• THE BEACON: What better place to start? Stephen and I arrive fresh from the 558 to find Nick waiting eagerly on the doorstep ready to sample some Snowflake. The pub proved just perfect on a cold Friday afternoon, 12:20ish, sitting in the main lounge room where there are already a few happy souls in attendance. Some Cheers photos get the camera into gear as I also pick up a copy of Potters Bar from Stoke CAMRA - a nice bonus find. At 8%, the Snowflake goes down a treat, very well-balanced for a winter-warming throat-tickler.
• One half down and thoughts turn to lunch. We head into Sedgley and try out the Tasty Plaice takeaway where we are served at lightning speed, a £2 special of chips, sausage and mushy peas for me and roes for the chaps, very enjoyable. We find a perch on the churchyard benches to tuck in to our generous portions, with the mushy peas working well as a drinkable soup. The whole thing turned out to be a real treat, definitely worth considering again in future.
• THE BRITANNIA: How’s about a bit of Bathams? A quick 558 ride brings us to Upper Gornal where the prospect of some Bathams Bitter is too tempting to resist. The pub has a lot of character and the front bar room is already crammed with Gornal regulars. We grab some winter copies of Beerwolf and have a look in the rear lounge - complete with festive decorations and an intriguing bar structure where the pumps come directly out of the wall - before eventually settling in the Parlour. Here I can admire the dartboard and a little collection of library books before chalking up ‘Chip Foundation Xmas 2010’ onto the blackboard, a welcome cue for some more Cheers photos. I actually really liked this back parlour; it was one of the highlights of the day.
- Stephen meets some fellow 'Bears' -• THE OLD MILL: A two minute walk around the corner onto Windmill Street brings us to a backstreet Holden’s that really quite appealed to me. Golden Glow is my tipple of choice as we find a cosy corner by the back window - the décor here seems quite homely with beams, brasses and bears. Stephen gets acquainted with the teddies whilst Nick poses with a potplant and I relax in a rocking chair, not bad at all.
• THE MINERS ARMS: Another short walk brings us to our next Holden’s experience. The pub is nice enough with plenty of chintzy festive streamers hanging from the ceiling, but the real ale choice was disappointingly limited to Holden’s Bitter only – the festive Old Ale is still proving frustratingly elusive. We take our seats as Nick models his hat, the cold must be getting to him poor thing. Overall I would class the Miners as a decent local although I prefer some of the other pubs Gornal has to offer.
• On leaving the Miners we are dismayed to see the 297 bus go whizzing by, presenting us with a potential disaster. Thankfully this is creatively averted thanks to a sprint-shuffle down to Gornal Wood Bus Station, not for the faint hearted with it kept us on schedule! We are rewarded with a neat little ride down through Gornal Five Ways and the Pensnett Trading Estate before heading up Pensnett High Street passing the High Oak.
• THE FOX & GRAPES: The second Bathams of the day and the realisation of a longstanding mini-ambition to pay this place a visit. The building has a period art deco style exterior with the bulls head motif on the frosted windows. Heading inside, the place is very busy with Friday afternoon regulars who look like they’ve popped in after work. The main bar is quite crowded but we find a quiet table round the back where some Bathams Mild does us nicely as we soak up the ambience.
• With the evening drawing in I lead the chaps on a merry dance through Upper Pensnett, where thankfully there aren't any sightings of Wagner from the X Factor.
- Scratchings in the Rose & Crown -• THE ROSE & CROWN: Holden's number 3 is our sixth pub and counting. We first dropped by here towards the end of our Ma Pardoe’s/Delph visit earlier this year, escaping from the rain (and the George Gallagher) as Mr B eyed up the food hungrily. Today we were back, although we’d arrived too early to try the food. I’m pleased to say the place hasn’t changed much, so it’s a nice traditional feel sitting in the lounge bay window supping Holden’s Mild and trying to get me teeth around some proper butcher’s scratchings, crunch crunch!
• 17:21 and now it is dark and cold as we troop out onto Bank Street for the 255 bus. It arrives in the form of a packed-out double decker that has just enough room for us to sit upstairs.
• THE BRIDGE: One final bonus stop at this recent Good Beer Guide entry in Kingswinford. Initially I wondered what on earth we’d let ourselves in for when we walked into the front bar and were greeted with a karaoke disco vibe complete with flashing lights and a white plastic Christmas tree. I think there was some kind of party due later in the evening, and it was quite a relief to escape to the more sedate surroundings of the lounge. Actually the lounge was rather good, with period 1930s features such as the bar hatch, bell pushes and general brown woodwork. There was also a nice games table with cribbage boards and dominoes, and a proper open fire to warm us all up. Beer choice was from the Marston’s family, and it was an easy decision to choose the Christmas Pudding spiced guest ale, very palatable and a full pint to finish the day off properly. Nick’s hat becomes a pass the parcel object swapping heads amongst the various Cheers photos, and we time it nicely for our 256 connection back to Wolverhampton.
- The Bridge at Kingswinford -• It had been a thoroughly entertaining afternoon, making the most of some good pubs and decent ales. The highlights for me were probably lunch in Sedgley, the parlour room at the Britannia, the visit to the Fox & Grapes, the moonlight flit around Pensnett and finally the scratchings at the Rose and Crown. All in all, very satisfying indeed.
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