#269 Queen's Head, Stoke Pound, Worcestershire : 1987 to 2019

The Queen's Head at Stoke Pound is in the perfect position for weary boaters on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. If you're heading up from Worcester it is situated in the small gap between the six Stoke Locks and the daunting prospect of the thirty (yes, 30!) Tardebigge Locks so you have a decision to make...should we stay...or should we go on? If you're heading down from Birmingham the decision is much easier...knackered after 30 locks...you stay!

Our first visit was a lunchtime stop on Sunday 5th July 1987 as we headed down the canal towards Worcester. According to the log, it had taken us 4 hours 10 minutes to get from The Crown at Alvechurch to the Queen's Head...a pretty decent time to do the thirty locks with a crew of four.

I don't remember a great deal about the pub other that it was a 'gastropub' even before the term became official in 1991 (according to Wikipedia). It was the definite place to go to for Sunday lunch in that part of Worcestershire!

Our trips along that part of the canal system are quite sporadic and we didn't return, heading towards Worcester, until the evening of Sunday 25th May 1997. (Picture taken next am)

This photo shows what a superb location it is and it was still a very popular place for food and drink.

We returned at lunchtime on Monday 12th August 2002.

We were taking a boat painting trip so we'd interchange travelling with some boat painting as and when the weather allowed. The previous night we had been moored below the Stoke Locks, so after turning, we made the short journey to the Queen's Head for lunch before tackling some more painting and the thirty Tardebigge Locks...again!

Our next visit was on the evening of Wednesday 28th May 2008 on our way up from Worcester.

Again, there had been further external redecoration and refurbishment, most notably the addition of an awning, presumably to shelter the smokers as this was less that a year since the smoking ban had been implemented in England.

It was another five years before we were back on the evening of Sunday 12th May 2013...and this is what we found!

Disaster! Pub very definitely closed, but was this a permanent situation? A closer inspection revealed that it was undergoing a major refubishment following a change of ownership. Long term, that was good news, but in the more immediate short term we had to call a cab and dine in Bromsgrove!

We haven't managed to return to that stretch of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal since 2013, but I took the opportunity earlier this year to pop along and take a couple of photos to update the situation.

This was on the afternoon of Tuesday April 30th 2019. I must assume that most of the refurbishment was on the inside as the exterior looks to be largely unaltered. (I didn't go inside, but I'm guessing that it is still a gastropub!)

It is now run by the Lovely Pubs group which also operates The Boot in Lapworth (#004) and a few other gastropubs around South Warwickshire.

#004 The Boot Inn, Lapworth : 1991 to 2011

I don't remember exactly when I first visited The Boot Inn in Lapworth, but it was probably in the early 1980's. At that time the narrowboat I holidayed on was moored on the Stratford Canal just behind the Boot. In those days it was a very cosy country pub and was a popular watering hole that many people drove there for a trip out.

My first picture of the pub dates from lunchtime on Saturday 3rd August 1991 (below). The narrowboat had been moored near Wigan on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and we were moving it down South to Cowley Peachey on the Grand Union Canal. On the day this photo was taken we were due to swap over crew for the second half of the journey. This was complicated, on the day, by the fact that Lock 11 was broken and so we left the boat above Lock 10 and went to the pub for lunch! We did still hand over to the new crew who managed to get under way at 5:30 pm!

We didn't move the boat back up to the Midlands until 1996. By this time I had become a joint owner of Emma Jane and we were back at Briar Cottage Moorings behind The Boot Inn! This was on the evening of Saturday 6th September 1996.

I'm not sure when The Boot was converted into a 'Country Pub & Restaurant", but it was round about this time. The main body of the pub was largely unchanged, but the building on the right was converted into the restaurant. The picture below is from 2000.

Moving on to 2008 and the scene is largely the same except that it is no longer a Whibread pub and the quality of cars parked outside is now much higher.

Although it isn't a 'proper' pub any more you can still visit and just have a pint (or three!) in the bar area and it has a very pleasant garden for use on warm evenings. The food is very good and the place is always busy, so despite the loss of its original character it is still a thriving concern which includes former Aston Villa footballer and former Sky pundit Andy Gray amongst it's regular clientèle.

This photo was taken on the evening of Friday 3rd June 2011. The cars have become even more expensive!! The Boot Inn is part (and was the first one) of a collection of Country Pubs & Restaurants which operate on similar lines. To learn more about The Boot Inn and the others in this group follow this link.