#187 The Round Oak, Wombourne, Staffordshire : 1991 to 2015

The Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal is one of the prettiest on the system and is always worth the journey. Although it is a canal we visit on a regular basis, our stops at Wombourne are somewhat infrequent.

My first canal visit to Wombourne was at lunchtime on Tuesday 30th July 1991. I'd visited and passed through Wombourne many times by road, but this was my first experience of the Round Oak.

Our next visit was almost ten years later on the evening of Monday 28th May 2001.

I'll leave discussions about the exterior changes until after the final photo.

It was even longer before we ventured back to Wombourne for a stop (although we'd passed by on many other occasions!). Our most recent visit being on the evening of Thursday 11th June 2015.

It is rare for me to get the same angle each time we visit a pub, but the Round Oak lends itself to this as being the best view of the pub.

So, in nearly 25 years, it has gone from being the Round Oak an M&B pub to being The Round Oak, a Marstons establishment with a period in between as a Banks's pub.

The conversion from M&B to Banks's appears to have been quite drastic with the loss of a chimney and a part of the building on the left hand side. (I suspect that this coincided with the canalside extension at the back of the pub which is only partly visible in the later photos.) The windows have all been replaced and a porch added to the front door. The park bench has gone, the hanging sign has been relocated and the burglar alarm moved and yet the TV aerials remain at the same jaunty angle!

The change from Banks's to Marstons is less drastic (they are, in essence, the same company) with a complete repaint, the disappearance of the hanging sign and a straightening of the main TV aerial!

Outside the pub, railings appeared between 1991 and 2001 and, on each occasion, the street light has been changed.

One final observation, that I didn't notice on any of our visits, is what looks like a post box just to the left of the street light! I'll have to check that next time I'm there (in about 10 - 15 years time!!)