#280 The Flapper, Birmingham : 2002 to 2020 (RIP)

 After the longest break in my blogging history (even longer than LifeAfterFootball's short-lived 'retirement'!), I'm back with some new pubs.

The first time I visited The Flapper was in the early 1980's when it was called (if I remember correctly) The Longboat. Sometime after that it was renamed as the Flapper & Firkin. I don't have pictures of the pub in those incarnations except for this one from lunchtime on Wednesday 14th August 2002.

It was never a pub we visited often as it was a bit 'barn-like' for our tastes.

The next image was taken from our boat Emma Jane on the evening of Thursday 29th May 2008 as we'd turned around in Cambrian Basin which the pub overlooks.

By this time it had been renamed The Flapper and you can just see where the '& Firkin' used to be on the end wall!

I did visit the pub a year later for a gig by Lisa Knapp and Leafcutter John supposedly based on, and inspired by, the sounds of canals and the boats. This was on the evening of Sunday 27th September 2009. I didn't take a picture.

The next image is from the morning of Saturday 27th August 2011 as we waited for our third crew member to join us for a trip to Leek on the Caldon Canal.

By now it had been redecorated and the main sign now said The Flapper.

The next image isn't related to our canal trips, but I was out and about in Birmingham trying to get some decent sunset pictures and this was on the late afternoon/early evening ('Preevening' as Sheldon Cooper would call it!) of Saturday 17th November 2012.

A very serene scene!

Over the next few years we didn't pass by The Flapper very often and, when we did, I failed to take a picture! Except, here's one I took on the morning of Wednesday 1st April 2015 (that I've just found in my archives!)

...and then I found another picture from my archives. This one is from the afternoon of Tuesday 6th September 2016.

This next one is from a somewhat rainy morning of Saturday 8th June 2019, taken from the top lock on the Farmer's Bridge Flight.
 

Still an unchanging feature of Cambrian Wharf and a popular music venue, sadly not to my taste.

The next two images, both from the morning of Thursday 23rd July 2020, sadly show an ex-pub.

To look at those two images it is hard to believe that The Flapper had been closed for almost 8 months and is scheduled for demolition in the fairly near future. (Although, it appears to be in Planning 'Limbo' as the plans to build a 27 unit accommodation block were rejected!)

Although not to my taste, it is sad to see the demise of another pub and, by all accounts, a popular music venue!

#018 Subside (aka The Dubliner), Digbeth : 1998 to 2018 (Revisited)

I'll begin with what I wrote back in 2011 and then add the latest image.

When I first came to Brum as a student in the late 70's this was the Barrel Organ, but I never visited it. There are some reminiscences of the old Barrel Organ from the 1980's here when it was a popular music venue as well. I'm not entirely sure when it changed its name to The Dubliner, but when I took this photo in 1998 it had been that for a few years.

I still had never set foot inside the place until Thursday 19th September 2002. We were returning from our second trip up the Caldon Canal. We'd planned to go to Chester, but a lock gate had 'blown out' ahead of us on the Shropshire Union Canal and we were forced to make an alternative plan. 

Often, the penultimate night of our canal trips are spent in Birmingham and, in those days, I tried to visit pubs that we'd never been to before. The Dubliner was one of the pubs we visited that night. My only two observations that survive are that it was cavernous inside and the lager was the most expensive of the night! One pint was enough!

In 2006 it was the victim of an arson attack and didn't reopen until February 2008 as reported here. I have been back since the reopening, but again only stayed for one pint. It was about 9:30 on a Saturday night and the place was virtually empty. A disco was being set up, there was a bouncer on the door and, in the Gents, a bloke was setting up his range of perfumes and emollients for later in the evening! We discovered that they had a licence until 4 am! I'd like to say that I've become too old for that sort of scene...but I think I've always been too old for it!!

 

In 2011 it is still there and still thriving. It looks pretty much like it did in 1998, but closer inspection shows that the windows are new (not surprisingly) and the Ansells sign has gone (praise be!). Next door is the completely rebuilt Digbeth Birmingham Coach Station.

 

And so, we arrive in 2018 and The Dubliner is no more it is now called Subside (Birmingham's Rock & Alternative Bar). Apparently, the name changed in 2015 when Subside was closed in Fletcher's Walk (to make way for the Paradise development) and needed a new venue - details here.

 I have no plans to revisit the place as it probably isn't my sort of place anymore (if it ever was!). However it is open from noon every day if you just want a drink, so that can't be a bad thing.  

 

#243 Toby Carvery Festival Park (aka China Garden), Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire : 1991 to 2017

Wherever possible, we try to avoid chain establishments on our canal trips, but sometimes they are the only option when we need food. Wetherspoons, Vintage Inn, Hungry Horse, Crown Carvery and Toby Carvery have all come to our rescue on our travels.

When passing through Stoke, on the Trent & Mersey Canal, there are few easily accessible places for a lunchtime stop. (In the evenings, we have more time to wander and there are plenty of options.)

Our first encounter was on the evening of Thursday 25th July 1991 as we moved Emma Jane from her northern mooring. I have little recollection of the evening (or the pub), but my photographic records indicate that we didn't venture any further into Stoke on that evening.

Since that time, we've travelled through Stoke on many occasions, sometimes mooring up outside, but we didn't go back inside until lunchtime on Sunday 15th March 2015 (Mother's Day).

This was, again, on a boat moving trip; we were moving the new boat Peggy Ellen from the boat builders (Braidbar) down to her mooring at Kings Bromley. We stopped quite early (for us) just after midday expecting it to be fairly quiet having forgotten that it was Mother's Day! Nevertheless, after a bit of a wait, we were seated and had a reasonable carvery lunch. 

We'd noticed that the name 'China Garden' had long since disappeared (as with the previous names of all other Toby Carveries), but were unaware of the name change until now (when I looked it up on Google; although I suspect many people still know it as China Garden rather than Festival Park!)

Our most recent visit was at lunchtime on Friday 9th June 2017 on the morning after THAT General Election!

We had another pleasant lunch (as befits a Toby Carvery) and went on our way heading up the Caldon Canal.

#221 The Badger Inn, Church Minshull, Cheshire : 1987 to 2016

The village of Church Minshull is set some way away from the canal and so it is always a bit of a walk to the pub. The stretch of canal in question is the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal that links Middlewich to the Shropshire Union! Over the years we've ventured along this section of canal somewhat infrequently and often been caught by surprise by it's length (11 miles) and the very deep locks.

Our first stop at Church Minshull was at lunchtime on Saturday 11th July 1987.

As I recall The Badger Inn was a very pleasant country pub that did good food.

It was many years later that we returned at lunchtime on Thursday 12th September 2002.

 We'd been planning a trip to Chester, but we'd got as far as Bunbury when we were informed that Beeston Iron Lock had had a gate "blow out" so the canal would be closed for several days. So we turned around and decided to head for Leek on the Caldon Canal instead.

Amazingly, after 15 years, the pub was almost completely unchanged!

We were passing by again at lunchtime on Thursday 31st August 2006 only to find that The Badger Inn was closed. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo.

By the time we were passing again, I knew that the pub had reopened, and this is what we found at lunchtime on Monday 22nd August 2016.

At first glance it looks as though not too much has changed apart from the replacement windows. I also thought that it was amazing that the old hanging sign had remained, but on closer inspection you can see that they have produced a replica sign, but this time the badgers are headed in opposite directions!

Inside, the pub (or should I say restaurant) was completely modernised and extended, serving very good food. Hopefully it will continue to thrive and, if you're passing by do pop in - The Badger Inn website is here.

#210 Cheshire Cheese, Wheelock, Cheshire : 1987 to 2016

Our first visit to this classic 'proper' pub was on the evening of Saturday 11th July 1987. Of course, back then it was just considered to be a normal pub, nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

Waiting outside are the fine, upstanding members of the crew of Emma Jane for that two week trip that took in both Worcester and Middlewich. As far as I recall the interior of the pub was pretty much the same as it was on all subsequent visits.

Our next visit was only four years later at lunchtime on Wednesday 24th July 1991 as we moved Emma Jane from her northern mooring at Adlington to her new home on the southern Grand Union Canal.

The outside had been given a thorough makeover, although the signage appears to be unaltered. 'Dusty Bin' has been installed by the local council by the lamp post.

With Emma Jane being "daarn sarf", it took another eight years before we returned to the Cheshire Cheese.

This was on the evening of Saturday 4th September 1999 at the midpoint of our trip that took us along the Caldon Canal for the first time. The Cheshire Cheese had been repainted and was no longer a Tetley's pub, but was now run by Hydes - a fact that almost certainly passed me by at the time!

We were back again three years later on the evening of Thursday 12th September 2002; a stop that hadn't been expected from our original journey plan.

Our plan had been to visit Chester for the first time in a number of years, but a lock failure at Beeston Iron Lock meant that we needed another plan. Wheelock was one stop along the way to revisiting the Caldon Canal. Essentially, the pub was unchanged, but for the first time the adjacent car park had been refurbished with a patch of grass and a sign for the new Italian restaurant.

Another three years passed and we were back at lunchtime on Thursday 25th August 2005.

On this trip we did make it to Chester after passing through Wheelock; the Cheshire Cheese was unchanged.

We returned, again somewhat unexpectedly, a year later for an evening stop on Saturday 2nd September 2006.

Our original journey plan had been to visit Manchester using the reverse route of our 2000 journey, but it soon became apparent that we'd fallen way behind on the schedule and, once again, we needed a new plan! On this occasion we took our first ever trip on the Anderton Boat Lift and Wheelock was a stop-off on the way home.

The Cheshire Cheese was unchanged, but Di Venezia was no more, being replaced by The Old Mill restaurant.

After a spell of three visits in five years, we didn't return to the Cheshire Cheese until the lunchtime of Tuesday 16th August 2016.

This trip was, essentially, a repeat of the 2006 journey, except it was on board the new boat Peggy Ellen and we'd started from Kings Bromley rather than Lapworth. We used the Anderton Boat Lift again and spent a bit more time on the River Weaver before heading back home via the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The Cheshire Cheese had undergone a subtle exterior redecoration and re-signage with the hanging baskets having disappeared. (A Cask Marque sign had also appeared by the entrance.) 'Dusty Bin' is still there, now at a more jaunty angle and The Old Mill is now Barchetta Italian restaurant.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the pub open on a Tuesday lunchtime even though we were the only customers. As the landlord explained (once we got him out of his garden), he might as well be open for any passing trade (like us!) because he can still do other stuff whilst keeping an eye on the bar. Sandwiches for lunch and a couple of pints to fortify us for the afternoon's exertions were just what the doctor ordered...and the pub took in an extra £20 - £30 that it wouldn't have if it had been closed like so many others do!

It is good to see that such a 'proper' pub as the Cheshire Cheese has survived whilst the other two pubs in the village (Nags Head and Commercial Hotel) are now closed. Hopefully it will be there for many years to come. 

#205 Sacks of Potatoes, Gosta Green, Birmingham : 1986 to 2015

The Sacks of Potatoes is a pub that will be familiar to any student (past & present) of Aston University as it sits in the middle of the campus. It is a pub I've visited on many occasions not involved with canal trips, but the only pictures I take are whilst on holiday (mainly!)

We start our journey at lunchtime on Thursday 31st July 1986.

We'd moored at Aston Junction and were nearing the end of a two week journey that had taken us to Nottingham. In those days the Sacks of Potatoes was a cosy, proper pub that did pub grub.

We didn't venture back there again until lunchtime on Wednesday 6th September 1995.

The reason for such a long delay was because our boat, Emma Jane, had spent two years up North, then another five years down South and this visit was towards the end of the journey bringing her back to the Midlands. In those few years, the Sacks of Potatoes has been extended quite a bit, much of it at the back. It wasn't quite as cosy as before, but it was still a proper pub!

It wasn't too long before our return at lunchtime on Wednesday 3rd September 1997, again mooring at Aston Junction and again returning from a trip that had taken us to Nottingham.

From this view you can see the considerable sideways extension of the pub compared to the 1986 view.

We were back again for another lunchtime stop on Sunday 29th August 1999, this time at the start of a trip that would take us along the Caldon Canal for the first time.

It had undergone a refurb in the intervening years and it was no longer labelled as an M&B pub, although it still was part of the Mitchell's & Butlers group. It was around this time that I completely lost track of who owned what pub and what beer you might expect to see! Sadly, the picture had disappeared from the side wall!

We were back again almost exactly a year later for lunch on Sunday 27th August 2000.

No real changes to report, the colour difference being caused by bright August Bank Holiday sun in 1999 versus Bank Holiday gloom in 2000!

It was quite a few years before we came back to the Sacks; almost exactly ten years had elapsed, it was another lunch stop on Saturday 28th August 2010.

Externally it had been repainted and there were many more seats (three years since the smoking ban), but other than that the pub was largely unchanged. In fact, most of the significant changes were going on around the pub as Aston University underwent a massive transformation.

The next picture is from Friday 6th June 2014, not related to a canal trip.

I was out by the university taking pictures, so, as we hadn't been there for a few years, I thought I'd get a new picture for the blog. Little had changed, but the hanging baskets now contained real flowers!

Ironically, we were back the next year for a lunchtime stop on Sunday 14th June 2015.

The Sacks of Potatoes wasn't our original destination for this lunch stop, but The Bull (#073) was closed on Sundays, so here we were again!

Despite the changes all around and the expansion of the pub in the nineties it still feels like a proper pub which is something of a rarity in this day and age! It is now part of the Stonegate Group of pubs (not sure when it transferred from Mitchell's & Butlers!) and the website is here.

 

#183 The Swan, Fradley Junction, Staffordshire : 1986 to 2016

The Swan at Fradley Junction is a classic canalside pub that really hasn't changed much throughout the years that we've been passing by. Our first stop there was back in 1983 before my cataloguing of our pub visits began.

Our first, recorded, visit was at lunchtime on Tuesday 29th July 1986 returning from a trip to Nottingham.

Fairly quiet, but it was midweek!

We returned a year later, again at lunchtime, on Wednesday 15th July 1987.

More people about this time, probably because it was a sunny day. Back in those days, you could moor up right outside the pub.

After this visit, our boat Emma Jane spent a few years moored near Wigan and then a few more years berthed on the Grand Union Canal near to Hemel Hempstead nd so our next visit to The Swan wasn't until lunchtime on Thursday 30th May 1996.

In the intervening years, the hanging sign had been renewed, the main pub sign had turned 'gold', the porch roof had been re-covered and the upstairs window shutters had disappeared. Apart from that, it was completely unchanged.

On this occasion, the pub let us down, from memory they'd stopped serving food at 2pm leaving us without lunch while we got our leaking shower tray fixed. Fortunately, we managed to acquire provisions from the shop next door.

Our next visit was an evening stop on Monday 30th August 1999.

Little seemed to have changed.

Next visit was on the evening of Tuesday 17th September 2002 on our way back from a trip that should've taken us to Chester but instead took us to Leek on the Caldon Canal.

No real changes but the hanging sign was starting to show signs of severe fading.

We returned the next year at lunchtime on Sunday 24th August 2003.

It was a Bank Holiday weekend that coincides with the Wychnor Boat Rally which led to the locks being very busy and progress was slow. Allied to it also being a hot day meant that we weren't best pleased to be told that the food was Sunday lunch only - NO sandwiches available! Once again we had to avail ourselves of the provisions available in the shop next door; the first, and so far only, time I've had Turkey Ham! Notice also that the hanging sign is missing, but hanging baskets have appeared below the upstairs windows.

It was another couple of years before we ventured back, this time on the evening of Sunday 21st August 2005.

Again no changes and the hanging sign was still missing!

We were back again at lunchtime on Wednesday 7th June 2006.

It looks like the hanging sign had returned and parasols adorned the outdoor tables.

Our next stop was on the evening of Sunday 30th August 2009 at the start of a two week trip that would take us up the Erewash Canal for the first time.

We returned almost exactly a year later on the evening of Sunday 29th August 2010, this time at the start of a journey that took us through Manchester.

The baskets below the upper windows had gone.

Again, almost exactly a year later we passed by on Sunday 28th August 2011, the last year of Emma Jane.

In the following years we hired boats that took us to parts of the canal system that we'd never visited before and it wasn't until 2015 that we returned. William's new boat, Peggy Ellen, is moored at nearby Kings Bromley so we've been visiting The Swan somewhat more frequently.

This was on the evening of Monday 25th May 2015 and, despite it being a Bank Holiday they didn't seem to have run out of anything. We were also treated to some unexpected entertainment when a man walked in with a parrot on his shoulder!

We were there again on Monday 15th June 2015 in the evening.

And again on the evening of Friday 3rd September 2015.

Since 2011, the main pub sign on the front wall had gone back to black lettering, but everything else was as on previous occasions.

All of our visits during 2015 were charcterised by excellent service and very good food, often served under quite stressful conditions as The Swan gets very busy and has a small bar for serving. Sometimes in the past it wasn't always so good as certain owners/managers/landlords didn't try too hard, essentially, because they didn't have to. The Swan is in such a good location that when the sun comes out people flock there and certain managers had realised that they didn't need to put in as much effort.

On the day before our most recent visit I'd learnt that The Swan was under new management, which I hoped was a good sign as we were making a very special trip. Our friend Mike was coming over from Canada (first time we'd seen him since 1995) and another friend Matt was coming up from near Oxford for a reunion of former crewmates of Emma Jane. (Mike's last trip was in 1981 and Matt's 1987!)

So, we boarded Peggy Ellen for the 90 minute journey to Fradley Junction. We negotiated the three locks with ease, found a mooring and went to the pub.

This was on Friday 6th May 2016. Mike and Matt are at the front; Andrew is steering and smoothly turning Peggy Ellen.

Lunch, however, did not go quite so smoothly. There have been some, so far minor, alterations to the inside of the pub and hopefully there will be some more to better utilise some of the space. 

Firstly, it took an age to get a round of drinks (the pub was quite busy and obviously the new staff aren't up to the speed required here) and there was no soda water on stream for my Blackcurrant & Soda. A minor irritation; I had tap water instead.

Then, on to the food. Our order was 3 x Cottage Pies, 1 x Cumberland Sausage and 1 x Ploughman's Lunch (for me). Except they didn't have any Ploughman's left! OK, another irritation, I chose Fish & Chips. Half an hour later I was told by the server that they'd run out of Fish & Chips as well! After ascertaining that they had some, I chose Cottage Pie.

We were finally served our food about an hour after we'd placed the original order. My Cottage Pie was alright, but it had an Italian ambience to it, and the accompanying vegetables were derisory; hardly more than a garnish!

I do hope the new management get a grip on things because if they don't it will be a disaster for them and the pub.

ADDENDUM (June 2019)
In all our subsequent visits the service has been faultless, so it looks like the teething problems were resolved.