No article on the village of Brewood should start without the obligatory, "How do you pronounce that?" question. The answer is; Brewood is pronounced 'Brood'.
Brewood is a great village for canal trips. It stands on the Shropshire Union canal and there are lots of mooring places and plenty of pubs, but for us it has proved to be an awkward location, particularly when heading back to Lapworth as the next viable pub stop is about five hours away in Wolverhampton.
Our first visit to Brewood and the Bridge Inn was on the evening of Wednesday 8th July 1987.
As I recall it has always been quite a cosy pub that does proper pub grub. Note, in 1987 it was an Ansell's pub.
Our next visit was a lunchtime stop on Wednesday 4th September 1996 on the way back from our first ever canal trip to Llangollen.
Externally the pub had undergone a full refurb, I assume when it was taken over by Burtonwood. Inside was still as cosy as before.
For the record, it took us 4 hours 15 minutes to get to Wolverhampton Top Lock!
Our next visit was on the evening of Wednesday 6th September 2000 on our way back from Manchester.
The pub appeared largely unchanged apart from the now hardly noticeable hanging baskets and the main door has gone back to black.
This time the journey to the top of the Wolverhampton flight of locks took 5 hours 10 minutes!
That journey time almost certainly explains why we didn't revisit Brewood until the evening of Wednesday 8th September 2010, again returning from Manchester.
No longer a Burtonwood pub, the Bridge Inn had become a free house with all of the external signage replaced/removed. However, despite the external changes, it maintained it's original character.
Trip to Wolverhampton Top Lock - 5 hrs 10 mins...again!
Our most recent visit was at lunchtime on Sunday 7th August 2016.
Our first non-Wednesday visit because the new boat Peggy Ellen is moored at Kings Bromley and so Brewood again becomes a more attractive stopping off point as there is no need to go through Wolverhampton.
What has now become subtly apparent is that the Bridge Inn is now a Marston's pub as evidenced by the small sign on the chimney breast. We had a very pleasant Sunday lunch in a pub that, although it has changed hands over the 29 years, has maintained it's character.
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