#150 The Mitre Inn, Stourbridge, Worcestershire : 1996 to 2013

Apparently, the original Mitre was demolished to make way for some road widening and a picture of the pub from about 1950 can be seen here with a bit more info.

Fast forward to 1996 and this is what it looked like.

Looks almost the same as it did in the 1950's. This was taken on the evening of Monday 27th May 1996 when we did a bit of a pub crawl around Stourbridge town centre. Not a night that lived long in the memory! There were plenty of pubs, but like many town centres they weren't particularly welcoming places and everywhere was quiet, even though it was a Bank Holiday Monday.

From the canal, Stourbridge is accessed from the end of a short arm off the main Stourbridge Canal, so we don't often visit the town centre. We ventured down there again on Wednesday 15th May 2013, this time for a lunch stop. Our first port of call was a remarkably unchanged Mitre Inn.

Inside it was still unwelcoming (not unfriendly, though) as only town pubs can be. From the outside it appeared to be completely unchanged whilst all around it Stourbridge was being reshaped (that's my excuse for not taking a shot from the same perspective as before!)

Perhaps I'm doing the pub a disservice because we caught it on two quiet days. Here is a link to a page that gives a very interesting history of The Mitre with more pictures.

#149 The Ram's Head, Grappenhall, Cheshire : 1991 to 2013

I've only ever visited Grappenhall twice and we went in The Ram's Head on both occasions.

The first visit was at lunchtime on Monday 22nd July 1991 as part of a trip to take our boat Emma Jane from Wigan to Hemel Hemstead.

I have absolutely no recollection about what the pub was actually like inside!

The next time we stopped at Grappenhall was on our Easter trip from Preston Brook to Manchester (and back) when we made an evening stop on Sunday 31st March 2013.

Unsurprisingly, in the intervening 22 years there have been some changes, but in keeping with the village, they are only superficial. Inside, I was initially quite disappointed as it had (to my eyes) been converted into a restaurant style pub. However, the food was good, the lager flowed well and a pub quiz started a 8:30 so we were well entertained (even though we didn't enter!).

To be honest it isn't as 'pubby' as I would've liked, but in this day and age it ticked the important boxes (beer and food and its still open!) so I can't be too critical. If you're in the area, here's The Ram's Head website for you to browse.

#148 The Red Lion, Netherton, West Midlands : 2006 to 2013

Our first visit to The Red Lion was at lunchtime on Sunday 4th June 2006 and, as reported earlier (#125) we only ended up here because the Dry Dock didn't do food on a Sunday!

We were in need of a light lunch and The Red Lion provided exactly what we needed. It was a friendly, basic local.

Our next visit was two years later, again at lunchtime, on Sunday 25th May 2008.

As it was a wet afternoon, and we knew that the Dry Dock didn't do food on a Sunday, we only ventured as far as The Red Lion for a sandwich and a couple of pints. No change from our previous visit on the inside, but outside they'd moved the Sky Sports banner and added a blackboard by the entrance door!

On our third visit was at lunchtime on Tuesday 14th May 2013 and it was closed! The good news is that it isn't a permanent closure, but I suspect that they've taken the decision not to open on midweek lunchtimes because of the general decline in the lunchtime pub trade.

Still largely unchanged on the outside apart from the missing Sky Sports banner!

#147 The Bell, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire : 1997 to 2013 (RIP)

We're back in Stourport-on-Severn again, this time for a quick look at The Bell.

This was our first (and only) visit to The Bell on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 1997. I don't recall much about it apart from it being a normal small town pub.

The Bell is situated away from the main town centre on the mini ring road around the town which probably explains why we never ventured back. This also probably explains why it is now closed. In fact, according to the Closed Pubs website, it closed in 2002 to be converted into flats.

This is how it looked on the evening of Thursday 16th May 2013. We'd been 'stranded' in Stourport, so I took the opportunity to take photos of all the pubs to catch up on their status and, at the time, I didn't realise it had closed as there is still some signage! 

It really isn't a surprise that it closed as Stourport had always been 'blessed' with an over abundance of pubs and The Bell was not on the main drag.

Birmingham City Skyline : 1980's to 2014

This post is going to break all of the rules I imposed on myself at the start of this project...but I don't care!

Firstly it isn't about a pub and, secondly I'll be using someone else's photo!

This photo appeared a few days ago on the excellent This is Birmingham Facebook page.

Birmingham Skyline 1980's - Courtesy This is Birmingham

This is Birmingham is a wonderful place for those of us who like to see scenes of this great city from bygone days and I've spent many hours marvelling at the lost wonders of Birmingham. However it is very rare to find a picture that corresponds to one of my contemporary shots of the city.

That was until local photographer Pete Ashton posted on Twitter about how Moat Lane car park was now open again (and renamed the Markets Car Park). I'd been looking for somewhere to take a picture of the Birmingham Skyline for ages and here was the perfect location.

Birmingham Skyline 2014 - © Photo Digital Art

It is quite remarkable how different the city feels today, yet there is still much that remains of the city as it was then.

#146 The Swan with Two Nicks, Worcester : 1987 to 2013

My first experience of The Swan with Two Nicks was a lunchtime visit on Monday 6th July 1987 near the beginning of a two week trip on board Emma Jane. This was the first trip where we'd taken the boat on a trip without Andrew in the crew and we were a bit anxious as it was his family's boat at that time!

As I recall, we'd been there in 1984 (at the start of a journey, but before I'd started taking photos of every pub we visited). It was a traditional old pub with beams and a low ceiling and we spent the whole lunchtime there before heading off upstream on the River Severn.

It was a long time before we revisited The Swan with Two Nicks because Emma Jane was moored first 'Up North' and then 'Down South' until returning to the Midlands in late 1996. However, even though we visited Worcester again, we didn't actually manage to find the pub again until the evening of Monday 31st May 1999.

A complete overhaul of the outside of the pub had taken place in the intervening 12 years, but inside it was exactly as we remembered.

The next visit was another 9 years later on the evening of Tuesday 27th May 2008 and the outside had again been redecorated.

Inside was still in the traditional style, pretty much as we remembered it.

Five years later saw a much less drastic redecoration (and different smokers outside!) when we popped in on the evening of Saturday 11th May 2013.

Inside it was still the same, but this time it contained a large contingent of Royalist soldiers in period costume, presumably rehydrating after a long day's battle re-enactment!

The Swan with Two Nicks is still well worth a visit if you happen to find yourself in Worcester and a fairly detailed history of the pub (and before) can be found here.

The pub name is NOT a misprint and, although there are probably more pubs named the Swan with Two NECKS, the name originates from the practice of marking swans by making a 'nick' on the swan's bill - a full explanation can be found here.

#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.