#277 The Three Horseshoes, Winkwell, Hemel Hempstead : 1992 to 2019

Having no new pubs to report on in 2020 and having exhausted the interesting local watering holes, I thought I'd take a while away from blogging. But now, the pub world is waking up from its long slumber and my fellow bloggers have hit the ground running, so I decided to get back on the horse myself.

What better place to restart than this little gem tucked away on the Grand Union Canal near to Hemel Hempstead?

This was on the evening of Thursday 1st October 1992 towards the end of our first journey up and down the Grand Union in the days when our boat Emma Jane was moored down south. It had been an eventful trip encompassing floods and a fire in the engine room. The pub was very close to the boatyard from where we had begun our journey, but our final destination was another day away at Cowley Peachey.

Back in the early 1990's, The Three Horseshoes was a superb country pub that was both a local and did very good food.

Our next visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 18th September 1993 when we visited before setting off from our new moorings at Winkwell.

Not surprisingly, the pub was completely unchanged.

Another year later and again, prior to picking up the boat we 'retired' to The Three Horseshoes for lunch - it was Saturday 27th August 1994.

Nothing new to report, which is the reason I kept taking pictures from different angles!

The last year that Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell was in 1995 and we made two visits to the pub. First was on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd June 1995 before we set off on a journey that took us to Lime House Basin in London.

 Our final visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 26th August 1995 as we set off from Winkwell for the final time to take Emma Jane to her new moorings at Lapworth.

Still unchanged and one of the best canalside pubs along that stretch of the Grand Union Canal.

Over the next years, our canal adventures didn't take us as far south as Winkwell until 2019, when we undertook a massive journey down the River Thames and back up the Grand Union Canal, starting and finishing at Napton.

This is how The Three Horseshoes looked at lunchtime on Monday 5th August 2019.

Just a few changes in 24 years, but nothing unexpected nor too untoward! As you would expect it is now more of a gastropub. Whilst the cosy, proper pub feel is long gone it still feels like an old establishment and has a selection of real ales...so all is not lost.

I'd like to tell you about the pub in more detail, but my stay was fairly short lived. I had to pop into Hemel Hempstead to acquire a new phone as my old one wasn't working since I fell into the canal a couple of days earlier!

I can report, though, that The Three Horseshoes has survived coronavirus and has reopened, according to their Facebook page. 

Stirchley in The Time of Coronavirus - Part 1

Yesterday I ventured out for the first time in a few days and I thought that I might as well take my camera with me and take some photos as I got my 'exercise'! (As an aside - is the Great British weather mocking us? When we were free to roam anywhere it was continually pissing down and everywhere was flooded...now we're under 'house arrest' it gloriously mocks us with unbroken sunshine and warmth!)

Back in 2013, at the beginning of Photo Digital Art, I wandered around my home suburb of Stirchley with the express aim of - "If I can make Stirchley look good, I can make anywhere look good!" I think I managed that (although I'll let you be the judges of that!) and so here begins my follow up to "Paean to Stirchley" (Part 1 and Part 2).

Stirchley in The Time of Coronavirus - Part 1 (and I don't yet know how many parts there will be!) begins at my favourite place in Stirchley...the cafe!

Shuttered up with no chance of reopening for the foreseeable future - I now have to make my own breakfast! (At least I've managed to obtain plenty of bacon...so far!)

Moving on to a sight which must be very worrying for the owners. The Three Horseshoes pub had been in (terminal?) decline for many years, when it suddenly closed and became a hive of activity. A complete refurbishment and transformation into The Bournbrook Inn was almost finished, the opening was imminent...and then coronavirus happened!

I'm not sure where the 'Established 1836' comes from, so I may need to do a bit more research!

Moving along the Pershore Road and past the British Oak we come to this little selection of shops/businesses.

Caspian used to be my go-to pizza place, but there's now so much more choice in Stirchley. If I hadn't done this picture I wouldn't have noticed that Elite Letting Solutions has been replaced with Yoga Borne! But my main worry is Phull Watch Co. I am a regular visitor - once every five years - when I need a new battery in my watch! It is a proper 'old school' watch/clock shop and the turban wearing Mr Phull is always on hand to efficiently replace the battery in my watch. I don't know how many years he's been there, but I do hope he returns when this is all over!

A little further along the Pershore Road, and on the other side, we reach Loaf; Stirchley's very own bakery and cookery school.

Stirchley Stores is no more, but Loaf has expanded to fill the void. Akash and Midland Computer are still going...hopefully! The masked couple (sign of the times!) buying bread from the 'outdoor' are people I occasionally see in the café and we had a brief chat (staying 2 metres apart!). Then Tony moved his van out of the way for my final picture of this little tour.

Although the shop is closed for the duration, it is protected by King Kong who appeared five years ago and is now one of the landmarks of the city!

I'll follow up with more images and observations from Stirchley in The Time of Coronavirus in the coming days/weeks.

#276 The Fishery Inn, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire : 1992 to 2019

On our canal trips we've only stopped at The Fishery Inn once, on the evening of Thursday 1st October 1992, on the return journey to the then mooring of Emma Jane at Cowley Peachey.

I have very little recollection of what it was like. It must have been alright as we ate there and didn't leave in search of alternative hostelries.

Although Emma Jane was moored in the vicinty from 1991 to 1995, we never returned to The Fishery Inn, preferring to visit the Three Horseshoes at Winkwell instead, which is only fifteen minutes away by boat.

Our most recent trip that brought us up the Grand Union from Brentford was very similar in that we didn't stop at The Fishery Inn and lunched at the Three Horseshoes. However, as I was winding the locks I still took this picture.

This was at midday on Monday 5th August 2019. Quite a transformation! It is another example of a Mitchells & Butler's Premium Country Pub. In fact, if you use the historical views on Google Street View it was an Ember Inn in 2008 and 2009, but from 2012 it adopted it's current guise!

#230 Three Horseshoes, Fazeley, Staffordshire : 2006 to 2017

We first visited Fazeley from the canal in 1987, but it wasn't until 2006 that we discovered the Three Horseshoes - a whole 19 years where we didn't look beyond the A5 that passes through the town!

We discovered this gem, lurking behind the Tesco Express on the evening of Wednesday 7th June 2006.

It was, then, a proper boozer and we were amazed that it is only about 50 yards away from where we'd been drinking on previous visits! As I recall, we had one pint and got a taxi into Tamworth as it didn't do food.

We didn't leave it too long before we returned in an attempt to redress the years of neglect. We popped in at lunchtime on Wednesday 6th September 2006.

Amazingly, it hadn't changed!

We returned again at lunchtime on Sunday 30th August 2009.

Still no change...apart from the small barrier to stop the skip from rolling into the road!

It didn't take us long to get back for another visit. It was the evening of Wednesday 2nd June 2010.

I was shocked to see that the sign by the skip had disappeared. The eagle-eyed amongst you will also have noticed the mobility scooter by the front door.

We were back again on the lunchtime of Sunday 29th August 2010.

Remarkably, still unchanged and the mobility scooter is still just visible.

It was a while before we returned, this time on the lunchtime of Monday 15th June 2015.

It is amazing how much can change in five short years - a brand new Bass sign, a new skip and the mobility scooter now has a cover!

We were back on the lunchtime of Monday 13th June 2016.

For some reason, I took the picture from the other side, but it is still enough to know that it hadn't changed.

And now onto our most recent visit, just a few short days ago at lunchtime on Wednesday 16th August 2017.

Still unchanged and inside it is still the same welcoming bar that it has always been and, despite all of the adverse conditions for the pub trade since we first visited in 2006, the place was doing a very brisk trade for a Wednesday lunchtime...in a pub that doesn't serve food!

It still has a proper local pub atmosphere and when I took this picture for Retired Martin, there was a bit of good natured banter, which finished with one of the locals saying, "...and it's the best pint in Fazeley!"

I hope it continues unchanged into the foreseeable future, but who knows what may happen as it would appear that it is up for sale by Fleurets. 

Kennet & Avon Canal - Part V (Devizes to Bath to Bradford-on-Avon)

Following our evening in Devizes, it was an early start to take on the challenge of Caen Hill Locks for a second time. It was my turn to steer and, just to make things a bit more difficult we shared our passage with a cruiser! Doesn't sound so bad until you realise that our narrowboat was made of steel weighed more that 5 tonnes and the cruiser was made of fibreglass/plastic and weighed probably less than a tonne. Any loss of control of the narrowboat could result in serious damage (and possible sinking) to the cruiser. Made the descent just a little bit more interesting for me.

Both boats survived the ordeal and we ended up at Sells Green for lunch at this pub.

Three Magpies, Sells Green

A pleasant country pub and fairly busy for lunch, including a raffle for the local pensioners who seemed to be having a good time.

In the afternoon we continued our journey, again not quite getting as far as we expected. We ended up mooring at Semington in a heavy downpour...once we'd found a decent spot to moor!

The Somerset Arms, Semington

Yet another one pub village, but fortunately for us almost all of the village pubs we came across did good food - this was no exception!

Next morning we realised that we still had two full days to go before we had to give back our boat, meaning that we had time to go back to Bath for a third pub crawl around the city. This decision also meant that we could visit  a recommended pub that we'd passed by (twice) and not gone in. This is where we had our lunch.

Cross Guns, Avoncliff

This is not just a pub; it is a tourist attraction with added brewery and well worth a visit. Road access looks quite difficult, but from the canal it is an easy place to get to!

The trip to Bath was slow (again), but we managed to get there and moor up above the locks so that we could 'attack' the city from a different angle. We passed a few pubs that we earmarked as possibles for the last drink of the night on the way back to the boat! This was the first port of call.

Pulteney Arms, Bath

Judging by the décor and memorabilia, this is a stronghold for Bath rugby followers...and also a proper pub. It was while we were pondering our next move I realised that, if we'd continued along the road we'd been on before going into the pub we would have found The Star Inn. This is the other Bath pub listed in the book  Britain's Best Real Heritage Pubs. So we set off up the hill and this is what we found.

The Star Inn, Bath

On the one hand it was pretty much as expected - a proper old pub with several small rooms and wood panelling all tastefully maintained in the same manner as for the past countless years. Most old school city pubs tend to have a narrow frontage, but then go back an improbably great distance so that you end up with a place that is much larger than it looks from the street. But, The Star Inn has a wide frontage and, from what I saw didn't go back too far, almost as though it had been built sideways. A real gem and well worth the visit.

We then went for a long stroll through the city looking for somewhere to eat, getting quite lost, but finding a nice, reasonably priced Italian restaurant. Then it was time to head back toward the canal and see which pubs we could find. Not as easy a task as you'd imagine even on a Thursday night!

The first one we tried was signposted off a main street and advertised as a welcoming, traditional English pub. It was neither, having been redesigned in a modern style and after five minutes waiting no-one appeared behind the bar to serve us. So we left!

The next one we attempted, looked promising. There were a couple of people inside, but the door was locked. One of the people came to the door to tell us they were closed. It was only then that we noticed their opening hours blackboard. Sundays they close at 6pm; Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri and Sat it is 11pm, but on Thursdays closing time is 10pm. It was 10:05!

Back on the road, we finished up at one of the pubs we'd passed earlier and went in.

Crown Inn, Bath

A fairly large pub, but with hardly any customers. So after getting served and bearing in mind out recent experiences we asked what time they expected to close. Probably 10:30 was the answer, but it depended on how many people were in the pub. Apparently, the owner studies the CCTV footage and, if there aren't enough customers he'll give the manager grief over staying open when he should be closed!

The next day was the final full day of the trip, so we headed back to the hire boat base at Bradford-on-Avon. On our first trip along this bit of the Kennet & Avon Canal I didn't fully appreciate the scenery, but this time I realised what a spectacular piece of cut it is running halfway up the valley sides of the River Avon and crossing over the river twice on magnificent stone aqueducts. We decided to have lunch by the first of these, the Dundas Aqueduct.

Angelfish Café & Restaurant

We were expecting a pub, but as they only served bottled beer we had one drink and decided to to move on to the Cross Guns which is by the other aqueduct at Avoncliff.

Cross Guns, Avoncliff

Another pleasant lunch in the Cross Guns where the music of choice was Roger Whittaker's Greatest Hits!

The last leg of the holiday took us back to Bradford-on-Avon where we moored up at the hire base in preparation for departure on Saturday.

Bradford-on-Avon

 But there was still time to visit some of the pubs we missed on the last visit.

Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon

This was our first stop. A proper local pub that was very lively with people seemingly having drinks after work - it was like pubs used to be on most evenings and shows that pub going isn't dead...yet! Next we strolled into the centre of Bradford and went into a pub that had been shut on our last visit.

Bunch of Grapes, Bradford-on-Avon

From the front it looked like an upmarket café/restaurant, but the back room housed a very comfortable lounge bar. Considering what a pleasant place it is we were surprised that there were hardly any people in there.

Our final stop...and final pub of the trip was this one.

Swan Hotel, Bradford-on-Avon

From the outside it looks like a traditional small town hotel, but inside it had been 'modernised' making it bright, but characterless. Still, we had a couple of pints and had a chat with a couple of people that worked at the Bunch of Grapes who filled us in on the gossip as to why it wasn't doing so well. (Basically, the previous tenants had moved to the pub opposite and taken most of their customers with them!)

That concludes our odyssey along the Kennet & Avon Canal and a brief snapshot of the pubs we visited. Hopefully, one day we'll revisit this part of the world and catch up on the changes (if any) to the hostelries we visited.

#001 Three Horseshoes, Stirchley : 1986 to 2011

This is how the Three Horseshoes looked in 1986 when it was a Davenports pub. In those days it was a 'proper' pub with many rooms and it felt like a local. Notice also TWO red phone boxes outside! If you want to see an older picture visit this website.One year later and it looks much the same, but the sign has changed above the old 'out door'. Still a proper pub!

Fast forward to 1995 and the pub is now in the hands of Greenall Whitley, but still a welcoming local.

Now it is 2002 and the old Three Horseshoes is no more! Completely refurbished by Scottish Courage (I think!) and turned into a one room mega pub that doubled as a nightclub at weekends...until trouble outside got too much and it's licence was curtailed.

Finally we come to the present day. I haven't been inside the Three Horseshoes for quite a while now, despite the fact that it is the closest pub to me (equal with the British Oak - see later entry) because, quite frankly, it is no longer my sort of pub. In the daytime it is ok, but at night it is loud and brash...and I'm too old for that sort of environment.

I'm not sure exactly who the current owners are.