“A bit like the Antiques Roadshow for metal fans” Lisa Meyer

This was a finely balanced day of travel. We were to first take the train to Bridgwater in Somerset to see Pat a distant cousin on my maternal grandmother’s side, then a train to Bristol for a quick beer with my friends Will and Helen and then on to Birmingham New Street to meet up with Stu McKinlay and head out to The Black Country.

We presented bright and early at Totnes Station on a beautiful crisp morning. Soon we were ripping up through the west country and through the Somerset landscape. Somerset is famous for being flat which I find amusing as it is almost like no one notices the rest of southern Britian which is also basically flat. Hills take on a different meaning when you hail from Wellington.

Pat collected us in a taxi from the station and we travelled to her local YMCA where a café operates. We had a delicious brunch and a good chat before taxi-ing back to the station and catching the train to Bristol. There we met Will and wandered to The Barley Mow . Owned by Bristol Beer Factory, The Barley Mow is a comfortable meeting of traditional pub and new craft brewer. Helen joined us fresh from a flight anxiety de-stressing flight. We fitted in a pint and ½ and some good catching up before catching the train to Birmingham.

At Birmingham we met Stu under the giant bull. There he stood in camouflage hot pants and pink Dr Martins. We were headed for the Black Country, a traditional and conservative part of the country. We were clearly going to blend in. Into an Uber that stunk of school disinfectant: “Smells clean yeah? You like it?” and we were off through the sprawling Birmingham expanse with only a few near miss accidents along the way.
We were dropped at our hotel on Castle Hill and checked in. Castle Hill is a hill which acts as a giant roundabout like a big, inverted version of the Basin Reserve. Oh, and it actually has a castle on it.

The old Station Hotel was caked in white paint and felt like we were the only guests. We dumped our stuff in our room, met up with Stu and set off for the pubs.
First stop was Ma Pardoes . It is a famous “Home Brew Pub” , which is the old term for what today we would simply call a brew pub. We piled in to see a cash only sign so then all had to traipse up to the money machine up the road. Once back we drank our way through the beers. All of the beers were basically milds, some described as pale milds, some described as mild, some as bitter. They were all delicious. We got a table and steak , gammon and egg, and a chili were ordered.
Then we caught an uber to The Beacon. Another brew pub this one is famous for its Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild.  We ordered pints and got a seat at a pew opposite a bunch of lads. Soon the ice was broken and tall tales, and then life tales were flowing. One chap told us he didn’t know how we drank beer. Stu asked him what he did drink clearly thinking the answer would be cider or vodka , I could feel the answer coming: “lager!” . Funny how once ale was the wholesome British product and bier was the pernicious hopped product from the continent. Now the traditional product of Britain is scary “beer” and the continental article is good old lager.
Another chap told us how he paused his life in London to tend to his dad as he was dying. Now his dad was lingering, and he was left in a state of stasis.

A bunch of locals asked where we were staying. Upon hearing they exclaimed “oh no! Ya don’t wanta be stayin a that oudun place, it’s hountard don’t ya know?, TV shows bout it un everything!”

The Birmingham, Aston, Black Country area gave the world heavy metal. Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death and yes if you must Led Zeppelin all hail from this wonderful part of the world. So it totally conformed to my view of things when a couple of old school Black Country metal heads appeared at our table. One of them had such a strong accent, he was 100% Black Country Metal and 90% incomprehensible. Still some things transcend language \m/.

The Beacon brews a range of beers I would consider most of them in the mild category. They are famous for Dark Ruby an old school (as in pre world wars) style mild at 6% abv. As the night wore on and we took pint after pint the whole pub became family. I had most definitely taken drink. Before piling out to an Uber back to the hotel hugs were exchanged with the locals. Mum thought one of them was going to break her ribs. She survived.

When I told certain Londoners we were coming to the Black Country they screwed their noses up and said “pretty sure there is nothing there, its a shit hole” but let me tell you there is plenty there and it is wonderful.