#145 The Swan, Kidderminster, Worcestershire : 2008 to 2013

Kidderminster isn't a place we often stop at on our canal trips being too close to Stourport. However, on both occasions that we did stop there we visited The Swan in the centre of the town.

This first visit was on the evening of Monday 26th May 2008. As I recall it was a reasonably lively, typically town centre pub where we had a pint and resumed our pub crawl.

Upon our return to Kidderminster, there was quite a change in the exterior appearance of The Swan.

This was at lunchtime on Thursday 16th May 2013 - what a transformation! Inside, the layout was pretty much the same, but I assume it had also been refurbished. There was quite an extensive menu of 'proper' pub food (including a 'build your own' sandwich feature), so we stayed and had lunch there. Although it looks to be an independent pub, it is part of Punch Taverns, a detail which is buried deep within The Swan website.

#144 The Bell, Stourbridge, Worcestershire : 1996 to 2013

This is going to be a relatively short entry as I've only ever been in this pub once and that was back in 1996!

 This was on the evening of Monday 27th May 1996 and was our first canal trip into Stourbridge having moored at the end of the Stourbridge Arm. As I recall, we weren't overly impressed with what Stourbridge had to offer the casual tourist. The pubs were functional, but none of them offered food in the evening and I'm fairly sure we ended up with a Chinese takeaway that we ate on the boat.

I've no recollection of what The Bell was like inside, probably typical of the large Banks's town pubs that were around at that time.

We revisited the Stourbridge Arm seventeen years later and surprisingly The Bell was still there, although not open at lunchtime.

 This was on Wednesday 15th May 2013 and at first glance The Bell has hardly changed over the years. On closer inspection, it is no longer a Banks's pub, but from this distance it isn't easy to work out what is going on...if anything.

Having found The Bell's website it became apparent that it is now a music venue/nightclub. Similar to Digbeth in Birmingham, as I've reported in the past, it appears that converting pubs into music venues in towns is a good way of reinventing themselves.

#143 Samson & Lion, Wordsley, West Midlands : 1997 to 2013

The Samson & Lion in Wordsley near Stourbridge is a pub with plenty of history, going back to at least 1840. I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but I've acquired it from the pub's website to show what it was like in the 19th Century (at a guess!)

I don't normally use other peoples photos, but in this instance it is interesting to see how little the pub has changed through the decades.

My first visit wasn't until the evening of Wednesday 28th May 1997, but that wasn't the first visit of our boat Emma Jane nor my fellow crew members! The Samson & Lion had hosted Emma Jane's crew in October 1985 and again in July 1989 on trips that I hadn't been able to make. We had planned to take a trip up the Stourbridge Canal in the Summer of 1991, but a serious pollution incident put paid to that trip!

What is quite remarkable is that the basic outer structure is almost exactly as it was in the previous century with the two storey lean to replaced with a single storey toilet block (and most of the chimneys have gone!). As I recall, it was quite a lively, friendly place and we had a pleasant evening there.

We were back again just two years later on a repeat of the 1997 journey, except that we'd spent the previous night in Stourbridge itself and so we found ourselves at the Samson & Lion at lunchtime on Thursday 3rd June 1999.

Quite a comprehensive redecoration of the outside, but as I recall, the inside was still as cosy and welcoming as ever.

We were back again on the evening of Sunday 27th May 2001, this time on a trip that didn't take us to Worcester!

This was the canalside view and we actually moored up outside the pub for the first time (in my experience). Although the pub was unchanged from our last visit, we weren't able to get any food as it was a Sunday and they didn't serve food in the evening...and it was a Bank Holiday! In those pre internet phone days, we were advised that Merry Hill was our best bet for food and drink on a Sunday night, so we left in a taxi for the rest of the evening.

Our next visit was a few years later on the evening of Sunday 25th May 2008.

Some minor changes to the exterior, but largely the same inside. Although still cosy inside, by this time the Samson & Lion was showing signs of decline. At least this time we were forewarned and so after a couple of pints we headed off into Wordsley in search of food and drink...we found both and a quiz as well!

Our final visit was on the evening of Tuesday 14th May 2013 on our way to Stourport-on-Severn.

Again largely unchanged, but still with the air of neglect that we'd sensed on our previous visit. We were there quite early and it was a very wet evening which didn't help with the atmosphere, so we only had one pint before heading out to find the nearest Bathams pub and a place to eat.

Since our last visit, it would appear that the Samson & Lion is under new management and, from the website, it would appear that the required revitalisation has been injected into the pub. This is good news as it has a lovely location by 'The Sixteen' locks on the Stourbridge Canal and inside it retains the character of a proper pub. Hopefully, when we're next passing it will have regained some of its former glory.

#142 Speed the Plough, Tibberton, Worcestershire : 2008 to 2013

Tibberton is a small village just north-east of Worcester on the banks of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. I've visited Tibberton on quite a few occasions, both on the canal and to visit friends, but I'm not entirely sure when I first visited the pub.

Our first canal related visit was at lunchtime on Wednesday 28th May 2008.

As I recall, it had recently been taken over by new management and I think we had a warming meal on a cool rainy day. It felt like a cosy local, but was quiet at lunchtime.

It was another five years before we were back, again at lunchtime, on Sunday 12th May 2013.

Speed the Plough was again under new management and was, again, a welcome refuge on a cool, damp Spring day. Together with the new management, the outside had been completely redecorated and also rebranded Marston's from the previous Banks's. The inside had also been redecorated, but had lost none of its cosy feel.

Digbeth Update

It is almost three years since I went around the Digbeth area taking pictures of the surviving pubs. I was in the area this week taking pictures, mostly non-pub related and I noticed that in the passing three years very little has changed, at least as far as the pubs go (Lots of other things have changed, but the pubs seem to be quite stable for the time being). However there are a couple of examples that are worth reporting.

Back in 2011, the pub that was formerly The Carpenters Arms had been turned into the Moon Shisha Lounge (see #013 on this blog). Unfortunately that has now also closed. I'm not sure when it happened, but I don't think there is much chance of anything pub related returning to this site.

The other story is much more upbeat. In 2011 I wasn't sure whether The Woodman was still open nor what the future held for it (see #056 on this blog).

After I wrote that blog it was closed for some time, but since September 2013 it has been restored to its former glory and open for business again. I haven't been back in, yet, but the details can be seen here on their website.

Although it currently stands a bit on its own, hopefully, the development of the surrounding area and the building of HS2 will lead to a secure future for this magnificent building.

For any other Digbeth related information, I always refer to the excellent blog Digbeth is Good.

#141 Oddfellows Arms (now Kiss), Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks : 1996 to 2013

For several years we were regular visitors to Stratford-upon-Avon as it was our regular Easter destination on our narrowboat Emma Jane from 1996 to 2011. There are lots of pubs in the town making it an ideal venue for a pub crawl.

The Oddfellows Arms was one of the first pub that we ever visited in Stratford as it was on the way from what became our regular mooring (above the locks, away from the centre) to the pubs in the centre.

This was on the evening of Friday 5th April 1996 (Good Friday) after a trying day's boating. Our day had started badly when Emma Jane refused to start. The nearest boatyard was a couple of miles away and as neither of us had a mobile phone in those days we walked there! The engineer gave us a lift back and got us going, but we'd only got time to get to the boatyard before lunch - fortunately there was also a pub there!

It was a long afternoon boating from Wooton Wawen to Stratford with us mooring up at 7:50 pm! I'm guessing that we were quite thirsty and went into the first pub we found - the Oddfellows Arms. As I recall it was a very cosy, pleasant pub.

It was another seven years before we revisited the Oddfellows Arms, this time on the evening of Saturday 19th April 2003.

As I recall, it was pretty much unchanged, but the signs indicate that food was now available. Also, the outside seating now had a very low retaining wall.

The next visit was on the evening of Saturday 7th April 2007.

The Oddfellows Arms had been refurbished inside and out, but not to our taste - it had become more modern and soul-less! That was the last time we actually stepped inside and, although we did walk by a few times, it wasn't sufficiently inviting to tempt us back in!

I popped back to Stratford last year to take a few photos of the town and this is the sight I came across.

It was the afternoon of Thursday 5th September 2013 and the Oddfellows Arms has been transformed into Kiss! I didn't go in.

Judging from the most recent review on Beer in the Evening it doesn't look as though this will be here for too much longer. This appears to be going the way of many pubs over the past few years; as the market contracts, the back street pubs seem to be the ones disappearing, especially when there are so many others nearby in a town like Stratford. Sad, but currently almost inevitable! 

#140 The Tontine, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1987 to 2013 (RIP)

As previously noted, Stourport-on-Severn has many pubs and, back in 1987 The Tontine was one of the outstanding pubs in the town.

This photo was taken on the evening of Monday 6th July 1987 after a slightly fraught journey up the River Severn from Worcester. This was our first boating trip up the Severn and, having left Worcester's Diglis Basin at 3pm, we'd not taken the flow of the river into account making the journey much longer than we'd expected! We almost didn't make it to Stourport for the evening because the last lock on the Severn, Lincomb Lock, was technically closed for the night. We were in luck, though, because one of the regular trip boats was due to pass through and after some negotiation, the lock keeper agreed to let us through!

We moored on the river at Stourport and The Tontine was just a short walk away up the carefully manicured bank side. I don't remember too much about the inside other than it was a large pub with lots of canal pictures and memorabilia.

It was another 10 years before we returned to The Tontine on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997.

As far as I recall there were no significant changes, but inside were signs of a general decline.

We were in Stourport again in 1999, but didn't visit The Tontine. However, I took this photo on the afternoon of Tuesday 1st June 1999 as we passed through the locks up from the Severn into Stourport Basin.

Since then we've passed through Storuport-on-Severn several times and The Tontine had been closed for most of them. According to Closed Pubs it has been closed since 2001.

Our most recent visit to the town was the premature end of our journey because the Severn was closed because it was running very fast and high from the heavy rain a few days earlier. This gave me some time to take photos of the town, including The Tontine.

These pictures were taken in the afternoon of Thursday 16th May 2013. From the outside The Tontine is largely unchanged, unsurprising as it is a listed building, but it has been split into flats for residential use.

The Tontine is an unusual name and I'm indebted to Andrew Denny and his Granny Buttons blog for this explanation: -

How did the Tontine Hotel come to be called?  A Tontine Will is defined here - it's effectively when a group of men pool their inheritances and the last man standing gets the lot.  But that's not the original name.  According to a Stourport Tourism Leaflet:

The Tontine Hotel was constructed as the Areley Inn in 1772 and gave accommodation to merchants and travellers. It was a grand place with a ballroom and several reception rooms.

Another history of The Tontine can be found here.