#287 The Boat Inn, Thrupp, Oxfordshire : 1998 to 2021

 We're back on the Oxford Canal and another pub that has hardly seems to have changed over the years, but look a little closer and you'll find the differences!

The Boat in Thrupp has appeared in "Inspector Morse" and there is a 'Morse Room' with pictures from the episode on the walls. Our first visit was at lunchtime on Friday 4th September 1998.

Back in 1998 it was still a quite upmarket dining pub, but still a pub nonetheless. It was a Morrell's pub, but research indicates that 1998 was the year that the brewery closed (after a family dispute) and the tied houses were bought by an American entrepreneur.

We didn't return until the evening of Sunday 28th July 2019 - on the surface it was largely unchanged.

However, on closer inspection you can see that it is now The Boat Inn and is a Greene King pub! After 19 years, I don't recall how much it had changed inside (not a lot probably), but it was definitely more of a restaurant than a pub.

Our most recent visit was another evening session on Saturday 22nd May 2021.

This picture better shows the changes from 1998 which, apart from the signage, are quite minimal. We were lucky to get a mooring close to the pub as, on the way down to Oxford there was no room at all, but on our return we managed to get a spot close enough that even I couldn't moan about the walk to the pub!

Yes, that's our vessel...the good ship Peggy Ellen...moored as close as you can get to The Boat Inn!

It will be a good number of years before we're back here as Peggy Ellen is moving back to Kings Bromley Marina in a few weeks time making journeys down the Oxford Canal less likely!

#277 The Three Horseshoes, Winkwell, Hemel Hempstead : 1992 to 2019

Having no new pubs to report on in 2020 and having exhausted the interesting local watering holes, I thought I'd take a while away from blogging. But now, the pub world is waking up from its long slumber and my fellow bloggers have hit the ground running, so I decided to get back on the horse myself.

What better place to restart than this little gem tucked away on the Grand Union Canal near to Hemel Hempstead?

This was on the evening of Thursday 1st October 1992 towards the end of our first journey up and down the Grand Union in the days when our boat Emma Jane was moored down south. It had been an eventful trip encompassing floods and a fire in the engine room. The pub was very close to the boatyard from where we had begun our journey, but our final destination was another day away at Cowley Peachey.

Back in the early 1990's, The Three Horseshoes was a superb country pub that was both a local and did very good food.

Our next visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 18th September 1993 when we visited before setting off from our new moorings at Winkwell.

Not surprisingly, the pub was completely unchanged.

Another year later and again, prior to picking up the boat we 'retired' to The Three Horseshoes for lunch - it was Saturday 27th August 1994.

Nothing new to report, which is the reason I kept taking pictures from different angles!

The last year that Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell was in 1995 and we made two visits to the pub. First was on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd June 1995 before we set off on a journey that took us to Lime House Basin in London.

 Our final visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 26th August 1995 as we set off from Winkwell for the final time to take Emma Jane to her new moorings at Lapworth.

Still unchanged and one of the best canalside pubs along that stretch of the Grand Union Canal.

Over the next years, our canal adventures didn't take us as far south as Winkwell until 2019, when we undertook a massive journey down the River Thames and back up the Grand Union Canal, starting and finishing at Napton.

This is how The Three Horseshoes looked at lunchtime on Monday 5th August 2019.

Just a few changes in 24 years, but nothing unexpected nor too untoward! As you would expect it is now more of a gastropub. Whilst the cosy, proper pub feel is long gone it still feels like an old establishment and has a selection of real ales...so all is not lost.

I'd like to tell you about the pub in more detail, but my stay was fairly short lived. I had to pop into Hemel Hempstead to acquire a new phone as my old one wasn't working since I fell into the canal a couple of days earlier!

I can report, though, that The Three Horseshoes has survived coronavirus and has reopened, according to their Facebook page. 

#266 The Globe Hotel, Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire : 1992 to 2019 RIP

Weedon Bec (usually just referred to as Weedon) is one of those villages on the canal that for part of my boating life has been a regular stopping off point, then it wasn't on the itinerary for a while...but now it is back!

In it's heyday there were many more pubs in Weedon, but considering it's modest size, five is still quite a good number in this modern era!

My first visit to Weedon was on my very first canal boating trip back in 1980 when Emma Jane was moored at Woodford on the River Nene. This made Weedon a regular stop and we were back there in 1982 and 1984, all before I started taking photos of every pub we visited.

For the first half of the 1990's, Emma Jane was moored on the Southern Grand Union Canal at Cowley Peachey and then Winkwell. So, our summer/autumn jaunts would take us up the Grand Union to Braunston and beyond...and then return the same way (hopefully stopping at different pubs on the way down!)

I can't say that the Globe was our 'go-to' pub, but it was a pleasant enough place to visit and this first time was on the evening of Thursday 24th September 1992.

We were there again on the evening of Wednesday 22nd September 1993, but it was so late that the photo isn't great!

We were back again at lunchtime on Wednesday 31st August 1994.

Largely unchanged, although the Rooms Available sign has been replaced by a hanging basket.

We returned a year later in what would be our last visit for a few years as Emma Jane was returning to her 'old' moorings at Lapworth.

This was on the evening of Wednesday 30th August 1995. Although the signage had changed, I think that everything else was pretty much as before.

For the next few years our boating trips didn't take us through Weedon until we decided to revisit the Grand Union on a trip to Aylesbury and back. This time we stopped at Weedon twice and visited the Globe on both occasions.

Evening of Monday 27th August 2001.

Evening of Tuesday 4th September 2001. Little change, again, but the hanging baskets had bitten the dust!

A few years later, we had a little bit more time than we'd anticipated, so we added Weedon onto our itinerary.

This was on the evening of Sunday 29th May 2005 and still the signage hadn't changed...apart from the missing 'O'.

With the new boat, Peggy Ellen, now being moored at Napton returned on the evening of Friday 19th April 2019 (Good Friday) to be greeted with this scene.

It is a scene that is repeated up and down the land as large pubs/hotels become less viable and are turned into Tesco Express (or Sainsbury's or Co-op or Morrison's...etc). Sad, but inevitable in the modern age.

Looking through the historic pictures on Google Street View, the Globe was largely unchanged in 2009 (earliest picture), boarded up by 2012 (with a new main sign!) and was a Tesco Express by August 2014.

 

#253 Royal Oak, Polesworth, Warwickshire : 1998 to 2018

Our first ever canal visit to Polesworth was back in 1982, but I wasn't taking pictures of every pub back then, so you have to wait until the evening of Monday 22nd June 1998 for the first picture of the Royal Oak.

It is a small, proper boozer, close to one of the canal bridges in the village, so ideal for a quick pint as I don't think we've ever eaten in there (not sure if they've ever done food!)

We returned a couple of years later on the evening of Wednesday 31st May 2000.

In the space of those two years it had gone from being a Bass pub to a Banks's 'Free House'. It had been redecorated and re-signed on the outside, but I've no recollection of the inside.

It was a little longer between visits, but the next time we popped into the Royal Oak was on the evening of Monday 30th August 2004.

Again, the signage had been changed and any mention of Banks's removed.

Another five years passed by and, when we returned at lunchtime on Wednesday 27th May 2009, the exterior was remarkably unchanged.

There was a board advertising some food, but I have a feeling that there wasn't any!

We did visit Polesworth at lunchtime on Wednesday 1st June 2011 and, although we didn't go into the Royal Oak, I still managed to get a picture as we passed by.

Apart from the addition of an England flag (possibly left over from the 2010 World Cup?) nothing had changed.

Our next visit was four years later on the evening of Sunday 24th May 2015.

This time the signage had changed with what appears to be the return of the original hanging sign, although in a slightly different position to accommodate the new sign on the front of the pub.

Our most recent visit to the Royal Oak was at lunchtime on Saturday 29th September 2018 as we moved Peggy Ellen to her new mooring at Wigram's Turn Marina, Napton.

No changes to the outside and, inside, it s still the same, small proper pub...but no food. So after a pint we moved on to Foster's Yard for our lunch.

#250 Market Tavern, Atherstone, Warwickshire : 1995 to 2018 (RIP??)

Atherstone is a place we visit fairly frequently on our boating trips and, for a small town, it still has a lot of pubs. One of our favourites is the Market Tavern which has a chequered past and an uncertain future.

Although we'd stopped in Atherstone previously, my first experience of the town itself was on the evening of Monday 4th September 1995. Even then there were a lot of pubs in the town and it was difficult to see how they could all survive, even in the halcyon days before the smoking ban.

Sadly, not one of my best pictures! This was probably our third or fourth pub of the night and gave us a taste of what was to come in the future. It was (and still is) a lovely two room pub, but when we arrived there was only the barman in the place. We ordered our pints of lager each and discovered that he was the stand-in manager as the previous incumbent had left. As we were chatting another customer came in, ordered a half, drank it in about 10 minutes and was gone! We finished ours and followed him shortly afterwards, looking for food.

We didn't return to Atherstone until lunchtime on Saturday 20th August 2005 to find the Market Tavern still going strong!

I don't recall too much about our visit, just that it had changed remarkably little in the intervening 10 years.

We were back again on the evening of Tuesday 25th May 2009 and still there was little discernible change.

Another five years passed and we returned on the evening of Sunday 5th October 2014.

Although it appeared unchanged, the Market Tavern was now owned by the Warwickshire Beer Company. Inside it had been tastefully refurbished and retained its character as a proper boozer.

We were back in Atherstone again on the evening of Wednesday 2nd September 2015.

It just so happened that Wednesday night was quiz night at the Market Tavern, thus killing two birds with one stone as there were sandwiches included with the quiz (so no need to search out a dodgy curry...or worse!).

Of course, we did the unthinkable and won the quiz (its a small pub so there weren't many teams...and there were only two of us!) The prize was a bottle of wine and a gallon of beer (in one pint vouchers). So we did what anyone else would (to maintain order and dignity) we took the wine had a pint each and gave the rest of the vouchers to the other teams...well, it was late and we'd never have managed to use them up.

On our most recent trip to take Peggy Ellen to her new moorings at Napton,   we stopped at Atherstone again. This was on the evening of Saturday 29th September 2018.

The Market Tavern was to be our first stop of the evening, but it was closed! As we discovered later, they were looking for a new tenant/manager, but from current internet searching it would appear that it is still closed.Whether it gets a resurrection is still unknown, but I hope it does survive.

#240 The Anchor Inn, Cross Green, Staffordshire : 1991 to 2017

For our first visit this pub was known as The Anchor, Inn then it became the Fox & Anchor (when it became a Vintage Inn) but, as I recently discovered, it has now reverted back to being The Anchor Inn.

There also seems to be some controversy over its location - our canal books have always placed the Fox & Anchor in the village of Coven, but a couple of years ago we were 'put right' by a local who said that it is actually in Cross Green. (Search on Google and it appears to be an even split between the two!)

Our first visit was at lunchtime on Monday 29th September 1991 as we were moving our boat Emma Jane from the North to down South.

I have absolutely no recollection of the inside.

We didn't revisit until lunchtime on Tuesday 26th August 2003, by which time it had been converted into a Vintage Inn and renamed as the Fox & Anchor.

Obviously it had undergone a thorough redevelopment in the intervening years and inside it was a typical Vintage Inn.

Quite a number of years passed before we stopped there again on the evening of Monday 31st May 2010.

Although it was still a Vintage Inn, it had undergone a redecoration and refurbishment inside, but it was still recognisably a Vintage Inn.

We were back again the next year at lunchtime on Monday 5th September 2011. No real change.

It was a few more years bfore we returned in the new boat Peggy Ellen, another lunchtime stop on Thursday 11th June 2015.

With Peggy Ellen being moored at Kings Bromley, the Fox & Anchor has become a more frequent stopping place especially as it is one of the few food based pubs along that stretch of the Staffs & Worcester Canal.

We made two visits in 2016 - first at lunchtime on Thursday 9th June 2016.

Our second visit was an evening stop on Saturday 6th August 2016.

This second picture was taken the next morning.

Our final visit (so far) was on the evening of Sunday 6th August 2017...and again we got a mooring right outside!

I've also given this photo the Photo Digial Art treatment!

I look forward to revisiting and seeing whether there has been much of a refurbishment inside to go along with the name change.

#235 Newton Brewery Inn, Middlewich, Cheshire : 1991 to 2016

This entry for the Newton Brewery Inn perfectly demonstrates the reason I started taking pictures of every pub we visit on our canal journeys. Namely, to have proof of which pubs we'd visited as it gets difficult after a few pints and a few years to remember where the heck we've been.

Back in 1991 we were bringing our boat Emma Jane from her northern mooring to a southern spot on the Grand Union. We stopped in Middlewich on the evening of Tuesday 23rd July 1991. Our mooring was by the Big Lock and one of the pubs we visited was the Newton Brewery Inn.

I vaguely recall that it was, like most Marston's pubs of that era, a fairly basic boozer. Other than that I don't remember anything about it.

Fast forward to the evening of Monday 15th August 2016; we were in Middlewich with the new boat Peggy Ellen and we'd moored above the Big Lock. Our easiest access point to leave the canal took us straight to the Newton Brewery Inn, so we popped in for a pint.

We found it to be a fairly basic boozer and departed for the Big Lock for food as there were only snacks on offer here. At this stage I was pretty sure that it was a new pub for us, only to find on my return home that we had, indeed, visited the Newton Brewery Inn twenty-five years previously! (It isn't the first time this has happened - see #166 Tilted Wig in Warwick - nor will it be the last I suspect!)

#216 Stanley Arms, Anderton, Cheshire : 1991 to 2016

The stretch of the Trent & Mersey Canal to the north of Middlewich is a section of the waterways that we only rarely traverse. My first ever encounter with the Stanley Arms was in 1981 when we had a brief stop to have a look at the, then defunct, Anderton Boat Lift. We were only stopped for half an hour and I don't recall whether we went in the pub or not.

The next time I was passing was on the journey to move Emma Jane from Wigan to the Southern Grand Union Canal.

This was a lunchtime stop on Tuesday 23rd July 1991. Back in those days it was a Greenall's pub that did good food.

Although we were up that way again in 2000, we didn't stop at the pub until the lunchtime of Friday 1st September 2006, prior to taking Emma Jane on her first trip (and ours) down on the Anderton Boat Lift.

Unfortunately, this view doesn't really show off any changes to the pub. It was no longer a Greenall's pub, but it still did good food!

Our most recent visit was at lunchtime on Monday 15th August 2016 and the changes from 1991 are much more apparent  from this view.

The basic layout of the pub is unchanged, apart from the porch added to the front entrance. Windows have been replaced, one chimney has been reduced in height and a 'smokers hut' has been built in the garden. Inside it was still welcoming and serving good food.

This visit also coincided with trips up and down on the Anderton Boat Lift (first time for the new boat Peggy Ellen) and we popped into the pub whilst waiting for our slot to return from the River Weaver.

Anderton Boat Lift

 

#182 Red Bull, Church Lawton, Staffs : 1991 to 2015

The Red Bull pub is a well-known canalside pub, but not one we've stopped at very often. It is a couple of locks down from the summit of "Heartbreak Hill" and so is not in the best position for stopping at when boating.

Our first stop there was on the lunchtime of Thursday 25th July 1991.

 This was during the journey south for Emma Jane, from Adlington to, ultimately, Cowley Peachey on the Grand Union Canal.

Our next stop there was another lunchtime stop on Wednesday 24th August 2005. This was a pit stop on our journey to Chester and back.

In 14 years, the only discernible changes were the 'new' hanging baskets and the addition of a burglar alarm.

Our most recent visit to the Red Bull was at lunchtime (again!) on Tuesday 20th January 2015. This was part of the 'Shakedown' cruise for Peggy Ellen, which is why we were boating in January!

At least in the subsequent ten years since our last visit the exterior had been completely redecorated, even if the hanging sign looks to be the same as in 1991!

Regular readers will know that I can rarely remember what the pubs I feature are like on the inside. So far I've resisted all mention of the interior because, quite frankly, I don't really remember it much. However, I suspect that it hasn't changed much over the years and this is what it looked like on this visit.

As you can see, still a proper pub! Well worth a visit if you're passing and, hopefully, we'll be back in less than ten years this time!