#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"

#206 The Oak & Ivy, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire : 1997 to 2015

The Oak & Ivy is a back street pub in Burton that breaks my main rule - I've never been inside it!

We occasionally visit Burton and, as the canal is a way from the centre we pass quite a few pubs before we get into town. Before going digital I was quite frugal and, generally, only took pictures of the pubs we went in.

I'm not 100% sure what happened at lunchtime on Monday 1st September 1997, though. I suspect that we were going to go in, but found that they didn't do food and so moved on...after I taken the photo! It was the day after Princess Diana died, so everything that week was strange!

Although we'd been back to Burton in the meantime, my next picture of The Oak & Ivy was taken on the evening of Friday 3rd April 2015 (Good Friday)

On this occasion, we'd moored at Shobnall Basin giving us a different route into the town and quite a few pubs to pass by. Sadly, it's a sign of advancing years that we can't stop off for several beers and still manage to eat afterwards - it is something of an either/or situation with food always winning!

Unsurprisingly, The Oak & Ivy had been completely refurbished externally over the passing 18 years. Back in 1997 it looked to be a typical Marston's pub of that era. Namely, a basic boozer with no frills; I seem to recall that, back then, all Marston's pubs were bog-standard boozers! 

I'm not sure when, but Marston's seemed to have something of a corporate epiphany and, in more recent years, they have tended to go a bit more up market in their refurbishments. 

#045 Lamplighter, Stratford-upon-Avon : 1999 to 2011

The Lamplighter is a pub we've visited on many occasions on our annual Easter canal trip to Stratford. If we moor just on the edge of town it is usually our first port of call on our 'crawl' around the town.

Over the years I've struggled to get a decent photo as there are trees at the front and the corner shot (above) is probably the most attractive, but difficult to get it all in. This was the fisrt time we'd ventured in to the Lamplighter on the evening of Friday 2nd April 1999. The pub has changed little over the years. It is a fairly basic pub that serves beer and food; a straightforward place that will never win any awards, but "does exactly what it says on the tin"!

Two years later and we were back. Of all the visits we've made this was the most memorable.

It was Saturday 14th April 2001 and this was our last port of call on our way back to the boat. Our intention was to have one last pint, but we'd made a slight miscalculation. All our previous visits to Stratford had been on Fridays, Good Fridays to be precise, and in those days the pubs closed at 10:30 pm on Good Friday. Of course we'd forgotten it was Saturday and so the pub stayed open till midnight and...well...it's impolite to leave a pub before it is closed!

Our next visits were largely unmemorable, but here are the photos anyway!

Saturday 15th April 2006

Saturday 22nd March 2008

Sunday 12th April 2009

Saturday 30th April 2011

Its quite surprising to see that over the 12 years we've been visiting the Lamplighter it has hardly changed apart from the minor alterations made to the outside. Inside it is still the same, basic pub that it has always been.