I start this entry with two expressions of disbelief; firstly I can't believe that I wrote nothing in the whole of April and secondly, I can't believe that we didn't ever stop at The Barton Turns before 2015! But the photographic evidence never lies.
The stretch of canal from Fradley Junction heading North is a route that, in past years, we've tended not to use too often which goes some way to explaining why we'd never stopped there before.
The closest we came was in 1983 when we walked across fields to get to the village of Barton-under-Needwood, but that was before I'd started photographing our pub visits and, also, The Barton Turns isn't in the village; it is by the side of the canal.
These pictures are from the afternoon of Monday 31st August 2009 and we didn't even stop. This was the first year that I'd had a digital camera so I was taking lots of photos and these were taken from the boat as we passed through the lock. We'd had lunch in Alrewas and would spend the evening in Burton.
That passing shot was from Emma Jane, but with the advent of Peggy Ellen and her mooring at Kings Bromley, this stretch of the Trent & Mersey Canal has become more frequented than previously.
This was the view on the evening of Sunday 5th April 2015 when we finally had our first pint in The Barton Turns. And what a lovely little pub it is
'Twas a few brief months before our return on the evening of Friday 21st August 2015.
In that short space of time, the ivy had been trimmed back with a concomitant loss of a letter 'T'. Also, a new sign had appeared.
Our most recent visit was at lunchtime on Friday 14th April 2017.
We spent the whole session there and had a very pleasant meal. Not surprisingly, the ivy had grown back and we'll never know whether the 'T' had been replaced!
A pub with real Pedigree ! All the pubs in Barton are good though.
ReplyDeleteNot managed them all, yet, but haven't found a bad 'un so far!
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