Boozin' and Cruisin' through the East Midlands (Part 3)

Day 5 - Wednesday 

We were now heading out of Leicester, down the River Soar towards Loughborough and, ultimately, Nottingham! We were heading for Life After Football country! 

First pitstop for lunch was the Hope & Anchor at Syston which is a truly canalside pub!

This pub has a greater significance, for me, than just by being a canalside boozer. As a child of about 10 years old (not sure when we went exactly) we had a family day out to visit the Hope & Anchor to see my Mum & Dad's friend Reg Snelling who was the landlord. Reg was a real character with the appearance and demeanour of Eric Morecambe and he allowed me to pour a pint (keg) and also to make my own shandy! (The pub was not open, so no laws were broken!) I also remember walking down to the bank of the canal, not realising that I'd be making several return journeys over the years.

Over the past 50 years it has lost almost all of it's character with the extensions and major alterations, but there's a little room behind where the bar is now that still has the low ceiling and, just for a moment, I could imagine that I was back in the old pub.

After a less than average lunch, we headed off for Loughborough as our night time stopover. This meant passing through Barrow-upon-Soar (which has some very good pubs) and Mountsorrel (below).

We managed to secure a mooring outside The Boat in Loughborough and we popped in for a pint!

We then set off for, what I hoped would be, pastures new. It turned out that we'd visited The Windmill on a previous occasion!

A bit of Bass 'porn' for those who like that sort of thing!

I don't remember exactly when we last visited there, but it is still a proper little boozer! So, after a lovely Italian meal at Caravelli (just across the road from the Windmill) we ended up in The Three Nuns for our final drinks of the evening.

Apparently the pub got it's name because of a spelling mistake/typo and they decided to keep it! It's another lovely little pub that had the best screens I've come across in any pub or elsewhere. They had been installed by the landlord and his son. The plastic was perfectly transparent, the wooden frames were painted to exactly match the bar and they were sized perfectly to allow for ease of access to your pint whilst also giving perfect sound for communication across the bar.
 

Day 6 - Thursday

 

We made an early getaway as it was a long way to the River Trent. We were still in Loughborough when we passed what had been (to me) one of the best pub experiences in the land. Sadly, a pub no more!

It was called The Albion and every time we visited it felt as cosy as if you were in someone's house, but it was decorated in a nautical/seaside style and I always felt as though I was by the coast in a 'smuggler's cove!
 

It was another pleasant sunny day as we travelled down the Soar Navigation towards Trent Lock where the River Soar meets the River Trent and the Erewash Canal. We mmored just on the Cranfleet Cut of the Trent and headed for the Trent Lock pub.

This is a pub that Life After Football (here) and I (#188) have both reported on in the past. As it was such a nice day, the pub garden was pretty full and there weren't enough bar staff to cope adequately. We sat inside and had a pleasant lunch and three pints...not being too affected by the shortages the pub was experiencing at the time. All too soon it was time to return to Peggy Ellen for the short afternoon trip into Nottingham.

 

Just after exiting Beeston Lock I kept a lookout for the Boat & Horses pub recommended by Life After Football. It was easy to see from the cut, but even if we'd wanted to stop (it was only 4:30pm) there were no available moorings. Less than 90 minutes later and we were moored at our regular mooring spot in Nottingham.

The first stop on our evening's entertainment was the VAT & Fiddle which is the taphouse for the Castle Rock brewery...and only a short walk from our mooring!

It was quite early in the evening and consequently it lacked clientele and atmosphere! There was a full range of Castle Rock ales available, all very good, but I feel that they could do a bit more to the pub to make it feel special...it is just a normal, unremarkable boozer at present. Then it was time to find somewhere to eat. 

 

In this day and age, Google Maps is your friend...except when left in the hands of a friend who isn't fazed by a 1 mile walk (mostly up hill!) to a Chinese restaurant which turned out to be very good (but I reckon there must have been just as good places closer by!)

 

Then it was the route march back (down hill now!) to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.

We could hear the final throes of a pop concert in the castle grounds as we approached the pub, but the pub itself was very quiet. For the first time ever, I think, we easily got seats in the first bar as you enter and we had an entertaining last couple of pints in the company of one of the pub's regulars!

Six days into our journey and it was time to commence the journey back to Napton and Wigrams Turn Marina.

(To be continued)

Britain's Best Real Heritage Pubs

As regular readers know, I normally write about the exterior of pubs and how they have/haven't changed over the past 20+ years. However, I'm indebted to The Pub Curmudgeon for pointing me towards a new book - Britain's Best Real Heritage Pubs (Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest) by Geoff Brandwood.

I bought my copy from Amazon and it arrived yesterday. It is also available through CAMRA. I've only had it for a day and I've probably done what everyone else does on first reading; I've looked for any pub that's listed that I've ever been in. There are around 10 that I've visited and, most surprisingly, my nearest pub, The British Oak in Stirchley, is also listed.

The British Oak was #007 on this blog and I've also covered it in my other blog as part of my Paean to Stirchley. I'm extremely pleased that a pub I think is great has made it onto this listing!

There are a few others that I've mentioned in this blog. First I'll catalogue the ones that I've visited, but that haven't featured here. I'll start in Manchester with Peveril of the Peak (2010) and the Circus Tavern (2013) which I've only visited once each. However, in my view, the best pub in Manchester that I've been to is The Briton's Protection. I was first introduced to it in 2006 by a colleague when I was in Manchester for an exhibition and revisited again in 2010 and 2013.

Quite simply, this is one of the best pubs in Britain and fully justifies its inclusion in the book. However, there look to be many more gems to seek out for future visits.

Others I've visited, in no particular order, are; the Holly Bush, Bollington (2000) which I have no recollection of, but I took a photo so I must have been there!

I'm sure I've been to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham on more than one occasion, but the last time was in 2009.

In 1997, we were in Nottingham on our narrowboat and failed to find 'The Trip', but we did manage to visit six others in the attempt!

The Anchor Inn at High Offley is a pub I've visited on several occasions through the years. It is on the Shropshire Union Canal and is probably the last example of a traditional canal side pub. We were last there in 2010 and the landlady explained that the grandfather clock in the right hand room dates from when the pub was built!

Those are the only ones outside the West Midlands that I've visited, but now I have this book I can search out many more gems.

Of the Birmingham pubs listed, both The Anchor (#025) and White Swan (#064) have been covered in this blog.

The Old Swan (Ma Pardoe's) in Netherton is a place I've been a couple of times over the years. The last time was back in 2004.

Of the other Birmingham pubs, I haven't been to the Black Horse in Northfield for over 30 years when I was a student and it was still a Davenports pub! I also haven't been to the Bartons Arms in Newtown for many years.

I first visited the Rose Villa Tavern in 2006 when it was in decline. I could tell what a magnificent place it had been, but feared for its future. However, it was acquired by the Bitters'n'Twisted group and has been completely renewed inside whilst keeping the main features. I revisited in 2012 and was pleased to see what a great job they've done.

Just to finish off, here are a couple of near misses listed in the book. First, The Berkeley in Scunthorpe - I was born in this town and over the years I've driven past it on countless occasions, yet I've never set foot inside!

Second, and perhaps even more galling is the Waggon & Horses in Oldbury. In 2010 we stopped in Oldbury for the first time on our canal journeys with the intent to visit new pubs. It was a Sunday lunchtime and there are four pubs in the town centre. We went in three of them and rejected the Waggon & Horses because they didn't do food on a Sunday! I'm sure there will be other chances to sample this fine pub.

Britain's Best Real Heritage Pubs is an excellent book for those of us love pubs and I'll be actively seeking out those I've not visited before whenever I'm in the neighbourhood.