#106 The Jolly Tar, Wardle, Cheshire : 2005 to 2012

Whenever we pass through Barbridge Junction on the Shropshire Union Canal, there is only one place where we regularly stop...and it isn't The Jolly Tar! We'd normally visit Ye Olde Barbridge Inn which is right by the canal. However, many's the occasion when I've thought that we should pay The Jolly Tar a visit. So in 2005 we finally decided to pop in for a pint.

This photo was taken on Friday 26th August 2005. As I recall, the pub was fairly quiet and a bit of a throwback to the 70's and 80's in style.

We haven't been back inside since then, but i took this photo as we were passing by at Easter on Thursday 12th April 2012.

It has obviously been repainted in the intervening years and the colour scheme has changed from blue to red. This place always reminds me of a seaside pub.

Each year, in recent times, when we've passed by I've been surprised to see that it has still been open. Although it is advertised as a canalside pub, there is the slight problem of the A51 which runs between the pub and the canal, which must make it difficult to 'sell' to the visiting public. Sadly my fears have been confirmed and, as of writing, The Jolly Tar is closed. It would appear, from this statement, that the lease ran out on 10th March 2013 and new tenants have not yet been found. Sad, but in this current economic climate, not too surprising. 

#105 The Admiral Nelson, Braunston, Northants : 1980 to 2012

This is a pub from my very first canal trip, a journey that started at Woodford on the River Nene and took us to Coventry before returning to Woodford.

 At that time I wasn't taking a photo of every pub we visited, but the Admiral Nelson is an integral part of this picture of Braunston Locks taken on Tuesday 17th April 1980.

As a canal pub it is ideally located alongside one of the six locks of the Braunston flight. In fact, the next photo I took was of Matt bringing me a pint as we were waiting to pass through the lock!

We passed through Braunston many times after this first visit in 1980, but it wasn't until 1993 that I took another picture.

This was on Thursday 23rd September 1993 as part of a trip that took us from Winkwell to Stretton-under-Fosse and back. In those days, Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell near Berhamstead and our options were limited to heading north up the Grand Union Canal, seeing how far we could get in a week and turn round for the return journey.

I don't recall too much about our visits to the Admiral Nelson, except that it was a traditional pub with a Skittles Table that kept us amused.

We were back again the next year on the evening of Saturday 3rd September 1994, this time on the way back to Winkwell after having got as far as Fenny Compton on the Oxford Canal.

We didn't return to The Admiral Nelson for quite a few years as, after we'd moved the boat back to the Midlands, we didn't feel inclined to go back on the Grand Union Canal. It was 2001 when we ventured forth with a view to revisiting the lower reaches of the Grand Union. We'd moored below the locks and, after visiting the other pubs in Braunston, it was quite a stroll, along a dark lane (called Dark Lane!), to get to The Admiral Nelson which was under new management.

This was on Sunday 26th August 2001.

Over the years The Admiral Nelson has been shut and reopened on more than one occasion, so we tend not to plan a visit there, not knowing if it is going to be open.

This picture was taken on Thursday 10th September 2009 as we were passing. We didn't stop.

My final photo was taken on Sunday 30th September 2012 as I was on my way to play golf!

It was good to see that it was open and seemingly thriving, especially as a Morris Dancing troupe were enjoying some pre 'match' drinks! 

It would appear that the current owners have got it right and the Trip Advisor reviews seem to back this up. I'm glad to see that The Admiral Nelson is now thriving again, but I don't know when we'll be back that way again. 

#104 The Plough, Tividale, West Midlands : 2005 to 2012 (RIP)

As previously mentioned in #093, we discovered Tividale in 2005 as one of the very few viable stops on the BCN Main Line between Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

This was at lunchtime on Thursday 1st September 2005. We popped in to The Plough for one pint and, having established that they didn't do food, we moved on. It was a basic Banks' boozer with two small rooms at the front and a friendly barman/landlord.

Two years later and we're back! Again it was lunchtime, on Saturday 25th August 2007. There were no major changes to the outside except that TWO satellite dishes have appeared and the small tree to the right of the pub has disappeared. Oh...and the pub has a 'To Let' sign on it! Inside it was unchanged and they still didn't do food...officially! However, when we asked about it, the landlady said that she could make us some sandwiches, an offer we gladly accepted.

It is a real shame that pubs like this, with such friendly and accommodating tenants have disappeared, up and down the land. This is the scene that presented itself when I went by The Plough on Tuesday 4th December 2012.

Completely closed, all external signage removed and the car park being used as a car wash. It looks as though the building is still occupied, especially as a fire escape and first floor exit have been added since my last visit. 

#103 Ye Olde Boot Inn, Chester : 1996 to 2012

If you want to find lots of 'Olde Worlde' pubs, then Chester is one of the best places in the country. Our first canal visit to Chester was in 1996 after having paid our first visit to Llangollen. It was like finding pub Eldorado...and just as mystifying...as we so easily managed to lose our bearings with so many pubs and so many streets that looked similar  to each other!

This was taken on the evening of Friday 30th August 1996 as we embarked on our first pub crawl through Chester. To be honest I don't really remember too much about it other than it was a proper 'Olde Worlde' pub with the entrance on the upper level of the shopping centre. I do recall that it was a Sam Smith's pub and consequently somewhat cheaper than most other establishments nearby. However, for a full description of the bar and it's history, this website fills in all of the gaps!

We spent two sessions in Chester before heading back on the Saturday afternoon. We didn't make it back to Chester for another nine years, mainly because of a canal blockage in 2002 that prevented us getting there, but in 2005 we made Chester our destination.

This was on the evening of Saturday 27th August 2005. As the pub has been there for over 350 years it is unlikely that the outside will change very much...and, indeed, it hasn't, apart from a few minor changes to the signage. However the shop next door has changed and Accessorize, below, was up for sale.

And so we come to our most recent visit, Monday 9th April 2012 (Easter Monday), for the first of our two stops in Chester on that trip. Again, the pub has hardly changed and the shop next door is also unchanged (apart from the 'nutter' leering from the balcony! Ooops! That's no nutter, it's Andrew!) Downstairs, Accessorize has gone to be replaced with Ecco. Ye Olde Boot Inn is still a Sam Smith's pub and still cheaper than any others around...sadly it wasn't my round! It does rate a mention on The Lonely Planet website.

#102 The Swan, North Kilworth, Leicestershire : 1997 to 2012 (RIP)

The first time we stopped at North Kilworth was in the summer of 1997 on a trip that took us to Leicester and Nottingham.

This photo was taken on the evening of Tuesday 26th August 1997 and, to be honest, I don't remember too much about The Swan. I DO remember that we got a 'lock-in' at one of the pubs in the village while we played skittles in the bar.

North Kilworth is on the Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal and so we don't often pass through there, but we were back again six years later.

This was a lunchtime stop on Tuesday 19th August 2003. The exterior had been repainted and all of the signs replaced. Inside? I still can't remember exactly what it was like!!

My latest pictures were taken as I drove over to Foxton Locks to observe the refurbishment of the lock flight. I took the opportunity to take pictures of a few of the pubs we'd visited in the past. This is what I found: -

That's right...it's closed and now a rather attractive house. These photos were taken on Sunday 16th December 2012.

#101 The Patrick Kavanagh Bar, Moseley, Birmingham : 1996 to 2012

I've known this pub from the days I was a student here in Birmingham. Back then it was The Trafalgar and for a few years my friends lived in the house next door (on Trafalgar Road). It was a lovely, cosy pub with several rooms including a bar, lounge and a small 'snug' room. That was in the early 80's and, as with many things, it gradually went into decline.

Some time later it was refurbished in an attempt to bring it back to life, which was successful in the short term, but it also destroyed the intimate character it previously had. This is the first photo I took of The Trafalgar.

We were on our Spring canal trip and, because of a delay at the Shirley Drawbridge, we'd not made it into Birmingham and so we moored up in King's Heath and caught the bus to Moseley for an evening of nostalgia. This was on Saturday 25th May 1996 and it was still called The Trafalgar.

It was a couple of years before we returned and the name had been changed to The Patrick Kavanagh Bar.

I'm not sure exactly when this was taken, but I do remember the visit which was some time in 1998. We walked in one early evening to be confronted with this scene - there were no bar staff to be seen, but there were two rather large Alsatians wandering about and a man lying on the floor, unconscious! We turned around and left quite quickly!

We didn't return again until Saturday 29th May 2010. This time we'd moored up at Bournville and after a visit to my local, the Country Girl in Selly Oak, we'd caught a taxi and gone to Moseley for yet another trip down memory lane.

This time it was a much more welcoming experience and the pub was quite lively...a vast improvement over the experience 12 years previously! (Still not as good as 30 years ago...but then again, what is?)

Finally, here is my latest photo, taken on Sunday 11th November 2012 on a stroll around Moseley to catch up on the pubs of my youth!

The Patrick Kavanagh Bar had yet another external coat of paint...and a new satellite dish. The pub's website is here and, if you're in Moseley and on a pub crawl, this is another one to add to the list of potential venues.

#100 Two Boats, Long Itchington, Warwickshire : 1981 to 2012

Well, I've made it to my 100th entry on this blog and I thought I'd treat you to a special post. Although I only started to take a picture of every pub we visited in 1986, I found this photo from only my second ever trip on Emma Jane in 1981.

This first visit to the Two Boats was on the evening of Wednesday 19th August 1981. I don't remember much about the pub in those days, but it was very convenient being right on the canal bank. That visit was close to the end of an epic canal trip that had started out from Preston Brook 12 days previously. For the first week of the journey we'd been up against the clock because of a breach in the canal near Audlem on the Shropshire Union and to get to Birmingham on time we were sometimes travelling for 12 hours per day non-stop. Once we'd reached Birmingham, the next week was much more leisurely with the replacement crew of Andrea and Jackie!

I did visit the Two Boats again in 1984 (29th August), but didn't take a picture!

Circumstances conspired to make it so that our next stop at the Two Boats was on the evening of Sunday 24th August 1997 at the beginning of a journey that would take us to Nottingham and Leicester.

Over the intervening 16 years the pub was no longer a Whitbread house and, miraculously, the chimneys had disappeared!

We returned again the next year, on our way to Oxford.

This was at lunchtime on Tuesday 1st September 1998. We would have been here earlier in the week, but we'd broken down in Warwick and had to wait two days for an engineer to fix the engine! Remarkably in just 12 months the outside had been completely transformed. However, inside it was still pretty much the same. It was a small pub with two rooms that made very good pub food and whenever the sun's out it can get very busy...but they've always managed to cope with the demand whenever we've been there.

It was another three years before our next visit, this time on our way to Aylesbury.

Another lunchtime stop, this time on Sunday 26th August 2001 and you can see how busy it was on that Bank Holiday Sunday. Again there are more changes to the outside signage!

The next visit was at lunchtime on Sunday 17th August 2003 on the way to Leicester.

Remarkably, the Two Boats was unchanged!

Over the following years we visited every other year and there were few changes, but the photos are shown below.

Lunchtime on Saturday 28th May 2005...first time we'd ever managed to moor right outside!

Lunchtime on Thursday 31st May 2007 - taken from Emma Jane, just as we moored up outside again (we don't like to have to walk too far for our lunch!!)

In 2009 we stopped at the Two Boats twice. Firstly on Sunday 24th May 2009 and then again at lunchtime on Friday 11th September 2009.

The only visible change was the removal of the trellis that had been there since at least 1998!

Again, it was another two years before we returned and again, the Two Boats had undergone another transformation!

Not only had it been whitewashed (again), but it was now a Charles Wells pub. This was at lunchtime on Sunday 29th May 2011 and I was expecting to see radical changes inside as well, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was unchanged and, more importantly, the landlord was still the same. The food was also just as good as ever!

We did visit again that year on Emma Jane's last voyage, this time on the evening of Saturday 5th November 2011.

This was our last visit (so far) on our canal trips, but I did drive by in 2012 to get a more up-to-date shot.

This was on Sunday 26th August 2012 and I'm happy to report that the Two Boats is still as busy as ever, especially when the sun is out!