The first time we stopped at Hopwood House was way back on Monday 27th August 1984 for a lunchtime visit, but back in those days I hadn't started to take a picture of every pub we visited.
Despite the fact that Hopwood House is a perfectly located pub on the bank of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, just outside Alvechurch (and on the busy A441) we didn't return for 15 years!
This photo was taken from the other side of the busy road on the bridge over the canal on the evening of Saturday 29th May 1999. These days we'd try to find a place with a few pubs in the evening, but as this was the first day of our holiday (we were a bit late setting off) and would probably not have found anywhere else if we'd pushed on.
As I recall, it was a fairly large pub with a traditional bar and a larger eating area. Always a popular stopping point for hire boaters as it is the first pub after leaving Alvechurh Boats heading to Birmingham.
It wasn't too long before we returned.
This was another evening stop on Saturday 10th August 2002. This time I went to the other side of the canal to get the shot and also to get an idea of the arduous walk from our mooring to the pub!
This journey was part of a boat painting week during which we did a bit of painting, a bit of pottering about along the canal and a bit of drinking...not necessarily in that order.
Although we've passed by quite a few times in the intervening years it took us another 15 years before we revisited Hopwood House.
This was at lunchtime on Monday 14th August 2017 and I decided to take photos from both sides of the pub. The top one is the view from the mooring like we had in 2002 and the other is from the car park.
It is now a Marston's pub and, whilst the interior has been opened out it still feels almost like a pub with two rooms.
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