#282 The Hampstall Inn, Astley Burf, Stourport-on-Severn : 1997 to 2020

This will only be a short entry for a pub that I've visited only once. 

The mighty River Severn is not a waterway that we visit too often as we prefer the canals - the river can be boring...or...capriciously exciting when the flow is too great for boating (two of our last three visits to this great river have resulted in time lost because the flow was too great!).

Our only visit was at lunchtime on Tuesday 27th May 1997 after a 4½ hour slog up the river from Worcester.

I have absolutely no recollection what it was like inside, but I expect that it was typically country pub...ish!

We've been past The Hampstall Inn on a few occasions since, but the only photo I took was this one on the morning of Saturday August 29th 2020 immediately following our 36 hour sojourn at Holt Lock.

It looks as though the 'lean-to' frontage has been removed, but is now definitely in the Country Pub and Restaurant category.

According to their website, the pub is under new management and, hopefully, they will have the resources to last out the current crisis (and the vagaries of the River Severn).

More Canal Cruising in a COVID World (Part 2)

 You left us in Alvechurch and, so far, our cruise had not been affected by the pandemic...until now! The Met Office forecast (and Rainfall Radar) indicated that heavy morning rain (from Storm Francis) would clear by lunchtime. So we decided to stay put and have an early lunch in the Crown and approach the Tardebigge flight of locks (all 30 of them) afterwards.

This was on the Tuesday of the last full week of Eat Out to Help Out and of course, the Crown was fully booked! (It's only a small pub, so not so surprising!) No problem, there's a pub near to the top of the locks called The Tardebigge, and it is quite large...it was also fully booked. Our final option was to set sail for the top of Tardebigge Locks and get a taxi into Redditch where there are two Wetherspoon's to choose from. Which is what we did!

The Royal Enfield in Redditch served our purposes perfectly, with only a short queue before we could take advantage of Rishi's Dishes. Another Spoons to add to our list of saviours!

By the time we got back to the boat the gale force winds of Storm Francis were evident from this view of a windswept Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

Fortunately, the Tardebigge Locks are quite sheltered and steering Peggy Ellen wasn't as tricky as I'd feared. With the hard work of my shipmates, we reached the Queen's Head at Stoke Pound in plenty of time to exercise our options.

Rather than phone, we decided to turn up on the door to see whether they had enough room (better, we felt, to turn up in person!). Option 2 was to call a cab and try our luck in Bromsgrove. We were in luck and they managed to squeeze us in!

Not only was the food excellent, but I spent the whole evening drinking a new beer (for me) - Lock N Load from Brothers of Ale, a new brewery in Stourport-on-Severn. A very nice drop!

Next day we had a short trip (inc 12 more locks!) to Hanbury Wharf and the Eagle & Sun pub for lunch. This was the only pub on our trip where we failed to get a seat indoors, but it was a pleasant day and there was plenty of room in the garden.
 

This is another pub whose strict adherence to the guidelines will cost them trade unless they relax them a bit or have more staff on to cope with them! Andrew, our lunch monitor for the day, was waiting for at least 20 minutes, outside the pub, just waiting to be allowed back in to order the food! He had the good sense to get another round in!

The afternoon session saw us enter new boating territory (a rare event after 40 years!) by tackling the Droitwich Canals. The first section has narrow locks and the lowest roofed tunnel/bridge you're likely to encounter anywhere with the radio aerial rubbing along the ceiling!

We made it to Droitwich Spa town centre and what a lovely place it is. It wasn't a long walk from our (illegal, we found out later) mooring to the town centre and three very pleasant pubs. (The fourth looked equally nice, but we only managed the three!)

The Talbot was our final pub of the evening after The Hop Pole, the Old Cock Inn and a curry. (We didn't manage the Star & Garter this time).

Next day we traversed the Droitwich Barge Canal, which has wide locks, all the way to the River Severn accompanied, part of the way, by a local charity narrowboat and it's crew who were out training for the first time this year. Pleasant company and help for the hard work of winding locks.

You'll notice the inordinate number of solar panels on Pamela May 2 and that's because she's an all-electric powered boat...which is fine until someone inadvertently flicks the wrong switch resulting in no thrust, as happened at one of the locks.

They weren't intending to go onto the river, so let us go ahead for the final lock. Once we reached the River Severn, I was somewhat shocked by quite how fast the river was flowing. I'd been following the river level rise for the past few days, but nothing appeared to be too untoward and the river level indicators were reading Orange (with a couple of inches before going Red), so the river was still open for navigation.

To compound my apprehension, a hire boat that was travelling downstream and wanted to get onto the Droitwich Canal ended up at least 300 yards past the junction before they managed to get it turned around! Our plan was to head upstream for a planned lunch at the Holt Fleet pub or The Wharf on the other side of the river (which had a landing stage that we'd used many years before!)

Neither of my shipmates said that we should turn back so I put the thrust on and we entered the river and managed to get Peggy Ellen facing the right way and actually make progress against the current without having to strain the engine. We managed about 2 - 3 mph against a current that was faster than walking pace (about jogging speed!) which doesn't sound a lot, but I can assure you it is on a river the size of the Severn.

The key to making progress is to stay out of the main channel and go close to the edge where the water isn't flowing so quickly and there aren't large tree branches floating by! Unfortunately, dependent on the bends and the width of the river, the quieter water often changes sides of the river resulting in a quick dash across to the other side!

After an hour (seemed like much longer in the rain) we finally reached Holt Fleet only to find that there were no moorings at either pub. So we pushed on to the lock. Fortunately, the lock-keeper opened up Holt Lock for us and allowed us to moor up at the landing stage above the lock which was as still as a millpond!

So, we disembarked and headed for the Holt Fleet pub.

 They managed to squeeze us in where we had a lovely lunch, warmed up and dried out! When we returned to the boat the lock keeper told us that the next lock (at Lincomb) was now closed, but it was OK for us to stay where we were moored.

We were there for the next day and a half because, even though the flow was considerably less than when we'd come up the river, it was deemed not safe enough to reopen for traffic. There are worse places to be stranded as there were two pubs within walking distance and we had a secure mooring!

 The lock keeper allowed us access to the lock island to have a look at the flow of water over the weir. Also on the island was a mini orchard of apple trees and for the first time since I was a child I ate an apple that I'd just picked from the tree...a very juicy Pink Lady!

This is where I'll pause for breath! Less than a week into our two-week cruise and we've had more drama and incident than in an episode of "EastEnders"!

***Spoiler Alert***

Next time we'll be experiencing proper Black Country drinking habits...and much less drama!

#242 The Bridge Inn, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1997 to 2017

Stourport-on-Severn isn't a place we visit frequently on our canal trips, but it is always a joy for those of us who like a good variety of pubs.

Usually, when we've moored on the canal, The Bridge Inn is the furthest pub from us and so, we often don't make it there. So, although we'd been to Stourport on a few occasions, this was our first visit to the pub.

It was on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997 after a day's trip up the River Severn from Worcester. I have little recollection about the inside of the pub.

Our next visit was six years later on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 2003.

Although it looks very different, it is hard to ascertain how many changes there were because I've taken the photo from the opposite side! What is 'interesting' though, is that a new street light has appeared outside the pub.

Our next visit to The Bridge Inn was on a rare lunchtime stop in Stourport on Tuesday 27th May 2008. (Amazingly the same date as the previous visits!)

A fair amount of re-signage had taken place over the intervening period, but the pub maintained its basic character.

In 2013 we were stranded in Stourport as the River Severn was un-navigable. It wasn't in flood, but the levels were well up on normal. We didn't venture into The Bridge, but I also didn't take a photo even though we walked past it twice!

On our most recent visit to Stourport, we didn't go into The Bridge, but I did take this photo.

This was on the evening of Tuesday 8th August 2017 and it is plain to see that the exterior has undergone a complete renewal.

Having done a bit of research, The Bridge Inn is now part of Star Pubs & Bars which are the managed pubs run by Heineken which may indicate a long-term future for it...although they are looking for a new landlord/tenant!

#152 The Pheasant, Worcester : 1999 to 2013

Worcester is a place we visit infrequently on our canal trips and, because there are a lot of pubs we don't get too many repeats (often because we can't remember where the pubs are!!).

Our first visit to The Pheasant was on the evening of Monday 31st May 1999.

It is on the same street as The Swan with Two Nicks (#146) and so we generally go there in preference. On this occasion, we decided to go into The Pheasant, but I don't really remember what it was like! It is a very attractive building, I assume it is listed as it doesn't seem to change.

We were in Worcester on Saturday 11th May 2013 in the evening and we walked past The Pheasant having already been to The Swan with Two Nicks!

Seemingly little has changed on the outside, but I'm sure they must have redecorated at least once in the intervening 14 years.

It seems as though The Pheasant has now been refurbished and 're-booted' as a burger establishment (and still a pub!) with good reviews on TripAdvisor. The pub website is here.

#151 The Wheatsheaf, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1997 to 2013

It's back to Stourport-on-Severn for yet another pub that town has to offer. Our first visit to The Wheatsheaf was on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997.

Back then it was a Banks's pub that wasn't particularly memorable, but Stourport is about quantity, not necessarily quality! (That's not a bad thing in my book!!)

We didn't go back there until the lunchtime of Tuesday 27th May 2008 discovering that it'd had quite a makeover.

It was now branded as a Marston's pub with a more contemporary 'feel' to the outside. Inside it was no more memorable than before.

And finally we move on to the evening of Thursday 16th May 2013, when we'd been stranded in Storport because the River Severn was flowing at least 2 metres above safe levels!

Seemingly unchanged externally apart from the hanging baskets and the signs (from Marston's) saying 'Make it a success' and 'Retail Opportunity...Call 0844.....' We didn't venture inside as there were many more pubs to potentially visit...and we did pop into a few!

#147 The Bell, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1997 to 2013 (RIP)

We're back in Stourport-on-Severn again, this time for a quick look at The Bell.

This was our first (and only) visit to The Bell on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997. I don't recall much about it apart from it being a normal small town pub.

The Bell is situated away from the main town centre on the mini ring road around the town which probably explains why we never ventured back. This also probably explains why it is now closed. In fact, according to the Closed Pubs website, it closed in 2002 to be converted into flats.

This is how it looked on the evening of Thursday 16th May 2013. We'd been 'stranded' in Stourport, so I took the opportunity to take photos of all the pubs to catch up on their status and, at the time, I didn't realise it had closed as there is still some signage! 

It really isn't a surprise that it closed as Stourport had always been 'blessed' with an over abundance of pubs and The Bell was not on the main drag.

#146 The Swan with Two Nicks, Worcester : 1987 to 2013

My first experience of The Swan with Two Nicks was a lunchtime visit on Monday 6th July 1987 near the beginning of a two week trip on board Emma Jane. This was the first trip where we'd taken the boat on a trip without Andrew in the crew and we were a bit anxious as it was his family's boat at that time!

As I recall, we'd been there in 1984 (at the start of a journey, but before I'd started taking photos of every pub we visited). It was a traditional old pub with beams and a low ceiling and we spent the whole lunchtime there before heading off upstream on the River Severn.

It was a long time before we revisited The Swan with Two Nicks because Emma Jane was moored first 'Up North' and then 'Down South' until returning to the Midlands in late 1996. However, even though we visited Worcester again, we didn't actually manage to find the pub again until the evening of Monday 31st May 1999.

A complete overhaul of the outside of the pub had taken place in the intervening 12 years, but inside it was exactly as we remembered.

The next visit was another 9 years later on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 2008 and the outside had again been redecorated.

Inside was still in the traditional style, pretty much as we remembered it.

Five years later saw a much less drastic redecoration (and different smokers outside!) when we popped in on the evening of Saturday 11th May 2013.

Inside it was still the same, but this time it contained a large contingent of Royalist soldiers in period costume, presumably rehydrating after a long day's battle re-enactment!

The Swan with Two Nicks is still well worth a visit if you happen to find yourself in Worcester and a fairly detailed history of the pub (and before) can be found here.

The pub name is NOT a misprint and, although there are probably more pubs named the Swan with Two NECKS, the name originates from the practice of marking swans by making a 'nick' on the swan's bill - a full explanation can be found here.

#140 The Tontine, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1987 to 2013 (RIP)

As previously noted, Stourport-on-Severn has many pubs and, back in 1987 The Tontine was one of the outstanding pubs in the town.

This photo was taken on the evening of Monday 6th July 1987 after a slightly fraught journey up the River Severn from Worcester. This was our first boating trip up the Severn and, having left Worcester's Diglis Basin at 3pm, we'd not taken the flow of the river into account making the journey much longer than we'd expected! We almost didn't make it to Stourport for the evening because the last lock on the Severn, Lincomb Lock, was technically closed for the night. We were in luck, though, because one of the regular trip boats was due to pass through and after some negotiation, the lock keeper agreed to let us through!

We moored on the river at Stourport and The Tontine was just a short walk away up the carefully manicured bank side. I don't remember too much about the inside other than it was a large pub with lots of canal pictures and memorabilia.

It was another 10 years before we returned to The Tontine on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997.

As far as I recall there were no significant changes, but inside were signs of a general decline.

We were in Stourport again in 1999, but didn't visit The Tontine. However, I took this photo on the afternoon of Tuesday 1st June 1999 as we passed through the locks up from the Severn into Stourport Basin.

Since then we've passed through Storuport-on-Severn several times and The Tontine had been closed for most of them. According to Closed Pubs it has been closed since 2001.

Our most recent visit to the town was the premature end of our journey because the Severn was closed because it was running very fast and high from the heavy rain a few days earlier. This gave me some time to take photos of the town, including The Tontine.

These pictures were taken in the afternoon of Thursday 16th May 2013. From the outside The Tontine is largely unchanged, unsurprising as it is a listed building, but it has been split into flats for residential use.

The Tontine is an unusual name and I'm indebted to Andrew Denny and his Granny Buttons blog for this explanation: -

How did the Tontine Hotel come to be called?  A Tontine Will is defined here - it's effectively when a group of men pool their inheritances and the last man standing gets the lot.  But that's not the original name.  According to a Stourport Tourism Leaflet:

The Tontine Hotel was constructed as the Areley Inn in 1772 and gave accommodation to merchants and travellers. It was a grand place with a ballroom and several reception rooms.

Another history of The Tontine can be found here. 

#136 Hope & Anchor, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire - 1987 to 2013

The Hope & Anchor can be found slightly off the beaten track in Stourport. This is a great little document to help find this and many of the other pubs in the town. 

My first visit to Stourport was on the evening of Monday 6th July 1987 as documented elsewhere in this blog. We did quite a pub crawl around the town and this picture demonstrates the whole raison d'etre for taking these photos.

I have no recollection of what the pub was like and the only reason I know I went there is this photo!

We were back again on the evening of Tuesday 1st June 1999 and we did another pub crawl around the town.

From the outside there doesn't look to have been many changes and inside...? I still don't have any recollection from this visit, either!

So, we move onto the most recent visit.

This was on the evening of Thursday 16th May 2013 when our journey had come to a premature conclusion because the River Severn was closed to navigation. This left us with plenty of time for another pub crawl around Stourport. From the outside, it looks to be well decorated, but inside it wasn't good. The 'For Sale' sign should have been a clue and explains why the inside was in a state of general neglect.

I wouldn't be surprised, next time we're in Stourport, to find that the Hope & Anchor is no more, especially as the town has so many more appealing pubs in better locations. It is always sad (to me anyway!) when a pub closes down, but as neither me nor my travelling companion could remember whether we'd ever been there, it probably won't be a great loss.

#128 Black Star, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1999 to 2013

The Black Star is a canalside pub in Stourport that should be thriving. Our first visit was on the evening of Tuesday 1st June 1999, which still surprises me as we'd been to Stourport previously at least on two occasions.

From what I remember it was a cosy little canalside pub that did good food.

Our next visit was a lunchtime stop on Tuesday 27th May 2008.

It had been extensively redecorated on the outside, but inside was largely unchanged.

Our most recent trip to Stourport was on the evening of Thursday 16th May 2013. Although this was a scheduled stop on our trip it also proved to be the end of our journey as the River Severn was running several feet above its normal level and was closed. The incessant rain from Sunday had worked its way down from Wales and we were unable to get our boat back to the hire base on the river near Worcester.

So, it was time for a pub crawl!

Again the Black Star had been externally redecorated, but the internal layout was still pretty much the same - a smallish, quite cosy, front bar/lounge and a larger room at the back set out for dining. The only problem was that it was almost deserted! From what I can glean from t'internet the lease is currently available and it sounds like an attractive proposition...but only if someone can make it work. It should be thriving, but when we were there the canal was full of boats that couldn't go further and yet there was no-one in the restaurant part of the pub!

Hopefully someone can turn it around and here is their website.

#124 The Rising Sun, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1999 to 2013

Stourport-on-Severn is a place we've visited numerous times over the years of our canal travels. It stands on the banks of the River Severn where the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal joins. It has many pubs and will be featuring several times over the coming months.

The Rising Sun is a small Banks's pub in the back streets of Stourport well away from the river, but it does back onto the canal.

This was taken on the evening of Tuesday 1st June 1999 at the halfway point on a trip round the Midlands via Birmingham, Stourbridge and Worcester. As I recall, we entered the quiz and finished second.

We visited again four years later on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 2003 as part of a repeat journey from 1999, except for the first time we were travelling down the River Severn to Worcester.

This is taken from the bridge over the canal at the back of the pub. From what I remember, the inside was largely unchanged and as friendly as previously.

Although we've been through Stourport since, we hadn't been back to The Rising Sun until Thursday 16th May 2013.

Apart from the new flower boxes it has hardly changed on the outside and, from memory, it wasn't much different on the inside either! Always nice to find a pub that's 'Unspoilt by Progress' - here is the website.