32.
Leisurely Sunday east of Leamington Spa by bike,
Remembering an excellent Sunday pub crawl
last year, Dave and I decided to have another go at one. Sunday crawls, with
the prospect of Monday the next day, mean that stupid amounts of booze are not
drunk and one paces oneself and has adequate solids and water stops during the
day. We managed 16 pubs.
Getting on a train from
A little way up the road, we came to Offchurch, and another chain pub the Stag's Head. Again, it
was better than we had expected and the garden was very good and not in a car
park. The bar area, serving Jennings Cumberland, Burton, Tetley and Bombardier
was split into a spartan drinking area and a more
plush foody bit, though a bonus of the foody bit was that you were served by one of the three waitresses.
Bar snacks included real pork scratchings too. After
quite a long cycle, bringing the day's mileage to 9.9, we found the Fox and
Hen, an awful prefabricated hut of a pub which had its garden facing the wrong
way. Instead of a nice hillside scene, all you can see is the car park. Though
the pub was light and airy, it had no atmosphere. I had a half of draught Worthingtons, Dave a pissflow Tetleys, and I have to say that in fairness they tasted
quite nice. Pedigree was off.
Two miles further on we came to the small
town of Southam and though there were about half a dozen
pubs, we decided to not get bogged down and just pay a visit to the Olde Mint, which is housed in a splendid building. The
interior is a little bit of a letdown, having a bit of a lush boy feel, but on
the whole was OK. It was decided that solids were required and they actually do
very good value toasties and baguettes, which we
washed down with halves of Hancocks
HB and Theakstone's Best (about £1.88 the
round) whilst sitting on green cast iron chairs in their very nice courtyard.
Another three miles further took us to the Barley Mow at Stockton [decided
against the working men's club] which was a very average pub, though the Greene
King IPA was on offer at only £1.50 a pint. The Abbot was more pricey. A typical village local, not particularly
attractive but having its own charm - tight little bar with two serving areas,
cider drinking locals and a very austere gents with a 15 foot long trough.
A brief cycle North-Eastwards brought us
to the Grand Union Canal, and the Boat at Stockton Locks. At first glance, this
looked awful as there was a kids playground on one
side, but on the other side there was a nice beer garden by the canal which was
very pleasant. Once again, the quality of beer was very good, and we had a
choice of Hook Norton Best, Old Hooky, London Pride and Bass. Bar snacks were
good, and included ice creams. Polishing off our beers in these pleasant
surroundings, we pushed on down the Grand Union Canal which had a very large
number of locks on this section (downhill for us), and eventually espied the
Blue Lias, a wonderfully geological name for a pub
with a splendid picture of a dinosaur on the sign, so it got extra points for
that. From across the canal it looked even better than the Boat, so we made our
minds up to give it lots of points.
Not to be disappointed, it hadn't been too
foodified on the inside and retained much of its
charm. The beer selection was excellent and tasted good too, featuring Everards Tiger, Old Hooky, Bass, Bombardier, Old Speckled
Hen and Abbot, though by our departure half of these had gone. The bar area is
a bit cramped, but had a reasonable spread of bar snacks and there were some OK
barmaids. The garden outside is excellent, right next to the canal, and there
is a hump backed bridge with a quiet road next to the pub. Fantastic on a hot
day!
Barely a mile further on,
we reached the Two Boats at Long Itchington, again on
the canal, and so close to it that there is only room for a strip of trestle
tables outside. Once again the beer was very good quality, and surprisingly
cheap. Dave had Worthingtons, I had Bass Mild, though we could have plumped for Old
Hooky, Bass or Abbot. Unfortunately a lack of bar snacks and serving maidens
cost it points, but a good pub nonetheless. Across the canal we could see the Cuttle Inn so went to have a look to see if it was worth a
visit. The place is a bit of a dump, with common families running amock in there, but we stayed for a swift half as they had Mitchells and Butler Mild on, in addition to Ansells bitter and something which didn't register as I was
trying to block the whole episode out of my mind.
Just up the main road and into the village
of Long Itchington is the Duck on the Pond, which
looks like a very foody pub where we engaged in high
powered conversation with the Landlady's four year old daughter. Though foody, the pub is still good and does good beer - Old
Speckled Hen and the Charles Wells products Eagle, Bombarier
and Summer Solstice. Toilets had a fantastic traditional Victorian partitioned
trough, which earned extra points. It had now reached about 6pm so thoughts of
the train were returning. Passing a pub that was shut in the main village, we
then saw the Green Man so stopped for one (I felt a bit pissed at this stage).
The toilets in this pub are most noteworthy because the trough has what can
only be described as a piss-guard from the Industrial Revolution, an enormous
tilted metal sheet on legs which does a fine job of protecting the shoes from
errant drops of urine. Again, a pleasant village pub, with low beams, nice
nooks and good ale - Tetleys, Ansells
Mild, Theakston's Best and our choice, Timothy Taylor
Landlord. Also worthy of mention was a barrel which had been converted to a
stool by addition of a circular squab of red velvet material to one end.
A long pedal followed, which served well
to sober us a little, and we managed to get the customary cycle through a field
done, coming out in the village of Marton. There may
well have been more pubs once, but we could only find the one on the main road,
the Black Horse, which didn't have a village pub feel to it, perhaps because
the map revealed that we were only 7 miles from Coventry. Nonetheless, it was
still quite good and we had a choice of Tetley, Pedigree and
Retracing our steps slightly brought us to
another track across some fields, though this one was paved, and soon we
arrived at the Plough at Eathorpe. Not such a good
pub this one, and highly foody, we were asked to go to
the other bar as we weren't eating. Only IPA and Abbot were on, and not that
spectacular. The garden was quite nice, empty and very leafy, the sort of place
where you could merrily get shitfaced. Oh, and I had
a rare half pint glass, the normal shape, but with the number 478 below the
crest and 1964 on either side. A vintage one perhaps?
Hunningham, despite its name does not have Germans, was the
next stop, at the Red Lion on a bridge over the river Leam.
Again, a well presented chain pub, though the toilets are a bit of a challenge
to find. It had Abbot and IPA and a barmaid who looked a bit like Kerry Katona, but less plastic. Thus although the garden was
nice, we decided to drink indoors here. Final country pub was the Bull in
Weston under Wetherley, on a corner in the middle of
nowhere. Pleasant enough on the inside, and the garden, although next to the
road, is as good a place as any to watch the sun set. Nothing
else distinctive really, a selection of Greene King products - IPA, Abbot and
XX Mild available for purchase.
There then followed a four mile cycle into
Leamington Spa, and just enough time to have a swift
half near the station. This was taken in the Pig and Fiddle, a slightly Irish
pub, which was not very nice though all the misfits drinking in there seemed to
be minding their own business. We had to have Flowers IPA from a keg as the
Bass had run out. Drinking up, we got back to the station with 5 minutes to
spare, and once back in Oxford, rewarded ourselves for our 35 miles cycling (3
hours 28 minutes in the saddle) with some fish and chips from Summertown. A good crawl in new territory, and on the whole a success with good
beer at most pubs. Particularly the Blue Lias.
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 21st June 2003.