#073 The Bull, Aston, Birmingham : 2002 to 2011

Considering that I've lived in Birmingham since 1979 it is quite surprising that the first time I set foot inside The Bull in Aston was in 2002; Thursday 19th September 2002 (at lunchtime) to be precise! That would be just the 200 years since it opened!

We'd been on a canal trip that had taken us to Leek on the Caldon Canal and had moored at Aston Junction. Normally we would have gone to the Sacks of Potatoes, but The Bull was a pub I'd previously noticed from the flyover and thought it was worth a visit...and what a good decision that was. It was a cosy, proper pub with friendly staff and very good food. (and it still is!)

Next visit was on Wednesday 1st September 2004 (lunchtime again) near the end of a trip back from Oxford.

No change, inside or out.

Our next visit was on Thursday 7th September 2006 (luchtime unsurprisingly) on our way back from a trip that took us to the Anderton Boat lift.

Still no change...which is good!

Our final visit, to date was on Saturday 27th August 2011, this time at the start of our journey to the Caldon Canal. Yet another lunchtime stop!

Finally! Some changes! OK, they've only painted the outside AND put some bench seats outside, but at least that's progress. Inside it was the same as before which was good news (Well, there might have been a few more jugs hanging up, but its impossible to be sure as there are soooo many!). For more details and historical information you can visit their website here.

#072 Newbold Crown, Newbold-on-Avon, Warks : 2005 to 2011

Believe it or not, we've visited Newbold-on-Avon many times on our canal trips (including my first ever trip in 1980!), but it wasn't until 2005 that we ventured beyond the Boat and Barley Mow (#053) and discovered the Newbold Crown!

It is a fairly standard estate/village pub that was quite welcoming on our visits. This first encounter was at lunchtime on Tuesday 31st May 2005 on a trip to take our boat to Nuneaton for repairs.

Our next visit was on the evening of Monday 30th May 2011. As we'd stopped quite early, we decided to have a bit of a pub crawl around Newbold-on-Avon. This meant revisiting the Newbold Crown for the first time in 6 years - and it had hardly changed. It is still a friendly local, but as we were there early in the evening it was fairly quiet (and it was a Monday!)

There's not much more to add, except that it is listed on the local CAMRA website.

UPDATE : #058 Spotted Dog, Digbeth : 1998 to 2012

Back in March I reported that I'd been on a Digbeth Photo Walk past this pub and nothing had changed. What a difference a few weeks make. The closed Spotted Dog/TJ's looked as though it was never going to reopen, but it has resurrected itself as Suki 10c - a music venue/night club and had a complete external paint job.

This is how it looked when I last took a picture.

Sadly, the news is not all good. The venue has been subjected to a complaint about the noise and is now fighting to stay open. I'm grateful to the Digbeth is Good blog for getting this news out and hopefully the new venue will be able to continue.

#071 Blue Bell Cider House, Hockley Heath, Warks : 1996 to 2011

The Blue Bell Cider House has long been well known around these parts as a good place to visit in the summer for a trip out into the countryside, just a short drive outside of Birmingham. I'm convinced that I'd been there before 1996, but it must have been by car as our first canal visit was on Saturday 25th May 1996.

We actually visited again on Friday 6th September 1996 on our way back from Llangollen and Chester, but I didn't take a picture! We'd moved our boat back to the Midlands in 1995 and so this became a more regular potential stop for us, especially as it has canalside moorings and does good pub food.

Our next visit was a on Saturday 24th May 1997.

The doors are now blue and the wall surrounding the large Blue Bell sign is white...and it was a much sunnier day!

Our next visit was on Saturday 10th August 2002 when we took a short break around the Midlands to do some much needed painting on Emma Jane.

It looks as though there's been a bit more painting done, but otherwise unchanged.

Saturday 26th August 2006 was our next visit at the start of a trip that took us to Northwich via the Anderton Boat Lift.

Again, largely unchanged, but the England flags were out, presumably left over following the World Cup. I also took a shot from the canal as you wouldn't know it was actually a canalside pub from the photos so far!

Next time it was Saturday 24th May 2008 at the start of a trip around the Midlands.

The doors are now Dark Blue and the large sign is on a Yellow background.

Our last visit to the Blue Bell was on Friday 26th August 2011 again at the start of a canal trip, this time to the Caldon Canal.

The pub itself was unchanged, inside or out, but the front had been tarmac-ed for car parking and the table had gone.

In all our years of visiting the Blue Bell it has hardly changed and is a good pub that does straightforward English food. There is now a website for the Blue Bell and it is well known for it's offerings of cider, which is a drink I've not drunk much of since I left school!

We only seem to visit the Blue Bell at the start of our trips because it is just the right distance away from our moorings, taking just under 3 hours to get there if things go well. If we get delayed, The Wharf at Hockley Heath offers an earlier stop off point for lunch.  

#070 The Rainbow, Digbeth : 1998 to 2011

How fitting that The Rainbow is the thirty-third and FINAL installment in my 'Birmingham Eastside' series. Back in 1998 when I started this project I expected there to be some closures, but I thought it was going to be because of great new developments in the area, not just as part of the general demise of the British pub.

The Rainbow is a survivor, though. In 1998 I'd never been inside, but it looked like a typical street corner pub.

As we move on to 2011, I was surprised to find that The Rainbow had survived and is thriving. However, it's success is mostly down to it now being a prominent Digbeth music venue as well as being a pub. This success hasn't been easy; there has been a constant battle in recent years with the 'johnny-come-lately' residents who have moved into the newly built flats nearby and don't like the noise!

The outside has been completely redecorated, but the original sign remains on the first floor on the corner. And, as I write, now in 2012, I've still not been inside The Rainbow! For the Jubilee weekend it will host several music events.

Now that I've come to the end of the Birmingham Eastside pubs it's time to reflect on the changes that have occurred in this area.

Of the 33 pubs I originally photographed in 1998, one has re-opened (The Old Crown), but twelve are now closed, two of which have been demolished. One has been converted into a Shisha Lounge (Carpenters Arms), one (Billy's Bar) is now a backpackers hostel and many have turned to music as a means of staying alive.

There are only a handful which I would say are still just pubs/boozers - The Fountain (#054), The White Swan (#061), The Anchor (#025), The Spotted Dog (#042), Sir Charles Napier (#044), Town Crier (#062), Forge Tavern (#012), Big Bull's Head (#038), Cleary's (#036) and The Old Crown (#016). You can still get a drink in all of the rest, but they are all multi-use venues now.

The Digbeth area is a microcosm of the general trend in pub decline/rebirth that is currently going on across the country. I follow The Pub Curmudgeon's excellent blog and he has, quite rightly, highlighted two of the main factors in recent pub decline - the smoking ban and the cheap booze available from supermarkets. These have definitely hastened the demise of many establishments, but I wonder if these are just the symptoms of a greater trend - namely that the pub as I grew up with just isn't fit for purpose any more.

I'm no historian (Pete Brown is; and his blog is always interesting), but from what I've gleaned over the years, the pub as we know it really came into being in Victorian times when there was a vast 'explosion' of new (then unlicensed) drinking establishments. These greatly outnumbered the old inns and taverns that had existed for many years previously. Even after licensing became compulsory and opening times were imposed (during World War 1) these pubs thrived.

These pubs were successful mainly because there was no real competition. Cheap booze at home was not widely available and they offered an escape from the 'drudgery' of the home - a place to meet friends (and make new ones) and generally get away from the stresses of life albeit temporarily. And it was also a place men went to get away from the wife and kids!

Now, in the 21st Century, virtually all of the factors that made pubs such a success have disappeared. I believe that the pub is in terminal decline and cannot compete with the attractions of the modern world. Many have closed and more will follow, but a lot are adapting. In Digbeth, music appears to be the salvation of many pubs, in the countryside the gastropub seems to be taking over. 

I am hopeful that the 'essence' of the British Pub will survive, but we should all recognise that the 'Golden Age of the Pub' has passed and embrace the new era - however difficult that is for us 'old codgers'.  

#069 Clifford Arms, Great Haywood, Staffs : 1991 to 2011

Our first visit to the Clifford Arms in Great Haywood was on our 1991 canal trip taking our boat Emma Jane 'down south' after she'd spent a few years moored near to Wigan.

This was taken on Saturday 27th July 1991. At the time it was a welcome find, a nice pub that did good food. We probably did a bit of a pub crawl around the village once we'd eaten!

Our next visit wasn't until Sunday 24th August 2003 during a trip that had taken us to Leicester. Looking at our boating log tells me that we actually stopped at Little Haywood, but I have a feeling that there was no food available there on a Sunday so we took the short stroll to Great Haywood.

Surprisingly, the Clifford Arms was almost completely unchanged in the intervening 12 years.

Next visit was on the evening of Tuesday 6th June 2006 on one of our frequent trips taking in the Midlands north of Birmingham.

This time, the 'Bass' sign has gone, but apart from that it was unchanged.

The next time we were passing Great Haywood was on Tuesday 1st June 2010 on a repeat of the 2006 trip.

From this angle you can see that, in addition to the removal of the 'Bass' sign, the 'Clifford Arms' sign has been replaced with a smaller version.

Our most recent visit was last year on Monday 29th August 2011 on our way up to the Caldon Canal.

This was our first ever lunchtime visit to the Clifford Arms and, although it was a Bank Holiday, the service and food quality was as good as ever. No apparent changes in the year since our last visit. The Clifford Arms now has its own website.

#068 Horan's Tavern/Floodgate Tavern, Digbeth : 1998 to 2011 (RIP)

Horan's Tavern, as it was called in 1998, was a new discovery for me as I was touring around Digbeth.

A typical street corner, back-street boozer is how it appeared in 1998 and I've never set foot inside.

Moving forward to 2011 and it has changed it's name to the Floodgate Tavern and was very much closed.

 

Obviously it had been completely redecorated on the outside in the intervening years, but seemingly to no avail. They have even painted over the Little Ann Street sign and the Floodgate Street sign has disappeared.

I was passing by recently (sadly without my camera!) and it looked as though it had been reopened and then closed again since I took this photo. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to make a go of this pub, mainly because of it's location. It is well off the beaten track (even for Digbeth) and I think it must have relied on daytime/early evening trade from factory workers nearby to have a pint and a fag (probably!).

This is the thirty-second in my 'Birmingham Eastside' series.