#239 The Station Hotel, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire : 1997 to 2017 RIP

This is a sad tale that begins in the days following the death of Princess Diana. We were in Nottingham on that fateful night and our journey back to Lapworth took us through Burton-upon-Trent where one of our crew was departing us on the train. So, naturally, we popped into The Station Hotel for a drink.

This was at lunchtime on Monday 1st September 1997 and I have no recollection of the inside whatsoever!

The next time we were passing was a good number of years later and this is the sight that presented itself to us.

This was on the evening of Good Friday 3rd April 2015 and The Station Hotel was no more.

And, just to confirm that it was permanently gone here is the most up-to-date picture I have.

This was on the evening of Sunday 16th April 2017 on our way to finally discovering the Cooper's Tavern after years of not really knowing where it was! The Station Hotel is definitely no more having been converted into flats. (According to the Closed Pubs website, "This pub was originally owned by Salts Brewery until they were taken over by Bass, it then swapped to Ind Coope in 1978. It was converted into flats in 2009"

#238 Salopian Star, Market Drayton, Shropshire : 1987 to 2016

Market Drayton is a place I always look forward to visiting on our canal holidays because it has a wide selection of pubs to choose from. Over the years, we've been in most of them, but we tend to go back to them infrequently and, as we've got older, we tend not to visit as many in one session as we used to!

Back in 1987, on our only visit to the pub, it was called the Star Hotel.

 This was on the evening of Thursday 9th July 1987 and I recall very little about the pub itself.

Although we've visited the town on numerous occasions, we haven't had another drink in the Star since that first occasion. There are two main reasons for this...firstly, over the years the pub went somewhat downhill and was more a place for the younger crowd and people who liked music. This wouldn't normally stop us from popping in, but when there is so much more choice we tended to walk on by. The second part is that the Star is one of the first we come to on our walk from the canal and knowing that there are better options, we just carry on past.

However, we may have to reconsider our opinion - it is now known as The Salopian Star and is a real ale pub. It also gets the thumbs up from Retired Martin, so it should be worth a visit next time we're up that way.

This was at lunchtime on Monday 8th August 2016 as we walked into the centre Market Drayton and our ultimate destination, the Red Lion (#217). Remarkably little has changed in the intervening 29 years. Perhaps not so surprising as, according to Pub Survey, it is the oldest pub in Market Drayton.