Canal Cruising in a COVID World (Part 3)

 We resume our journey heading away from Birmingham via Farmer's Bridge and Aston Locks, hoping to reach the safety of Curdworth by nightfall.

Just as we were mooring up at lunchtime we were amazed to see NB Calypso and the bloke who'd stolen our lock at Lapworth (I only saw him after he'd passed by!). He'd obviously done a rapid circuit via Knowle and the Grand Union Canal and I'm glad I didn't actually see him!

Our lunchtime destination was The Bull in Birmingham's Gun Quarter which was under new ownership (but still had the hundreds of jugs hanging from the ceiling!)

The first thing I noticed was a shiny new pumpclip for Oakham Citra (my new first choice tipple) and then I realised there was no Carling pump (Pravha being the recommended swilling lager!).

Following the shutdown they hadn't restarted doing food so it was a lunchtime of crisps, nuts and scratchings. This got us into conversation with the new owner who said that trade had been too slow to warrant putting on food, but that it was beginning to pick up so they might start again fairly soon.

The other interesting part of the conversation was that The Bull is his fourth Birmingham pub...the others being; The Wellington, Post Office Vaults and The Woodman...all venues on our more recent Proper Days Out in Brum. He is a fan of Citra (apparently The Wellington sell more pints of Citra than any other pub in the country!) and he's also proud of the fact that someone once told him that he "couldn't run a pub in Birmingham that didn't sell Carling!" He now has four!

Back to the boat and the slog along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal to Curdworth taking in Aston (11) and Minworth Locks (3). Our evening meal was in the socially distanced, table service only White Horse in Curdworth...very civilised, but an early closing (which we were well informed about!).

Next day was another long session consisting of the eleven Curdworth Locks and the five mile cruise into Fazeley.

The Fazeley Inn was fairly quiet, but there was a Scottish couple checking in to the hotel (unfortunately we never found out what tourist attractions they'd come for!). For us, the Carling was cold and the cling film wrapped rolls/baps/cobs/insert regional name here made for the perfect lunch.

We moved on to see whether the classic boozer the Three Horseshoes had survived. After seeing no mobility scooter outside, our fears were assuaged when we saw the open door!

As it is only a small pub, they've implemented social distancing by means of improvised perspex screens, strategically placed along the bench seating which works well (in conjunction with a garden out the back of the pub!). I can report (for the benefit of LifeAfterFootball) that Bass was being served...but I stuck with Carling!

Our next destination was Polesworth and the worst example of social distancing seen on our trip. Our first pint was in the Royal Oak. All of the signs were in place (as was the hand sanitiser), but many of the locals chose to ignore it all and shake hands with each other (and there was hugging!) This doesn't really bother me and it felt like a proper pub, but it was our first experience of this type of behaviour!

We wandered round to The Yard (formerly Foster's Yard) which was very quiet for a Friday evening so there were no problems with social distancing! Then we moved on to Little India, the restaurant above the Bull's Head for our evening repast.

Atherstone was our next intended stopping point with only the eleven slooow filling locks to delay us. We made it, but failed to get a pub lunch (Tesco Express to the rescue for a sandwich!) We did manage to get our drink quota in a couple of pubs we've visited before.

The White Horse is a proper small town boozer, but no food, sadly!

This was only our second ever visit to The Old Swan and despite signs saying to the contrary, food wasn't available.

After lunch we journeyed on, through Nuneaton, to our ultimate destination Hawkesbury Junction, home of one of the best canalside pubs in the country, The Greyhound. We were late, but got there just before the 8pm food cut-off. Quite frankly, we knew it was fully booked and expected to have to catch a cab into Coventry...but our expectations were surpassed! They were taking in 'Walk-Ups' and so they took us in, asked us to order quickly and everything would be fine. We were seated in the new plastic and aluminium gazebo by the canalside. The food arrived, the drinks arrived as did a massive thunderstorm which would have soaked us, but the gazebo did it's job.

As the pub began to thin out, we managed to get seats inside where social distancing was achieved by means of the (ubiquitous) black and yellow tape being applied to the edge of each table facing away from the bench seating. At first sight, this appears to halve the capacity, but in normal circumstances the bench seats are always occupied and the stools less so.

Next morning we left the Coventry Canal and entered the Oxford Canal via Sutton Stop Lock. William steered the boat through the junction and past the pub (above) whilst I had the tough job of operating the six inches deep lock...all by myself! (My dodgy back held up under the strain...I may be able to do a couple more on our next journey!)

Next stop, the Barley Mow at Newbold-on-Avon.

Social distancing worked quite well here and Sunday 'lunch' (Roast Pork Rolls with Roast Potatoes and Apple Sauce) was served in polystyrene takeaway trays (first time since the Blue Lias on Day 1!). The Carling was nice and cold!

We were almost on the final leg of our journey. Just the three Hillmorton Locks to negotiate and miles of lock free cruising to Braunston for the evening. After a bit of a delay at the locks we made good progress especially after a boat full of students (a dozen on one boat!) let us past after we'd caught them up. (Normally, it's the other way round as we get caught by 'speeding kids'!)

We made it to Braunston, just in time to get a meal at The Boat House.

Although we'd still got 5 miles to go this was to be our last drinking session of the trip...and it finished with some more minor entertainment!

Shortly after we'd got settled in, the boat load of twelve students arrived! Firstly they had to sit on two separate table (even though they'd been sharing a narrowboat for the weekend!). The two table were adjacent and not far from us, from where we could casually observe what turned out to be an epic drinking session (for them, not us!). Not all of them had food, but they all had shots, pints, cocktails, Jager Bombs and spirits...and not just one round...the drinks kept coming, wave after wave!

At times they got quite loud, but if you don't like the sound of young folk having a great night out then you probably shouldn't be going to the pub any more! At the end, a couple of the young women came over to apologise to us for the noise. To which I said, "It's fine! It's just over 40 years ago that I was in this very pub on my first canal trip (well the old version!) and we had an equally good time!"

The final test came with the bill. Like seasoned eavesdropping professionals that we are, we ascertained that their whole bill was £494! No-one batted an eyelid, no-one tried to do a runner, they paid up and left a substantial tip for the staff (acccording to the gaffer, who'd just seen his profits skyrocket in one night!)

And the moral of the tale...the future of pubs and drinking is safe in the hands of young folk like that...long may it continue!

Canal Pub Crawling - Part 3

We pick up our journey having spent an evening in Curdworth at The Beehive and White Horse, neither of which are canalside pubs.

DAY 5

BIRMINGHAM & FAZELEY CANAL - Curdworth to Fazeley Junction

COVENTRY CANAL - Fazeley Junction to Atherstone (above lock 6)

Again, we set out at about 09:30 with the aim of descending Curdworth Locks and having a lunchtime stop at Fazeley.

The first pub we passed was the Dog & Doublet, Bodymoor Heath B76 9JD at 11:30, but it was too early to think about stopping. We have visited there in the past and it is a great little pub.

Also, there were still a few more locks to be negotiated and we finally moored up at Fazeley Junction at 13:10. The pub we selected for our first pint wasn't, technically on our route (we were turning right at the junction and this pub is 100 yards to the left!) but we still went to the Three Tuns Inn, Fazeley B78 3QS.

This view from the A5 doesn't give the impression of a canalside boozer, but the garden at the back leads all the way down to the canal. It is under relatively new management and they don't do food anymore, but it is still a proper boozer. So, we had a pint and moved on to the Fazeley Victory (for Lunch) and the Three Horseshoes (still a great little pub).

So, it was back to the canal and onwards onto the Coventry Canal. It wasn't long before we were passing another watering hole.

The Gate Inn, Amington B77 3BY was the next canalside boozer we passed by at 16:25. Although the picture doesn't show it, the garden was very busy on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. This is a pub we've stopped at previously, but not very often as it is only 90 minutes away from Fazeley, our preferred stopping place.

We continued our journey, passing another place we've never stopped at (16:55).

The Samuel Barlow, Alvecote B78 1AS is part of Alvecote Marina and is a relatively new addition to the canalside hostelries club having been built in 2003.

Again, it was way too early to stop as we pushed on to Atherstone. We passed through Polesworth which has several pubs, but none of them are overtly canalside. Having been caught in a late deluge, we moored up halfway up the Atherstone flight of locks just after 20:00. As we headed into town I took this picture of another pub we weren't going into today!

The King's Head, Atherstone CV9 2PA is another pub that we've occasionally visited, but when there are so many other pubs to choose from in the town, it tends to lose out! Today was no different and we walked into Atherstone for several pints and a curry.

DAY 6

COVENTRY CANAL - Atherstone (above Lock 6) to Hawkesbury Junction

OXFORD CANAL - Hawkesbury Junction to Newbold-on-Avon

We started off in drizzle and rain which didn't really abate much until our lunchtime stop, but we did pass another pub that we've visited in the past.

It was 11:05 and as tepmting a proposition as it was, it was still too early to stop at The Anchor Inn, Hartshill CV10 0RT. It looks as though it has been refurbished since our last visit, but being about 90 minutes 'sailing' time away from Atherstone it is generally a place we pass by.

After another couple of hours, passing through Nuneaton (no canalside boozers!) and close to Bedworth (and the now defunct Navigation which is a rather large private residence [that is up for sale]) we arrived at Hawkesbury Junction and a pub that it would be a crime to pass by.

The Greyhound Inn, Longford CV6 6DF is a proper 'old school' canalside pub that also does great food. There have been times when it has been so full that we've caught a taxi into Coventry! Being a cool, grey Monday, I was half expecting it to be closed, but it wasn't and we had our obligatory three lunchtime pints and some lovely food.

Now we were on the homeward stretch of the journey as we joined the Oxford Canal by passing through Sutton Stop Lock. The rest of the afternoon was grey and drizzly and we passed no canalside pubs before our evening stop. The Elephant & Castle closed many years ago (and we'd never visited it as it was only 20 minutes away from The Greyhound!) and I'm not counting the Rose & Castle in Ansty. Althoiugh the garden runs down to the canal, there's nowhere to moor and access is always via the road!

So, the next pub we came to was the Barley Mow, Newbold-on-Avon CV21 1HW, by which time it was 19:50.

Back in the day, this used to be two pubs actually next-door to each other! Now they've been combined to provide a pub and hotel. There were plenty of locals in the bar and there is a restaurant section, but we preferred to eat in the bar where there was some atmosphere...it was a fairly quiet Monday night!.

DAY 7
OXFORD CANAL - Newbold-on-Avon to Braunston Turn
GRAND UNION/OXFORD CANAL - Braunston Turn to Wigram's Turn Marina

This was the final leg of our journey and, as we both had to dash off to prior engagements as soon as we got back to base...we didn't stop for lunch!

After Newbold you get to Rugby quite quickly and we passed by a pub that we used a few times when it was first built, but it is now a Harvester which seems to have turned its back on the canal.

It was only 09:45 when we passed the Bell & Barge, Rugby CV21 1RG, so we wouldn't have stopped anyway, but you can see how the mooring has become so overgrown.

The next, and final pub we passed was something of a surprise.

It was 11:45 when we passed The Waterside, Hillmorton CV21 4PW and, on another day, we may well have stopped for an early lunch...but not today! However, that wasn't the surprise. The penultimate time we'd passed this way, we did stop at the Old Royal Oak which had been the name of this pub since my first visit on my first canal trip in 1980. Indeed, it was still the Old Royal Oak in September 2018 when we last passed this way, but (from what I can glean from TripAdvisor) it changed from a Hungry Horse into a Pub & Carvery in October/November 2018.

We pushed on, past Braunston (not passing any more canalside pubs) and on to Wigram's Turn.

So, on this leg of the trip we passed 10 canalside pubs and went into just three, which is the best percentage of the whole trip.

In conclusion, in seven days we passed 34 canalside pubs and actually went into just 8 of them. Of those 34 pubs, we have never been in 5 of them! (The trip was 104 miles, passing through 120 locks and took 50 hours 5 minutes)

Had we stopped at every pub, we would never have completed the journey in 7 days, but if time was not part of the equation, you could probably do it in about a fortnight without any stress.

What has really surprised me is that, before we did this, I'd have estimated that we stop at about 50% of the canalside pubs, whereas the reality is 23.5%. (Although, over the years, we have been in 85% of them).

#230 Three Horseshoes, Fazeley, Staffordshire : 2006 to 2017

We first visited Fazeley from the canal in 1987, but it wasn't until 2006 that we discovered the Three Horseshoes - a whole 19 years where we didn't look beyond the A5 that passes through the town!

We discovered this gem, lurking behind the Tesco Express on the evening of Wednesday 7th June 2006.

It was, then, a proper boozer and we were amazed that it is only about 50 yards away from where we'd been drinking on previous visits! As I recall, we had one pint and got a taxi into Tamworth as it didn't do food.

We didn't leave it too long before we returned in an attempt to redress the years of neglect. We popped in at lunchtime on Wednesday 6th September 2006.

Amazingly, it hadn't changed!

We returned again at lunchtime on Sunday 30th August 2009.

Still no change...apart from the small barrier to stop the skip from rolling into the road!

It didn't take us long to get back for another visit. It was the evening of Wednesday 2nd June 2010.

I was shocked to see that the sign by the skip had disappeared. The eagle-eyed amongst you will also have noticed the mobility scooter by the front door.

We were back again on the lunchtime of Sunday 29th August 2010.

Remarkably, still unchanged and the mobility scooter is still just visible.

It was a while before we returned, this time on the lunchtime of Monday 15th June 2015.

It is amazing how much can change in five short years - a brand new Bass sign, a new skip and the mobility scooter now has a cover!

We were back on the lunchtime of Monday 13th June 2016.

For some reason, I took the picture from the other side, but it is still enough to know that it hadn't changed.

And now onto our most recent visit, just a few short days ago at lunchtime on Wednesday 16th August 2017.

Still unchanged and inside it is still the same welcoming bar that it has always been and, despite all of the adverse conditions for the pub trade since we first visited in 2006, the place was doing a very brisk trade for a Wednesday lunchtime...in a pub that doesn't serve food!

It still has a proper local pub atmosphere and when I took this picture for Retired Martin, there was a bit of good natured banter, which finished with one of the locals saying, "...and it's the best pint in Fazeley!"

I hope it continues unchanged into the foreseeable future, but who knows what may happen as it would appear that it is up for sale by Fleurets. 

#220 Plough & Harrow, Fazeley, Staffordshire : 1996 to 2016

Fazeley sits on the junction of the Coventry Canal with the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal just on the edge of Tamworth. It is a regular stopping place for us as there are several pubs in a small area.

Our first visit to the Plough & Harrow was on the evening of Thursday 30th May 1996.

We were back again, two years later at lunchtime on Monday 22nd June 1998.

This view gives a much better view of the pub, which was unchanged from our previous visit. This is one of those pubs that exhibits the 'reverse TARDIS' effect, being smaller on the inside than you'd expect from the outside! It is a pub that I've never quite warmed to, but it served beer and food so, what's not to like?

We returned a year later at lunchtime on Monday 30th August 1999.

Seemingly, no changes apart from the disappearance of the hanging basket and the three lights from above the wall sign have also gone.

There was a bit of a gap to our next visit, another lunchtime stop on Tuesday 31st August 2004.

A complete makeover had taken place both inside and out - neither had been an improvement! The pub was no longer an M&B house. Despite the changes, food was available so all was well!

We were back again a year later, again at lunchtime, on Sunday 21st August 2005.

No changes from the previous year.

During this period we seemingly couldn't keep away from the Plough & Harrow as we returned for more lunchtime shenanigans on Wednesday 6th September 2006.

  Again it was largely unchanged, but the bench seats outside had disappeared.

We left it for a few years and revisited the Plough & Harrow for a rare evening stop in Fazeley on Wednesday 2nd June 2010.

Another complete makeover with the extra addition of a large outside seating area - partly inspired, I believe, by the smoking ban, but also, I suspect, because the pub is so small inside this was the only way to maximise income.

These changes weren't enough to make us rush back, though, and we didn't return until lunchtime on Monday 15th June 2015.

A five year gap and not only has it undergone another complete transformation, but the name had also changed to simply, The Plough.

We were back again at lunchtime on Monday 13th June 2016.

Quite surprisingly, the doors and window frames had been repainted, but almost everything else was the same as before.

 

One other thing of note is the change to the building next door to the pub which has added a front door sometime between 2006 and 2010!

#160 Three Tuns Inn, Fazeley, Stafforshire : 1987 to 2014

At the northern end of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal is Fazeley Junction where it joins the Coventry Canal. The small town of Fazeley is a place where we've frequently stopped on our canal trips throughout the years. There are several pubs, but the one we've visited most, mainly because it is the nearest to the canal, is the Three Tuns Inn.

This first visit was on the evening of Wednesday 15th July 1987 as we were heading back home from a two week trip that had taken in Worcester, Stourport, Market Drayton, Middlewich, Stoke and Rugeley. I have no recollection of the interior, but I suspect that it was then, as now, a fairly standard boozer.

Our next visit was on the evening of Thursday 30th May 1996.

The outside of the pub had been completely refurbished with a new hanging sign and the introduction of a satellite dish. It would appear that it was no longer a Mann's pub.

Next visit was on Monday 30th August 1999, a lunchtime stop, but unfortunately the Three Tuns wasn't doing food, so we had a pint and moved on.

No real change to the exterior, but it is interesting to note how the net curtains have been removed in stages throughout the years!

We didn't return again until lunchtime on Sunday 21st August 2005.

Some changes to the outside, the hanging sign has gone as has the satellite dish...but the net curtains have returned!

Next visit was on Sunday 29th August 2010, another lunchtime stop.

The hanging sign has returned as has the satellite dish (in a different position), but the derelict building next door has finally been demolished!

And so, on to our most recent visit which was at lunchtime on Sunday 5th October 2014 when we had a large Sunday Roast lunch.

The outside had been completely redecorated with a new hanging sign, a third satellite dish with pastel green replacing the black...and the net curtains have disappeared again!

The pub has been under new management since December 2011 (see website) and, despite claims of refurbishment, the interior seemed to be pretty much as I remembered it from previous visits - namely, proper pub with no frills - just as I like it!