you'll be wanting to see Wayne's brother John Rooney managing Macc...
But most important of all is that quick check of the cistern in the gents to assess the quality of stickers the away support have brought with them...
There were a decent amount of folks who'd made the trip down from Cheshire to cheer on the Silkmen. 
But to no avail, as Oxford came out 2-1 winners.
They did let a second half Macclesfield goal in to increase the jeopardy towards the end, but never really looked too threatened as Macc hit the reset button after Robbie Savage took his favourite players with him to Forest Green.
Exiting after the full time whistle was blown, I caught an X3 bus to the centre of Oxford and made my way to the nano-bar in the Covered Market where a couple of familiar local charaters were drinking.
Teardrop (Unit 21, Covered Market, Oxford, OX1 3DU)
Teardrop opened in 2019 and has been in the Good Beer Guide for the past couple of years.  Named after the shape of the dinky caravan bar which they used to transport to outdoor events, Teardrop is linked to west Oxfordshire's Church Hanbrewery
They offered a run of kegs covering a wide range of styles plus one cask - on this occasion their 'Ale X', a 4.5% IPA - murky, flavoursome, in good condition, and an ideal post-football beer.

Drinking up, we moved on to Broad Street and a visit to the White Horse...
White Horse (52 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BB)
Somewhere that often slips off my radar being as it's small and perpetually busy.
However, the reclaim of a portion of Broad Street for flower boxes, bench seating, and various food and craft stalls has made securing a seat inside the White Horse much easier.
And look what I would have missed!...
Yep, Bass availability faltered a bit in Oxford, so great to find it on good form.  The Kirkstall got the thumbs-up from the members of our group who had it, whilst local Loose Cannon and London's Gypsy Hill completed a line-up that was one stout away from being exceptional.
Bass satisfaction complete, we moved on to the Lamb & Flag, now almost constantly busy, an impressive revivial since spending a few years closed.
I turned to the lip-puckering sour side there with a Holy Goat 'Bramble Smasher'.

Then we ended up in The Bear on pricey Gales 'HSB'.
A visit to the Bear did give me the chance for a first look at the extension that this old pub has made into the neighbouring one-time tanning salon.
It's very micro-pubby, isn't it?
That extension has provided some very posh new WCs though and will possibly be a draw on colder nights.  On this Saturday evening the crowds were squeezed onto the outdoor tables, leaving the original rooms inside, complete with collection of ties, remarkably quiet.
But really! Why would you sit outside or in a modern room converted from a shop when you can grab a table in a pub room like this...
Time to call it a night.
A day that had taken in a couple of Oxford suburban drinking spots, Oxford City's first three-points of the season, and visits to a couple of the centre's most historic inns.
I must have enjoyed myself, as I started hatching plans to return to the MGroup stadium and to make it to an away fixture soon.