The small railway vehicle heads downhill on the 0.8 mile branch line which can claim to be the shortest in Europe.
After crossing the ring road, a short walk along Stourbridge High Street leads to the Talbot Hotel, a traditional coaching inn which dates back to the 1630s.
I had time to take a photo of the High Street from the second floor bedroom before noticing that the shower fitting was damaged and leaking into the bath. After returning to reception via the creaking staircase I was able to change keys for a different room.
The hall passage to the rear second floor bedroom gave views of the hotel's open courtyard. The tower of St Thomas' Church beyond could be seen from this bedroom. All the floors appear to be sloping at second floor level!
A short walk via Victoria Passage led to Barbridge, based in an old retail unit since 2015.
Barbridge, Stourbridge [Photo: Mark Geeson] |
A blackboard lists four cask beers and four keg beers. My first beer here was Black Iris Snake Eyes, a 3.8% ABV hoppy pale (£2.90 pint 'Happy Hour'). Blues music was playing on the sound system. Our attempts to revisit this bar on subsequent days were unsuccessful as it may have closed early.
As Craddock's Brewery is based at the Duke William, Stourbridge, this was the next pub we decided to visit.
The Duke William was the second Craddock's pub to open in Stourbridge (in 2009). The brewery was installed at the Duke William in March 2011.
Trevor - The Duke William |
Pieminister pies are available with a blackboard above the fireplace giving further details.
My first beer here was Craddock's King's Escape, a 4.7% ABV cask ale. Craddock's pubs have a loyalty card system where stickers are given for each beer and once a card is filled with eight stickers a free beer is offered. Our group were soon able to fill a card!
The Vine Inn aka The Bull and Bladder - Farnham Trubbellers assemble! |
The public bar on the right of the entrance has an Edwardian bar and a three-bay bar-back with a central clock and a bell for calling 'time'. On arrival, only Batham's Bitter was available but this was the beer that I had been looking forward to drinking.
As the public bar was already busy our large group found tables in another of the rooms and carried our beers through.
One of the large cheese and onion cobs from the bar made an ideal accompaniment for a favourite beer. Martin Taylor's Bull & Bladdered blog post, about his visit to the Vine in April 2019, includes photos of the public bar and a cob at this 'classic pub' which is featured in CAMRA's inventory of historic pub interiors.
A long room at the back of the building has further seating and a darts board over a fire place.
Thanks to an earlier arrangement made by Mark Geeson, our group was privileged to be invited on a tour of the large cellar by landlord Tom. He mentioned that at busy times, the pub can empty a hogshead (54 gallons - shown in photo) in a day. There were also barrels (36 gallons) of Batham's beer in the cellar. (For comparison, the largest size container of cask ale seen in pubs in the south of England is usually a firkin (9 gallons) although brewers supplying CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival are asked to use kilderkins (18 gallons)).
Photo: Mark Geeson |
After this enjoyable introduction to the Black Country and its beers we would catch a bus back to Stourbridge and our hotel for rest before a visit to Walsall the next day.
Enjoyed reading the Black Country write-ups, especially the Bull & Bladder which is one of my favorite pubs visited in 2019. Must get back that way soon - Mrs PropUptheBar will be placated to trek around more pubs with me if she gets to go on that great looking Stourbridge branch train!
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