#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.

#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.