Hub Marketing 2022: Chase Terrace and Brownhills

Things may have been quiet on the Hub Marketing front since December's Coventry Christmas caper but the membership are busy plotting out the year ahead. First off for 2022 is a combined Staffordshire and Walsall showing that includes all the usual features - bald spots, D9 drives, darting incompetence, silly songs and of course a handful of watering holes...

- Globe House, Walsall -

Friday 25th February 2022: we'll start at the beginning and that means a Walsall rendezvous, Chairman D9 arriving ahead of schedule as his 34 bus rolls into Bradford Place. Secretary WME has already gathered pictures of the cenotaph (adorned with fluttering Union Jack flags) and Globe House, the latter topped with an 1887 Victorian Jubilee panel. Our first task is to obtain breakfast so we pitch into Digby's Cafe on Lower Hall Lane (near Primark). There is momentary drama when our Full Englishes get stuck in the dumb waiter but the waitress does a sterling job of prising the misbehaving doors apart to rescue our nosh!

- Burntwood Mining Monument -

Deliberating whether to take the 10 to Brownhills West or the 8 towards Lichfield, the decision is made for us when the 8 turns up on stand first - cue the Chairman giving the steering wheel some serious welly through Clayhanger. Sankeys Corner prompts us to alight so as to admire a bronze figure of a miner and his pit pony (Scamp) which takes pride of place opposite the library and the Burntwood Town shopping precinct. The statue was installed in 2013 following community fundraising efforts, and the plaques around the plinth record the names of 79 miners who worked in the local pits.

- Spotted near Sankeys Corner -

A gentle ferret around Chase Terrace will ease us back into exploratory exercises whereby we undertake a circuit of Cannock Road, Ironstone Road and Princess Street. Our silly songs for the day both have a soap opera link as 'My Name is Frank Butcher' meets 'Grandad's Motto', the latter performed by Stan Richards who played Seth Armstrong in Emmerdale - let's hope the Chairman doesn't take the "eat all, sup all, pay nowt" advice too literally! Two potential pub stops are noted but neither the Victoria nor the Hazelwood seem to open on Friday lunchtime so we gather snaps of a Methodist Chapel before D9 gets distracted by some vintage buses on Corner Garage's side yard. Have you all missed seeing that bald spot?!

- The Wych Elm -

If you'd asked us to guess the first Hub watering hole of 2022 never in a million years would we have said the Firs Club, yet that's where we open our accounts for the year over a Carling each. That unexpected treat sets us up nicely for a tour of other nearby establishments in the form of the Wych Elm (corporate Marston's where our efforts on the dartboard betray a clear lack of match practice) and Sankey's Tap House. The second of those is a Bridge Cross Rd micropub that initially eludes us due to a hospital appointment but then magically opens up after all - make mine a pint of Hartlebury APA please barman. Rope-end light fittings and high stools provide the backdrop to a delayed bout of Popmaster - we score 27 points on Round 1.

- And the 2021 Awards Go To... -

So far so good and the number 8 bus is on the scene again to carry us the very short distance down to Chasetown. Having sampled the Uxbridge Arms and the Junction on previous forays, we concentrate on the Miner's Rest which has been given the full Joules treatment and looks spectacular as a result. Dark wood and stylised breweriana abounds in creating the ideal setting for holding the (very belated) 2021 Hub Awards. Our illustrious founder Charles Pemberton Rowbottom III is in attendance to announce the runners and riders: Pub of the Year was Ilkeston's Burnt Pig, Mr D9 claimed the annual discount and WME Whirlwind rightfully regains his Pub Games crown

- D9 Destroyer at the Double -

Talking of sporting segments, D9 Destroyer is determined to stamp his early authority over our 2022 darts proceedings - he'd already racked up a healthy lead on the Wych Elm oche before delivering a coup-de-grace double 12 checkout in the Jiggers Whistle, take that! This newish micropub is one of two jigger-related watering holes in Brownhills these days, neither of which existed when the Board first toured the town back in 2011. Both namings take inspiration from tragic miner Jack Taylor who perished in a 1950s pit accident - the giant stainless steel statue on the Town Hall roundabout is also called Jigger in his honour. 

- McDonald's no more -

After two relatively recent pub arrivals we pause to reflect on a departure, albeit the Warreners Arms ceased trading many moons ago and was converted into a McDonalds restaurant. That too has now bitten the dust and the cleared site is currently gaining footings for an apartment block. The A452 Chester Road then brings us to the Anchor Inn, situated beside its namesake bridge on the Wyrley & Essington Canal. This Marston's establishment was rebuilt in the mid-1980s and seems rather quiet compared to the other places we've frequented today - a standard Carling is enough to say we've done it. 

- D9 Drives Home -

The Chairman has a nominal 7:30 pm curfew in mind so we summon a 10 double decker for our link back to Walsall. A splash and dash in the Tap & Tanner ensures the D9 bladder avoids any mishaps, leaving us free to finish off at Ale House Rock on the edges of Bilston. At first glance this is a very unpromising location, surrounded by offputting industrial units, but it is smartly kitted out inside and we get chatting to a bloke we think might be the owner. Before we know it, we've heard all about this chap's Smethwick upbringing and D9's supposed hometime has gone right out of the window. What a way to start another year of hubbing!