Last year I was struggling for blog material and inspiration, as is still the case nowadays. Then I heard that The Falcon in Willenhall was to close and also that the Robin Hood had new licensees so would need a re-visit, then suddenly the idea of a bird themed blog came to mind.

The Falcon Inn. Gomer Street West, Willenhall.

Class pub was this. Not just a permanent fixture in The Good Beer Guide but it’s place was cemented in. Me, Daz and Neil turned up a few days before it’s closure last May. We walked into the back room, totally unaware of the dartboard behind the door and almost walked into a match, bringing back memories of when I was about 8 and my brother chucked a dart that suck in my head. My forehead is somewhat bigger than a triple 20 so he didn’t need the aim of Michael Van Gerwen. Had I known I was entering a live sporting field of play I might have got naked first. I’ve always wanted to do a streak.

Anyway the pub was busy. We had a pint in each room and lamented this sad loss. The three of us then headed for The Robin Hood.

The Robin Hood. 54 The Crescent, Willenhall.

There was a quiz in progress as we approached. I’m generally shit at these but was on 2 points before I’d even got through the door. The pub was very busy for a Thursday evening. We squeezed into a corner and enjoyed fine ale and the quiz in general. Some of the team names were a bit risque with Quiz On My face being my favourite with Growlergate being another reflecting the big news story of the time about Angela Rayner apparently flashing her mott at Boris Johnson in the House Of Commons.

We did well on the quiz to be fair. Daz reckoned we were in second place on the questions we’d heard since arriving. There was then a round on Game Of Thrones. A few people protested they’d never watched it but the quiz master didn’t care. As a former presenter of quizzes myself you really shouldn’t do rounds where some teams don’t stand a chance of scoring any points. Each to their own though. This was a great visit. I gather the pub has been extended since so I need to go again. We finished our drinks, Daz and Neil went back To The Falcon, and I have no idea what I did next. I’m sure it would have involved a 529 then a pint.

The White Swan, 276 Bradford Street, Digbeth, Birmingham.

Daz and myself visited this place just before lockdown 1 in 2020 and were saddened to hear it was closing down. It reopened in 2021 though and I finally got around to going again in May 2022. Digbeth is just the best part of Birmingham for drinking and The White Swan is the stand out pub.

There were only a couple in when I arrived and they were clearly first timers as the man of the pair sought directions to the toilets from the very friendly barman. I finally had a pint of Fixed Wheel beer which was decent. I then needed the loo before departing.

Next to the toilet door was a poster for a retro gaming night, which I stopped to read. Whilst doing so I let out a pretty decent fart, thinking there is nobody about, the perfect crime. But as soon as the anal noise subsided the door behind me opened. It was the lady from the couple. She made a comment about the poster. I muttered an agreement, dashed into the loo and basically left her to it. I have visions of them on the night back in their local. “We went in this magnificent pub in Digbeth but there was this right dirty bastard…….”.

Anyway this a superb pub and I was going to end this report by saying that if you haven’t been, then you need to pretend you are in the band T-Rex as this is a White Swan that needs to be ridden. But unfortunately it closed again in November. Let’s hope it gets taken on again.

The one that flew away. The Dead Pigeon, 3787 High Street, Chatham.

You know how our phones are apparently listening to us? Well Josh called to talk about the best man suit fitting. Suddenly my Facebook feed was full of suit hire ads. I told Daz about this blog prior to our visit to The Falcon, and I then randomly on Facebook got an advert for The Dead Pigeon pub in Chatham. It had to be done.

I booked the train. I even splashed out £70 on a hotel, on the river and just 5 minutes walk from the pub in question. I am a bugger for staying in hotels miles from where I need to be to save money. I finally learned the error of my ways when I had a ticket to see Imagine Dragons in Manchester in 2015 but booked a b & b in Eccles to save money. There was a train strike that day and I didn’t fancy getting a taxi or the tram back from Manchester late at night so had a pub crawl of Eccles instead.

Anyway this trip didn’t happen as it was scuppered by the very first of the current wave of train srikes. Arse, I would still like to go one day though.

The Goose. Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton.

I’ve been trying to get the last tick for this blog for ages. The Eagle in Buxton, whilst a decent pub didn’t really glean much material and a couple of attempts to go to one in Solihull have failed so this Wednesday just gone me and Dave headed to Wolverhampton to revisit this place.

It took ages for a 529 to turn up in Walsall and then I kid you not, 5 of them arrived together. 3 went straight into not in service mode. Whilst waiting to depart, another one turned up. We then had a procession of 3 529’s all heading to Wolverhampton. It felt a bit Italian Job but without the gold although by the time we got to Wolvo I could have happily pushed one of the buses down a cliff. I ambled down the stairs casually. I was the last to get off the bus and the driver tried to shut the doors on me. “Ah, we know you love Walsall. We are taking you back there”. He did let me off though

This pub feels very much like a Wetherspoons but isn’t. The beer choice wasn’t up to much so I went for a Strongbow Dark Fruit. No Madri or Inch’s in a pub nowadays is poor form.

The decor and the lamps in here have a cheap motel feel, which is totally fine by me. There wasn’t many other customers although one of them had won so much on the fruit machine it took a good couple of minutes listening to that clanking noise as it paid out. There were two pool tables which excited Dave but made me yawn quite loudly. The only decent song was Stop by the Spice Girls, which to be fair is far from the top of the list of their best songs.

We only had one pint in here before heading to The Posada. On the way back to Walsall we stopped in Willenhall. Dave was quite eager to get in the Wetherspoons and ran down the stairs of bus, missing the bottom two and going flying causing everyone on the lower deck to point and either laugh or tut depending on their perspective. I again ambled casually down, arriving on the lower deck looking quite cool, causing everyone to point and mutter either “isn’t he hunky?” or “look at his cracking arse” depending on their perspective.

So that’s it for this edition. I’d love to do a volume 2 so if you know of a pub with a bird that I’ve not yet spotted in it’s name that’s easyish to get to from Walsall please let me know. I’m starting the next one in The Drunken Duck in Walsall Wood. See you there Chris and Mary.