#148 The Red Lion, Netherton, West Midlands : 2006 to 2013

Our first visit to The Red Lion was at lunchtime on Sunday 4th June 2006 and, as reported earlier (#125) we only ended up here because the Dry Dock didn't do food on a Sunday!

We were in need of a light lunch and The Red Lion provided exactly what we needed. It was a friendly, basic local.

Our next visit was two years later, again at lunchtime, on Sunday 25th May 2008.

As it was a wet afternoon, and we knew that the Dry Dock didn't do food on a Sunday, we only ventured as far as The Red Lion for a sandwich and a couple of pints. No change from our previous visit on the inside, but outside they'd moved the Sky Sports banner and added a blackboard by the entrance door!

On our third visit was at lunchtime on Tuesday 14th May 2013 and it was closed! The good news is that it isn't a permanent closure, but I suspect that they've taken the decision not to open on midweek lunchtimes because of the general decline in the lunchtime pub trade.

Still largely unchanged on the outside apart from the missing Sky Sports banner!

#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.