#278 Great Western, Warwick : 1998 to 2020 (RIP)

 For all pub fans, I'm afraid that this is a sad tale, reflective of the general malaise affecting English pubs over the past few years.

We begin our tale with something of a disaster - it was August Bank Holiday weekend and Emma Jane broke down just after the Cape of Good Hope locks. For our first (and I think only) time we had to get a tow...as far as Kate Boats. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and they were closed!

So, what else could we do? It was time to take a stroll into Warwick and investigate the town. The first pub we went into was the Great Western, just by Warwick Station.

This was at lunchtime on Sunday 30th August 1998, although we didn't eat there. As I recall it was a fairly standard pub with a bar and a lounge. After a pint we moved on to investigate the town. Fortunately, Warwick had plenty of pubs to keep us entertained both for the lunch and evening sessions!

As it was Bank Holiday Monday, Kate boats were able to pump out our bilges and fill us up with diesel, but there was no engineer available to fix our engine. Luckily, we hadn't exhausted the supply of pubs for another two drinking sessions. We did pop back into the Great Western on the evening of Monday 31st August 1998 for another pint.

 

Our next visit to Warwick was on the evening of Saturday 27th May 2000 and we popped in to the Great Western for a quick pint before moving on to the rest of Warwick.

There was very little in the way of changes to the pub, still a pleasant stop off for a pint of lager before exploring Warwick.

It was a few more years before we stepped back into the Great Western even though we'd stopped at Warwick in the intervening years.

This was on the evening of Thursday 30th May 2007 and the pub had been redecorated externally and somewhat refurbished internally. Although some work had been done, the pub did exude a feeling of gradual decline and decay.

Unbeknown to us, this was the last time we set foot in the Great Western. We visited Warwick several more times, but always walked on by and then, on the evening of Wednesday 5th June 2019, this is the scene that presented itself to us.

There had been a fire and it didn't look good for the Great Western. Subsequent research has revealed that the pub closed in 2015 and the fire was in 2017. Interestingly, the pub had obviously been redecorated and refurbished between 2007 and closure in 2015 with the right hand side door having been turned into a window.

Our most recent visit to Warwick was on the evening of Friday 17th July 2020 and this was the new scene.

Further research has shown that there have been several resubmissions for Planning Permission, but it would seem that the final phase of redevelopment has begun and by this time next year all trace of the Great Western will have been erased. A sad end to what was a quite distinctive building!

 

Also featured on the Closed Pubs website administered by Pub Curmudgeon. 

Canal Cruising in a COVID World (Part 1)

Recently we undertook our first canal pub crawl cruise in the 'new normal', post pandemic era.

The good news is that we never failed to get a drink in the 20 or so pubs we visited, but planning in advance was required especially for weekend stops!

What was also remarkable was that every pub followed the guidelines differently - some very strict...and some quite relaxed (in a couple, apart from the signs and the hand sanitiser, it was almost back to normal - people standing at the bar, shaking hands and hugging also!)

We started at The Blue Lias on the Grand Union Canal at Stockton (our regular haunt, the Two Boats, not opening until 4th August!)

Here there was no need to book, but a long one-way system was in operation and food (from a limited menu) was served in polystyrene takeaway trays. We were the only people who sat inside. The lager was cold and the food was just what we wanted!

Next stop was Warwick for the evening where both The Railway and The Roebuck were both accommodating with no need to queue. Normal service in the Railway and table service in the Roebuck. In between, we managed to get a very good Italian meal from our go-to restaurant in Warwick, Piccolino's!

Next day was a Saturday (with predicted good weather) so I'd prebooked The Hatton Arms for lunch as it is the only pub nearby after the slog of Hatton Locks!

This is a large gastro pub with a large outside area to exploit as well as the pub terraces which are now covered and protected from the elements by perspex screens. There was only one way into (and out of) the pub, via the front entrance.

We were a bit early, but our table was available so we sat down and enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours of, essentially, restaurant service. All very efficient as they had plenty of staff on.

For the evening we made our first return for a few years to The Navigation at Lapworth, which I'd pre-booked.

Again, there was a one way system in place and the number of tables in the bar reduced, but again, most people were outside.Bar service for drinks and table service for food, so not too different from normal.

Next day and Sunday lunch was pre-booked at the Fleur-de-Lys in Lowsonford, just a short trip down the Stratford Canal.

Again, strict enforcement of the guidelines was in operation requiring an extra long walk for pedestrians to get into the pub from the car park entrance! They were running a limited menu and drinks range, but the lager was cold so we were happy!

In the evening we got as far as Wilmcote, normally a two-pub village. Unfortunately, the Mason's Arms was closed and up for sale. This was not really a surprise as we'd been expecting it for at least 10 years. As for the Mary Arden Hotel, we weren't sure if it was open and, with it being a Sunday evening, whether we were too late for food. So, it was taxi time and a short trip into Stratford-upon-Avon for the evening.

Our first choice, The Garrick, was closed so we headed straight for the Wetherspoons. This was the first time that we'd had to queue up outside a pub, but we were soon inside The Golden Bee after taking care of the administrative chores.

After all the hype, we didn't have to order via the app and it was all fairly normal, going up to the bar to order food and drinks. After eating and a couple of pints we decided to go for a bit of a wander and have another pint in a different pub.

What a mistake!

We left at about 9:45pm and got to the White Swan/Dirty Duck just before 10pm to be told that they were closing. We knew that Encore was open till 10:30pm so headed there. At just after 10pm we were turned away because there wasn't room...there was! The Red Lion had closed at 10pm, so we headed back to Wetherspoons as they closed at 11pm...but...unbeknownst to us...they don't allow anyone in after 10pm. So we were turned away!

The moral of the story? Don't leave a pub close to closing time in the current climate expecting to get a last drink elsewhere, because you probably won't get it!

The thing that really got to me though was the smugness with which we were turned away (not the Red Lion) which will make me very reluctant to step through their doors once/if this crisis is over! Two early 60's blokes looking for a last drink wasn't going to cause anyone any heartache and yet they turned us away with repressed glee without any form of apology (or even apologetic tone!). Still...lesson learned!

Until next time!

Canal Pub Crawling - Part 1

The idea for this blogpost comes courtesy of Life After Football and Pub Curmudgeon - Life After Football has been attempting to cycle to Alrewas from near to Burton-on-Trent (with mixed success!) and has been visiting pubs that we've passed on our canal journeys, but never visited (for various reasons; usually timing).

Pub Curmudgeon suggested that a purely canal based pub crawl must be feasible, so I decided that for our most recent canal trip, I'd take a picture of every canalside pub that we passed...whether we went in or not. I didn't realise it was going to be this long when I started!

Day 1

GRAND UNION CANAL - Wigrams Turn to Warwick (Kate Boats)

We set off at about 10am on Wednesday 5th June 2019. By 11:25am we'd reached The Boat Inn, Stockton CV23 8HQ, but it was too early to stop.

We have stopped here before, but it was many years ago.

Next was The Blue Lias, Stockton CV47 8LD. It was now 12:25, but having just negotiated the main part of the Stockton flight of locks, it still wasn't time to stop!

As with The Boat, we've stopped here before, but quite a while ago.

We finally decided to stop at a regualr haunt of ours along this section, the Two Boats, Long Itchington CV47 9QZ at 13:00.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with either of the two previous pubs, the Two Boats just wins out as our favoured stopping point.

The village of Long Itchington boasts a good number of pubs including the Cuttle Inn, Long Itchington CV47 9QZ which sits directly opposite the Two Boats on the Grand Union Canal.

It is a place we've occasionally visited, but the Two Boats always wins out.

We left the Two Boats at about 15:00 and planned to get to Warwick for the evening. This meant passing more canalside boozers, the first a classic estate pub that we've never been in; The Fusilier, Leamington Spa CV31 1NJ.

By now it was 18:00, but still too early to stop. On the far side of Leamington are two pubs, on opposite sides of the canal which have been built in the last 20 years. First is The Waterside Inn, Leamington Spa CV31 3JZ which was originally called The Tiller Pin. We've never stopped here.

It was now 18:23 and as we passed under the A452 bridge, it was still 18:23 when I took this picture of The Moorings at Myton, Leamington Spa CV31 3NY.

This is a pub we have visited, once, but not on this occasion. We pressed on to warwick where we moored up at 19:10, spending the evening in various pubs in the town.

Day 2

GRAND UNION CANAL - Warwick (Kate Boats) to Kingswood Junction

STRATFORD CANAL - Kingswood Junction to Lapworth (Lock 14)

We set off again at about 09:30 and were passing by a classic canalside boozer that we, sadly, haven't visited for many years, The Cape of Good Hope, Warwick CV34 5DP 

This view, from the second Cape Lock, was taken at 09:50, so way to early to stop. 

Our next challenge was the Hatton Flight of locks which we completed and moored above the flight by 13:55. This gave us plenty of time to sample the delights of what is now a gastropub and not quite as canalside as it advertises!

It is quite a walk up the hill to the Hatton Arms, Hatton CV35 7JJ (formerly The Waterman), but we persevered for some good food and drink. This is a place we've visited on many occasions because, irrespective of whether you are going up or down the flight, the next pub is three hours away (at least).

After our obligatory (and customary) two-hour pit-stop we were back on the water heading for Lapworth, but there was one more boozer gastropub that we would pass by (although we have visited in the past).

It was 17:15 as we sailed by Tom o' the Wood, Rowington CV35 7DH. It isn't exactly on the canal bank, but a lot closer than the Hatton Arms!

Once we'd moored (at about 18:30) we visited The Boot Inn, Lapworth B96 6JU which isn't quite canalside either, but near enough.

We had one pint in the (very successful) gastropub that is The Boot and moved on to try our luck at a proper canalside pub (although not one that we'd pass by on this trip).

The Navigation, Lapworth B94 6NA is a pub we've visited on many occasions. It still is a proper pub, albeit with a large restaurant area, but it was nowhere near as busy as The Boot had been.

 So, after just two days, we've passed twelve canalside pubs but only went into four of them.

Before I started this entry, I expected that there would be half this number of pubs, but I will continue the journey soon.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

#176 Rose & Crown, Warwick : 1998 to 2014

There are lots of pubs in Warwick and, on a short stop, we don't manage to get to all of them. However, in the summer of 1998 our boat Emma Jane broke down (on August Bank Holiday) so we had the opportunity to explore the town more fully. One of the beneficiaries of our misfortune was the Rose & Crown which is just off the Market Square.

 This picture is from the evening of Sunday 30th August 1998. As I recall it was a busy pub that was a bit more upmarket than just a town boozer, but essentially it was a proper pub!

In the intervening years we visited Warwick on many occasions, but never went back to the Rose & Crown, and we still haven't been back inside!

On the evening of Saturday 27th September 2014 we again found ourselves in the centre of Warwick and, for the first time in ages, we ventured into the Market Square with the intention of going back to the Rose & Crown, but this is what we found.

The pub had obviously undergone something of a transformation since our previous visit in 1998. Unfortunately for us, the transformation was still going on and it was closed for further refurbishment. Nevertheless, we still managed to have a good time sitting outside the Tilted Wig (#166) in the unseasonably warm evening weather.

Having done some subsequent research, the Rose & Crown is part of the Peach Pubs Group and is now more of a gastropub than the proper pub it was before. If that means that it will survive for many years to come, then I'm all for it!

#174 Hatton Arms (aka The Waterman), Hatton, Warks : 1998 to 2014

As any regular narrowboater will know the lock flight at Hatton on the Grand Union Canal is a daunting, but magnificent challenge. At the top of the hill overlooking the flight sits the Hatton Arms (for many years called The Waterman) which is a welcome sight after several hours hard work coming up the locks or a last chance for refreshment before the arduous journey down the hill!

As far as I can determine this was my first ever visit to The Waterman although we'd passed through Hatton Locks several times in the previous 18 years of canal travelling. This was at lunchtime on Friday 26th June 1998. As usual I don't really recall the visit, but I do remember that it has always been a bit of a more upmarket pub that has always served food.

We paid another visit that year at lunchtime on Friday 11th September 1998, but I don't have a photo for that visit!

Our next visit was at lunchtime on Friday 31st May 2002. The only photo I have is a view from the canal looking up the hill to the pub which you will see below.

We were next at The Waterman at lunchtime on Saturday 16th August 2003.

You may have noted that, so far we'd always stopped here on a Friday. This is because the top of Hatton Locks is about half a day's boating away from our moorings at that time, in Lapworth, making The Waterman, potentially, our last stop on the way home and the first stop on the way out (if we started early enough!) On this occasion it was at the start of a journey that took us to Leicester.

Our next visit was on Friday 1st June 2007, again a lunchtime 'pit stop'!

The Waterman had undergone somewhat of a makeover since our last visit and was one of the first pubs I recall having the pastel exterior that is so common these days. Although the hanging sign still shows a kingfisher! (I also find the 'Canalside Pub' description somewhat amusing as you will see from the later pictures!)

Inside it had gone more upmarket, so much so that you couldn't buy a simple ham sandwich, even though they possessed all of the ingredients and you could order a ham ploughman's!

We were back again, twice, two years later.

This was at lunchtime on Saturday 23rd May 2009 at the start of a short trip around the Midlands. Not much had changed, but the kingfisher was no more!

We returned on the evening of Friday 11th September 2009 after an epic 6 hour afternoon journey from the Two Boats at Long Itchington. That's just the 33 locks, including the 21 at Hatton which we did in 1 hour 55 minutes. This must be a record for a 3-man crew! (I was steering, so I did all the difficult bits!!)

Our next visit marked the end of an era, it was on the evening of Friday 4th November 2011 at the start of what turned out to be our last journey on Emma Jane.

It was also the end of another era as this was our last visit before the name changed.

In the era after Emma Jane, we hired boats around the country which enabled us to visit parts of the canal system we'd never been able to visit previously. However, we were back again at lunchtime on Sunday 28th September 2014.

And what a transformation! Now called the Hatton Arms it had become the full gastropub and was largely unrecognisable compared to the days as The Waterman. However, despite my misgivings, it turned out to be much better than the previously average service offered by The Waterman in its later years!

Earlier, I promised you the view of this 'Canalside' pub, from the canal - here it is over the years.

May 2002

June 2007

May 2009

September 2014

It isn't a particularly long walk up the hill to the pub, but is it close enough to call it 'canalside' - I'm not so sure.

#166 Tilted Wig, Warwick : 1998 to 2014

As previously reported, back in 1998 our boat broke down and we spent two days exploring the hostelries of Warwick at our leisure. It is quite surprising how memory plays tricks on the mind, I hadn't remembered our 1998 visit to the Tilted Wig until I opened my picture album! (which is the reason I started taking these pictures so many years ago!)

This was on the evening of Sunday 30th August 1998 and I have no recollection of the visit! The pub is situated in the Market Square.

Although we've been back to Warwick many times since 1998, we didn't venture back to the Tilted Wig until the evening of Saturday 27th September 2014.

In the intervening 16 years, the Market Square in Warwick has become a completely pedestrian area meaning that the pub has extended the outdoor area. Obviously there have been substantial changes over the years.

What is also remarkable is that this was taken at almost 11pm and we were sitting outside the pub in short sleeves! 

#162 The Wild Boar, Warwick : 1998 to 2014

Back in 1998 our trusty narrowboat Emma Jane let us down and we were stranded for two days in Warwick. It was the Bank Holiday weekend and so we couldn't get an engineer to look at the engine until Monday morning. Still, there are many, far worse places that we could have been stranded!

Over those two days we managed to visit a good number of the hostelries in the centre of Warwick. One such was the Park Tavern which we popped into on the evening of Sunday 30th August 1998.

As I recall, we only stayed for one pint and it was a typical boozer, but I don't really remember it much more than that.

Although we've visited Warwick many times since, we didn't venture back until the evening of Saturday 27th September 2014. This is what we found.

A complete transformation! New name - The Wild Boar - and a thorough refurbishment inside turning it into an upmarket real ale venue that also serves food. In a town like Warwick I imagine that it will be a great success, but as a lager drinker it's not necessarily going to be one of my favourites!

From The Wild Boar website I've discovered that it was refurbished and reopened in 2011 and that it is the brewery tap for Slaughterhouse Ales. If you are a real ale fan and you're in Warwick then this would be a great place to visit.

#100 Two Boats, Long Itchington, Warwickshire : 1981 to 2012

Well, I've made it to my 100th entry on this blog and I thought I'd treat you to a special post. Although I only started to take a picture of every pub we visited in 1986, I found this photo from only my second ever trip on Emma Jane in 1981.

This first visit to the Two Boats was on the evening of Wednesday 19th August 1981. I don't remember much about the pub in those days, but it was very convenient being right on the canal bank. That visit was close to the end of an epic canal trip that had started out from Preston Brook 12 days previously. For the first week of the journey we'd been up against the clock because of a breach in the canal near Audlem on the Shropshire Union and to get to Birmingham on time we were sometimes travelling for 12 hours per day non-stop. Once we'd reached Birmingham, the next week was much more leisurely with the replacement crew of Andrea and Jackie!

I did visit the Two Boats again in 1984 (29th August), but didn't take a picture!

Circumstances conspired to make it so that our next stop at the Two Boats was on the evening of Sunday 24th August 1997 at the beginning of a journey that would take us to Nottingham and Leicester.

Over the intervening 16 years the pub was no longer a Whitbread house and, miraculously, the chimneys had disappeared!

We returned again the next year, on our way to Oxford.

This was at lunchtime on Tuesday 1st September 1998. We would have been here earlier in the week, but we'd broken down in Warwick and had to wait two days for an engineer to fix the engine! Remarkably in just 12 months the outside had been completely transformed. However, inside it was still pretty much the same. It was a small pub with two rooms that made very good pub food and whenever the sun's out it can get very busy...but they've always managed to cope with the demand whenever we've been there.

It was another three years before our next visit, this time on our way to Aylesbury.

Another lunchtime stop, this time on Sunday 26th August 2001 and you can see how busy it was on that Bank Holiday Sunday. Again there are more changes to the outside signage!

The next visit was at lunchtime on Sunday 17th August 2003 on the way to Leicester.

Remarkably, the Two Boats was unchanged!

Over the following years we visited every other year and there were few changes, but the photos are shown below.

Lunchtime on Saturday 28th May 2005...first time we'd ever managed to moor right outside!

Lunchtime on Thursday 31st May 2007 - taken from Emma Jane, just as we moored up outside again (we don't like to have to walk too far for our lunch!!)

In 2009 we stopped at the Two Boats twice. Firstly on Sunday 24th May 2009 and then again at lunchtime on Friday 11th September 2009.

The only visible change was the removal of the trellis that had been there since at least 1998!

Again, it was another two years before we returned and again, the Two Boats had undergone another transformation!

Not only had it been whitewashed (again), but it was now a Charles Wells pub. This was at lunchtime on Sunday 29th May 2011 and I was expecting to see radical changes inside as well, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was unchanged and, more importantly, the landlord was still the same. The food was also just as good as ever!

We did visit again that year on Emma Jane's last voyage, this time on the evening of Saturday 5th November 2011.

This was our last visit (so far) on our canal trips, but I did drive by in 2012 to get a more up-to-date shot.

This was on Sunday 26th August 2012 and I'm happy to report that the Two Boats is still as busy as ever, especially when the sun is out!