Black Country

September 2005 saw us in Birmingham to see the Swedish metal band Opeth; a great opportunity to visit some of the Black Country's fantastic pubs. It was a shame that the Vine, one of my favourite pubs in the area, was closed on the day we visited, but we still managed to fit in a fair number.

We travelled up on a Monday and went straight to the Netherton Old Swan (Ma Pardoe's), a homebrew pub that had four beers available: Old Swan, a 3.5% golden beer at £1.60, Dark Swan, a 4.2% dark mild at £1.70, Old Swan Entire, a 4.4% golden beer at £2.00 and Bumblehole, a 5.2% golden beer at £2.15. My favourite was the mild - a superb drink with a really malty, complex flavour and a satisfying aftertaste - while Andy preferred the Entire, a former joint third prize winner at GBBF; but all four were good.

The Old Swan itself is a huge rambling place, listed Grade II, with two entrances and the brewery on the premises. It's got some lovely features: a tiny snug tucked into a corner; a rare enamel tiled ceiling in the bar (one of only two in the country, according to the bar man) with one enormous tile in the middle depicting a swan; and a compressed air/steam whistle in full working order.

We left with somewhat depleted wallets after treating ourselves to a pub T-shirt each and moved on to the Manor Arms at Rushall (north of Walsall), also listed Grade II; a canalside pub selling Banks's Best and Original, at £3.70 for the two. The Original was rather under par; the Best was fine, although nothing special. We declined to sample the Adnams Broadside - a rare treat in that part of the world no doubt! Despite the dubious beer the pub is well worth a visit. It has an interesting snug-cum-bar; there is no actual bar as such. Two other rooms and a garden complete the premises. Its main claim to fame is that it's one of the oldest pubs in the country, having held a license to sell ale since 1248.

Our next stop was the Romping Cat at Bloxwich, a small oddly shaped corner pub built in 1900. It has three rooms, each of which has built-in benches with curved corners, upholstered to fit in with the decor of the room. Banks's Best and Original were on offer again, but I decided instead to try the Marson Double Drop, a full-flavoured dark golden beer at 5% and £2.05, which was in very good condition and tasted good too.

As we were in Bloxwich, it seemed silly not to visit the Turf Tavern. One of Andy's favourite pubs, and rapidly becoming one of mine, this Grade II-listed terraced Victorian local is not only in the National Inventory but also appears on the 2003 list of "classic basic unspoilt pubs of Great Britain". I didn't note the specific prices, but they were in the £1.90 to £2.10 bracket, and the Titanic Mild, Titanic Iceberg and RCH Pitchfork were
all excellent.

After a night in a reasonable B&B, Tuesday morning found us on the outskirts of Halesowen at the Somers Sports and Social Club, a private members' club that was voted CAMRA's best club of the year in 2001, 2002 and 2003. There were only 9 real ales on as it was a Tuesday; they often have 12 real ales on at weekends, and there are two additional handpumps for the two most popular beers to be doubled up. It's one of the few non-tied Bathams outlets, and I'm sorry to say I was so pleased to find Bathams Mild that I didn't drink anything else during the time we were there - which was quite a long time, as Brian (who runs the club with his father) is an old work colleague of Andy's. The mild was absolutely superb; one of the best I have ever had. Before we left Brian told us that he and his father were planning to leave the club and buy a pub further up the road (north of the town centre); we are looking forward to visiting them in the near future.

It was a wrench to leave that mild, particularly when our next stop turned out to have no real ale. The Market Tavern in the Digbeth area of Birmingham is another Grade II-listed building, built at the end of the 19th century on an impressive scale with some amazing tiles and internal as well as external stained glass. We were gratified to discover that this impressive establishment is now Birmingham's premier punk venue! It was worth seeing, but after a quick soft drink we were glad to move on to a nearby Irish real ale pub, the Grade II-listed White Swan.

A pint each of Marston's Bitter and Banks's Original at the White Swan cost us £4.20, and were both perfectly reasonable. There is some spectacular tiling again here, including dark golden brown sculpted tiles covering the ceiling in the main bar, and lovely wooden bar fittings. We were both amused by the inscription around the bar top: "Welcome to the Bradford Street Academy of Fine Traditional Ales and International Lagers preferably to be consumed in cavalier fashion". You don't see that in many Irish pubs!

Our last stop - or what turned out to be our last decent pint anyway - was the Anchor Inn, the third of the four Grade II-listed pubs in the Digbeth area. The Anchor has been Birmingham's Pub of the Year three times, and it's easy to see why. It's a permanent beer festival here, with the nine beers in excellent condition. I tried Hobson's Mild, which was very malty but tasted quite pleasant, and Bar Bar, an 8% Belgian honey beer that was sold in halves only at £2.09 a half. I wasn't so keen on this one, which had a very
strange taste, both sweet and peppery. The pub itself is as impressive as the beer list, with its original 1901 partitioning - the bar is divided by a wooden divider and you have to go all the way round the pub to get to the other side of the bar.

We had hoped to complete the Digbeth set with a visit to the Woodman, but when we arrived it was boarded up and had clearly been so for a long time. We heard later that it had been closed down by the HSE two years ago, and its future is uncertain. I just hope that someone will be able to restore it before the council decides to knock it down.

This was a disappointing end to the trip, but we made up for it to a certain extent by the discovery of a superb Spanish restaurant, Los Canarios, just round the corner. The food was excellent, the service prompt and friendly, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Oh, and the gig was good, too!

Sophie