Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • March – Ye Olde Griffin Hotel

    March – Ye Olde Griffin Hotel

    This is a grand former coaching hotel and it is much larger than I had expected, quite a quirky building. It’s operated by Stonegate, who purchased it from Bramwell Pubs when they went under a few years ago. Bramwell had commenced a large refurbishment of the premises, with an upgrade to the hotel rooms upstairs, and some modernisation throughout. CAMRA note that there are rumours that the pub is haunted and if anywhere does have ghosts, this is the type of pub that would.

    The grand interior of the hotel and the listed buildings records note that there are elements from the sixteenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the side wings were added during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), so it has been most changed over the years.

    I looked through some old newspapers and I quite liked the ad in 1900 that the hotel placed, looking for “a sharp, active boy, about 14, wanted as a billiard marker”. What kind of job is that? Sounds a good one though.

    There were six real ale options on, again for today, surprisingly generic. I opted for the Sea Fury from Sharp’s as I’ve never had that and it was fine, clean tastes, appropriate temperature and all that. I’d have rather had a darker beer though, the choice was a bit all too similar for my liking. Anyway, I ordered my half a pint and was told that it was £2.70. I must admit to saying “£5.40 for a pint of Sea Fury?” in an unimpressed manner and the staff member remembered he had poured me half a pint eight seconds before and told me that it was £1.35. That pricing is very reasonable indeed.

    What an awesome menu for anyone going in on their own. Really well thought through that is. Anyway, onto TripAdvisor.

    “We advertise on booking.com /laterooms etc that at the weekend we are open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays at 2am , we even supply earplugs to the rooms.”

    Someone complained about the noise and I think it’s fair to say that if you want to operate a hotel, having loud music until 2am is beyond brave. The hotel has some of the poorest ratings in the town, it’s not exactly a surprise reading this management response.

    “Really sorry for your nights sleep but we can’t do any more to inform customers of the weekend noise and looking back over TRIPADVISOR it is mentioned on numerous occasions.”

    And another poor review about the noise. It could be suggested there’s an obvious thing that the pub could do about the loud music that they play until 2am… And I’m even slightly humoured that the hotel is surprised that this is a recurrent problem on TripAdvisor.

    “All rooms have secondary glazing and we offer earplugs.”

    It’s almost as if there’s a theme here in the reviews that the hotel has to reply to….

    “When we arrived at ye olde griffin car park we greeted by the sight of a man urinating openly and we saw his private parts too , don’t think that was necessary as there where men’s toilets inside the pub,”

    At least this customer had a different issue.

    During my visit the pub was having problems with some customers who were being a little too exuberant. By ‘having problems’, I mean that they weren’t doing anything about it. But, ignoring the near riot going on, the pub was otherwise clean, comfortable and there were plenty of quiet areas to hide in. The prices, once queried, were cheap and the food being brought out seemed fine, with the food being well reviewed in the pub.

  • March – The Acre

    March – The Acre

    This town centre pub is operated by Greene King, taking its name from the road that it’s located on, Acre Road. It has a decent location near to the river, I can imagine it’s rather pleasant during the summer months.

    The pub interior, which was clean and comfortable. There was a choice of different tables throughout the pub, with a contemporary feel to the whole design.

    The choice was, well, let’s just leave that there. It’s a Greene King pub which nearly always means that it isn’t going to trouble the Good Beer Guide.

    This was the pub’s effort at serving half a pint, pretty dreadful. The real ale itself though was well kept, at the appropriate temperature and had a depth of flavour, so I was not displeased at their Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. Their food reviews are also towards the higher end for a Greene King pub, with many people dining when I was there. On that subject, onto TripAdvisor…

    “Your continual reference to your close friendship with Gordon Ramsey failed to impress, as did your general conduct in this unfortunate incident. It would perhaps be better to take your future custom to establishments that are impressed with your famous friends but not the Acre.”

    This is the pub’s reply to a review and I can quite imagine how this one played out….. I do like listening to a customer who claims that they’re well-connected.

    “As we don’t do a dollop of chillie , you were charged for chillie and chips with an extra charge for the loading of cheese and bacon.”

    A customer ordered chips with “a dollop of chilli” and wondered why the pub got confused…. Although, I like the idea of a dollop being an official menu item.

    All in all, this was a perfectly acceptable pub, although the craft beer options are zero and the real ale options aren’t going to set the world alight. The environment was comfortable though and all the customers appeared to be enjoying their food, so it’s probably a reliable choice for food.

  • March – The Ship Inn

    March – The Ship Inn

    This is one of two pubs in March which are listed in the Good Beer Guide and it’s the only town centre pub of the pair. It’s located in an interesting building which dates to 1680 and which has two storeys and an attic, along with a thatched roof. I did note through a search of old newspapers that in March 1906, a Louis Fytche was fined 10 shillings, with 5 shillings costs, for being drink at the Ship Inn. This might not be particularly notable, other than he was the landlord….

    The welcome was friendly and efficient, with the pub being clean, warm and comfortable. The beer selection didn’t particularly excite me, although they did have five real ales on. The options were unfortunately what I’d consider to be quite generic, I’d rather have had something a little more innovative, especially as CAMRA report this to be a freehouse which can therefore order what it wants. The Timothy Taylor’s Landlord was not the best kept that I’ve had, although it was drinkable and not quite at the stage I needed to return it.

    There was nothing particularly wrong here and it’s clearly a popular pub with locals, but I couldn’t help thinking that I wasn’t sure that there was anything notable I could mention.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Summary

    GeoGuessr 2 – Summary

    GEOGUESSR 2 : I DON’T WANT BLOOD ON MY CARROT

    So, this is now the summary given that GeoGuessr 2 has been completed. In short, we’re just using GeoGuessr to get a random location in the UK (there are some rules we’ve set regarding this, but pretty much anywhere) and we’re then going there. The aim of these adventures, if there is one, is to show that whatever random location we get that there’s a story to be told about the local area. Our first trip was to St. Osyth in Essex, the second, this one, was to Wolseley Bridge in Staffordshire.

    I’d say that this was another trip which showed that there was plenty of history to be found, although unlike with St. Osyth, we spent more time in the local area rather than Wolseley Bridge itself. We did though go to three pubs in Rugeley, as well as a fish & chip shop, pubs in Bloxwich and also in Birmingham. We also had the ridiculously good fortune to get a pub as our GeoGuess2 location (or at least, a few feet away), which was the Wolseley Arms.

    Below are the individual posts from the weekend, which contain a little less history than the trip to St. Osyth. We also never got round to doing any video, but we’ll try that on the next one. We do know where the next location is (we do that when we reach the random point that we were given by GeoGuessr last time), but that can be a surprise for everyone else for a while longer (not that I imagine that anyone will lose any sleep over that). The walk to the actual location was a little muddier than we’d have ideally liked, but that just all adds to the adventure and the excitement. And, although I didn’t dare say it at the time, Nathan sliding down a muddy bank was one of the highlights.

    Other highlights include the Vine Inn in Rugeley, the ridiculous amount of chips at the Jolly Fryer in Rugeley and the wonderful pubs in Birmingham including the Pint Shop and the Head of Steam. Not to mention the trip to Bloxwich and the history we found there. We learned a lot about Staffordshire and also about Birmingham, ticking off several pubs in the Good Beer Guide along the way.

    And, one of those nice moments was on the train to Rugeley. We had spoken to a lady on the Megabus from Norwich to Birmingham, and then it transpired we sat opposite her on the train from Birmingham to Rugeley. Bearing in mind we didn’t get the first train to Rugeley, as we had Greggs to get, the chance of that seemed a little remote. And she also managed to guess that we chose a destination which was entirely random, even though we hadn’t at that stage given many clues of that. It was all destiny   🙂

    And, about the name of the weekend, which was I don’t want blood on my carrot. I gave Nathan a housewarming present of a carrot (I was given a carrot, which seemed superfluous to my life) which he was very excited about. He was planning to eat it, but failing that, he could share it with his rabbit. Anyway, I nearly sliced my finger open on the train (fortunately it didn’t really cut through the skin) and there was a joint effort to ensure that no blood fell onto Nathan’s present…… We succeeded, and either Nathan or his rabbit got the carrot as it arrived back into Norwich safely.

    Finally below, the individual posts I made about the weekend:

    INDEX (NB, these are reverse order, so the first post is at the bottom)

    Birmingham to Norwich Megabus

    Birmingham (Ibis Birmingham Bordesley Circus)

    Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Crossing the Sands by David Cox)

    Birmingham (Nathan on Sign)

    Birmingham (Bacchus Bar)

    Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Debtors’ Prison Door)

    Birmingham (Head of Steam)

    Birmingham (Pint Shop)

    Birmingham (Birmingham Cathedral)

    Birmingham (Canals)

    Birmingham (Primark)

    Bloxwich (Bloxwich Railway Station)

    Bloxwich (Bloxwich Showman)

    Bloxwich (Tom Major-Ball)

    Rugeley (Rugeley Town Railway Station)

    Rugeley (The Vine Inn)

    Rugeley (Bus Stop Gate)

    Rugeley (The Jolly Fryer)

    Rugeley (Rusty Barrel)

    Colwich Milestone

    Wolseley Arms

    Walking to the Location

    Rugeley (The Plaza)

    London Northwestern Railway Train to Rugeley Town

    It’s All About the Greggs

    And We’re Off (Norwich to Birmingham Megabus)

  • GeoGuessr 2 – (Birmingham to Norwich Megabus)

    GeoGuessr 2 – (Birmingham to Norwich Megabus)

    And all good things must come to an end. Although hopefully not Greggs, I’m hoping that lasts so far into the future that the mind cannot imagine a time when that will end. Anyway, I digress.

    We got to the stop in Birmingham with good time and then stood there looking vacant and confused (well, I did) for around fifteen minutes. It was unclear why the bus hadn’t yet arrived, until I thought it might be useful to look around the corner about three minutes before the bus was ready to go. I’m sure Nathan would have done the same, but what it did mean was that in effect we’d been standing in the wrong place…. I say I’m sure, but he might not have done, just for the record…

    I checked with the driver that the bus went to Norwich and then told him that I had a friend with me. I was partly hoping he just told me to get on and there wasn’t time to get Nathan, but the driver was helpful and suggested that I might want to collect Nathan from around the corner. Anyway, that done, we boarded and took our seats on the back row. This would have been really spacious if the end seats of the row in front weren’t reclined, but we had three seats between us which seemed enough.

    The bus journey was uneventful, other than for the watching of Friday Night Dinner and talking about Scott. Makes a change from talking about other people, so he should be honoured. We arrived back into Norwich pretty much on time and that marked an end to GeoGuessr2…..

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Ibis Birmingham Bordesley Circus)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Ibis Birmingham Bordesley Circus)

    I was pleased to get a hotel in Birmingham city centre at such a cheap rate, just over £30, on the Saturday before Christmas, which included breakfast. Thank goodness for the Accor sale….

    The view from the hotel window of, well, Birmingham. The check-in process was efficient, although I had to query where my drinks voucher was, which the staff member had forgotten. As seems to be typical of most Ibis hotels in the UK, they didn’t offer a welcome amenity, but Accor have told me to rate the hotel down when they don’t. The Ibis in Hull offered me a Mars bar as a welcome amenity, which was more than satisfactory. Accor haven’t sent me a feedback form for this hotel, so they won’t get my thoughts on how they could offer a Mars bar to cater for those who are easily pleased.

    The festive Christmas tree in reception. I was pleased to note that the hotel wasn’t too Christmassy, as these things can be overdone.

    Since there was enough alcohol the night before, this was the free welcome drink we went for the following the morning. Bottled Pepsi Max. It’s a rockstar lifestyle…. Or something like that. The hotel didn’t worry about providing a glass, they must have known I have low standards.

    The breakfast arrangement, which I’d say was better than average. The bacon was crispy and a bit hard, but that’s my favourite way of doing it as that means that the fat isn’t all raw and unrendered. The sausages, beans and hash browns were all fine, with the muffins and croissants being a little bland, although every Ibis in the UK seems to use the same supplier of products. The ham was excellent, so much so I managed to eat nearly all of it, with yoghurts, fruit and cereals also available. I’m not sure that breakfast is necessarily worth the £10 it usually costs if purchased separately, but as it was included in the room rate, I was entirely content.

    Overall, everything was fine in the hotel, it was quiet, clean and well maintained. The staff were helpful, the breakfast was of the expected standard and the Christmas decorations weren’t excessive. Perfectly decent value for money.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Crossing the Sands by David Cox)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Crossing the Sands by David Cox)

    This is pretty much the only painting that we looked at within the museum and art gallery, primarily as we headed to look at the exhibit on Birmingham’s history in the museum section. But, for sake of completeness and since I took a photo of it, here it is….

    It’s Crossing the Sands by David Cox, painted in 1848 and donated to the gallery in 1882. One interesting element is that the donor was Joseph Henry Nettlefold, who gave the artwork on the condition that the gallery opened to the public on Sundays. It’s perhaps fortunate that he did, since we were visiting the gallery on a Sunday….. The gallery holds a relatively large collection of works by Cox, who was a local man who was born and died in Birmingham, working here between 1841 and 1859.

    This particular artwork shows market people crossing the sands of Morecambe Bay on horses, making efforts to try and stay warm in the cold winds.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Nathan on Sign)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Nathan on Sign)

    This is the quality content that we’re now reduced to, taking photos of Nathan outside of a pawnbrokers called Nathan…..

  • Norwich – Toiletgate 2

    We’ve had a minor issue, as mentioned here, with regards to this Greater Anglia bullet train having to stop at numerous stops en route for prolonged periods so customers can use the station facilities. What the driver of this train seems unaware of is that customers in the first few rows of the front carriage can hear his full dialogue to the guard and others, which has so far included the c-word, the f-word, the s-word and a word I’ve had to look up on Google. Anyway, we’ve reached Thetford and the train I’m connecting to is being delayed behind this one, so I shouldn’t miss it…..

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Bacchus Bar)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Bacchus Bar)

    I quite like Nicholson’s pubs, not necessarily for the food element, but because they have some interesting and historic buildings amongst their estate. This one in Birmingham was recommended by Nathan because of its notable cellar bar location and quirky interior, although the most historic that they can claim is that “it’s located on one of the oldest streets in Birmingham”.

    The pub was busy and it’s certainly something a little different.

    The bar area is at one end of the pub and it’s not really entirely adequate in terms of its size or location, made worse as they’d shut half of it. It’s so small that it’s a little hard to even queue, as it’s challenging for departing customers to make their way back out to the main area. But, I can imagine it’d be expensive to change this now, with the staff serving customers in turn and efficiently, so it didn’t prove to be a problem.

    More internal decoration. One element became evident to me for the first time when visiting the pub, which is that Nicholson’s pubs all have a speciality, whether it be sausages, fish or pies for example. However, I can’t quite see how the menu differed at this pub, which specialised in fish, compared to any other Nicholson’s outlet, so it all felt just a little fake. Nathan was busy deciding that some of the paintings on the walls looked like members of the Beatles, although I wasn’t personally entirely convinced.

    I do recommend the Nicholson’s app, which Nathan has finally managed to download onto his Nokia 3310. Today’s little offer, for me at least, was the £1 Sipsmith chocolate orange gin and tonic. The staff at the bar were friendly and helpful, although this offer did proof challenging for the staff member as she had never done one. It’s also, to be fair, a fiddly drink with numerous elements and it’s also served warm. However, she carefully looked at the brand standards chart and delivered the product efficiently, albeit after a few minutes. Another customer though asked me how I got this drink for one pound, since he’d just spent considerably more on it.

    And here it is, my first ever hot gin and tonic. This was certainly improved by the strong orange flavour, and smell, released by the warmth of the drink and I can imagine this is a rather lovely alcoholic option to end the evening with.

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor.

    “After investigating this, I must offer my sincerest apologies. You are 100% correct with your review of us. On Monday, we had an extremely quiet day. My team were completing detailed cleaning throughout the day and they neglected you as a dining guests. This is not an excuse as it certainly should not have happened. I am really sorry for this poor service. It is not indicative of the service we offer and if you look at all of our reviews through Trip Advisor and Google, we generally get it spot on.”

    The pub is well reviewed on TripAdvisor, but I thought that this was a really professional response from the management, recognising a problem and apologising for it. That would reassure me, rather than the bland responses given by some companies such as Greene King who offer some generic piffle in reply to many reviews.

    “A barmaid stole from my father, she claimed that her gave her a £5 note when he only had £10s in his wallet, he hadn’t long been to a cashpoint. Obviously only a small amount but still enough to annoy us and ensure that none of us come back again. It’s a shame because it is one of the nicest looking bars in Birmingham, they maybe need to hire less desperate/smarter staff.”

    And another example of why TripAdvisor is letting venues down. This transpired to be a false allegation, but yet posters can still make these allegations at will.

    “The glass your friends gin was served in was a 12oz highball glass. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how many crystal cut gin glasses we order, people feel it is their right to steal them, which then has an impact on our lovely guests we usally get in. We do try to keep them ordered, but they are very expensive and they just disappear. Its a cruel world.”

    And I feel sorry for the pub with this, I don’t like how people feel that it’s fine to pinch stuff.

    All in all, a perfectly acceptable pub with friendly and engaging service. It was busy when we went, but that’s not exactly a surprise given it was the Saturday late afternoon before Christmas in a large city centre location. The atmosphere was vibrant, but laid-back, in the pub and I did like the efforts made with the decor to ensure that it wasn’t just a dingy cellar bar.