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A Shropshire Pub Crawl
(with a little help from Leicester Branch)

Saturday 2nd May 2009

We were pleased to have been offered the chance of joining Leicester Branch on their trip to Shropshire and four of our number happily agreed.

We were collected from the 3 Pots, promptly at 10:00am for the drive to our first stop off - Bridgnorth.

This is divided into two - High Town & Low Town. Unsurprisingly, High Town is on top of a hill & Low Town is at the bottom, next to the river. We were dropped off in High Town & told we would be collected in 3 hours time from the Severn Valley Railway Station which is in Low Town. This seemed to be an excellent arrangement - no hills to climb!

There are 6 pubs in Bridgnorth listed in the 2009 GBG, but one claimed not to open until 5pm even on Saturdays! We started off in the Kings Head, a very pleasant, renovated, 16th Century coaching inn, which now has a Stable Bar & courtyard behind it. The Stable bar was offering Bridgnorth Brewery Best Bitter & Apley Ale, along with Wye Valley HPA.

Our next call was the Friars Inn, tucked away in a courtyard off the High Street. It is one of Bridgnorth's oldest surviving pubs. The Friars was offering two from Ma Pardoe's Olde Swan - Original & Entire as well as Ludlow Best & Wye Valley HPA

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We now decided to walk down to Low Town & on the way came across the Black Boy - not in the guide, but it looked too tempting to pass. There was live music in the lounge (£5pp admission), so we went into the bar to listen for free! They had Hobson's Best Bitter, Wye Valley HPA & Charles Wells Bombardier on offer. Like most of the pubs we visited, they were displaying the Locale stickers & serving LocAles.

Having reached Low Town we went into the Black Horse, just over the river bridge. This turned out to be what can only be described as a football pub - they had at least one, often two screens in each room all showing the same match! However, there was a good selection of beers - including Keltek Golden Lance, Worfield Shropshire Pride, Three Tuns XXX &, my favourite, Bathams Best Bitter - and we were able to find a quiet spot in the sun away from the football.

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As it was now getting close to departure time we headed for the Severn Valley Railway's Railwaymans Arms at Bridgnorth Station. There was an impressive range of beers available here, including Hobson's Best, Cottage Slumdog Jack, Wem Cascade, Kempsey Dragon's Breath, Titanic Stout & Nautical Mild &, last but not least, Bathams Bitter. To make the visit complete, 71000, Duke of Gloucester was in steam at the platform, looking magnificent.

So, back to the coach & our next call - the All Nations (GBG09 p414) at Madeley. This has been a brew pub for many years & is currently home to the Worfield Brewery. The beers available were three of their own - Dabley Ale, Gold & Coalport Dodger Mild; plus Weetwood Old Dog Bitter

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Next stop was the Royal Oak at Ellerdine Heath (GBG09 p411). Known as 'The Tiddly' and despite being in a somewhat remote location, maintains an impressive range of beers. We were able to choose from Salopian Barry's Mild (named after the landlord) & Shropshire Gold, Ludlow Gold, Hobson's Best & Wye Valley Hereford Pale Ale.

Our last stop was at the Crown at Oakengates, and guess what, they were having a beer festival with over 60 beers available!
Whilst choice is generally a good thing, it can sometimes become a bit overwhelming........... so, I confess, we went next door for an Indian meal, having only tried a couple of beers.

We arrived back at the 3 Pots somewhere around 9:30pm after a most enjoyable day. Our thanks to Keith Satterley for his careful planning (as usual) and also to Dennis our driver for a smooth easy trip (as usual).

There are further trip invitations from Leicester (& Loughborough) Branch on our diary webpage, I recommend them......

Words by Alan
Photos by Alan & Chris

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