You left me at my strategic vantage point of a beer canalside table supping a pint of GK IPA, whilst my fellow cyclist worked overtime to mend a brace of flat tyres.
The Willington to Alrewas/Barton towpath route adjacent to the Trent & Mersey Canal looked infinitely more feasible after a ‘livener’ at the Mill House and it was full steam ahead…
…For at least half a mile before the pedal flew off my bike!
It wasn’t a comedy bike like the sort of one Tommy Cooper or Laurel and Hardy would have ridden but it was degenerating into pure slapstick.
The bike guru Rod is a man not known to get stressed and we had about three attempts at replacing aforementioned pedal; managing to negotiate at least another 100 yards before we accepted defeat.
However, all wasn’t lost, we checked on the phone for the ever reliable Cycling 2000 shop and sussed out it was within walking distance. So, this day of cycling, which was rapidly disintegrating, was still retrievable.
Luckily for us, our on foot walk took us past another boozer that wasn’t on our ‘to do’ list but the sight of a mobility scooter outside meant we had to go in.
Actually, there were a couple on the bench working their way through around 12 cans of lager ( I think it was Tennents Super) who looked like they might be stopping there for some while and one of them acted as an unofficial tourist guide and was great value.
A pair of pub characters by the canal if you like and they had already been clocked by Rod on his earlier venture to Burton’s favourite bike shop (I might be asking them for sponsorship soon!)
They would have been more than welcome in 365 – The Navigation DE14 2PT which is in the Horninglow Street area of Burton and looked very much like Wickingman territory.
Burton scarves, pool table,
Sky/BT Sports,
two dart boards,
ABC playing “Look of Love” in the background and Bass
meant it was as pukka Burton as you could get.
A friendly landlady and a sheet recording some kind of score tally behind the bar, which resulted in a prize for regulars is always a good sign too.
There are plenty of chimney pots in this area and backing onto a canal mooring area means that there can be no excuses from canal guru Pete Allen on this occasion regarding non-attendance!
A wet led canal pub with a good amount of punters in for a Wednesday afternoon and there was a mix with a bloke engrossed in his book sitting near the dartboard
whilst some more lively lads were on the pool table and I reckon this place won’t trouble the GBG but it was proper pubbery of the highest order.
However, whilst I could have sat there for far longer,
Rod was beginning to talk about crankshafts and pedals so we set off for Burton’s best bike shop Cycling 2000 our last hope of salvaging this expedition…
Life After Football 
My jealousy knows no bounds. How was the Bass ?
NB I tried to work Grealish into my comment (You took to that pint with (G)re(a)lish but it was rubbish.
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A great effort! I popped into a boozer today post match so will work in the match somehow…the bass was excellent…a proper pub with high strength lager drinkers on bench outside 👍
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Your view on how regularly you have a Bass you really enjoy would interest the Bass bores on here; you probably drink it in more different places than anyone.
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I am a fully paid up member of the Bass bores club! It was definitely worth it in this place…best bass I have consistently is in The Swan in Milton Derbyshire…it’s terrific every time
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I think that might be a new one. WhatPub has Ped as the only regular unless you tell me otherwise 😊.
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I don’t know if it’s regular but was very good! I’ll have to revisit to check 😀🍻🔺
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I have the perfect excuse for never having been in the pub…it’s too close to the canal!
Allow me to explain my rationale before too many heads explode! For an evening stop, we’re looking for food and drink and, as the town centre is a fair way from the canal we often walk by quite a few pubs before we get to town. (I have a feeling that we’ve moored near there only the once, in 2009, but I don’t remember walking past The Navigation.) Sometimes, we’ll stop off at one of these pubs on the way back to the boat, but with a town like Burton, we’ve not visited often enough to do it justice.
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That logic sounds perfect! You’re missing a trick with this place though…. although no food so maybe just a quick half….
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If we stop at that end of Burton, then I’ll pop in for a swift one. (If they did cling film wrapped rolls, it’d be perfect for lunch!)
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“For at least half a mile before the pedal flew off my bike!”
Good lord! You planned all of these near canal pubs didn’t you?
“Luckily for us, our on foot walk took us past another boozer that wasn’t on our ‘to do’ list but the sight of a mobility scooter outside meant we had to go in.”
See? 🙂
“meant it was as pukka Burton as you could get.”
No argument here.
“and I reckon this place won’t trouble the GBG but it was proper pubbery of the highest order.”
What one might call an Alan Winfield special? 🙂
“so we set off for Burton’s best bike shop Cycling 2000 our last hope of salvaging this expedition…”
Third time’s the charm!
Cheers
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RIP Alan 🍻 yes a proper Alan Winfield boozer 🍻
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Hilarious post LAF. Though I’m having second thoughts about going up the shed for that bike now as i have no bike guru to ride with…
Point of order with the blog post title – shouldn’t that be ‘the pedal comes off’?
I think that this is really a thinly veiled ‘pub walk whilst pushing a bicycle’….
Interesting to see the contrast between old and new canal-side pubs in part 1 and 2. This is a great old pub of the classic canal-side genre – reminds me of the one I used to go to in the old part of Loughborough when I was a student (a while ago now)….
Look of Love and a pint of Bass – pub blogging doesn’t get any better than that….
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You’re right re pedals and surprisingly Russ hasn’t picked me up on that yet 😉😀 what started as a cycling marathon has degenerated/ improved to a remarkably pleasant pub sesh! Like you I definitely prefer the old style classic canal boozer….this definitely fits the bill and the couple outside were great value…maybe Heaven 17 temptation and Bass might just top it 😉 is that canalside pub in Loughborough still there…what a great pub town
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I doubt that it is still there but I’m struggling to remember it now LAF. It was near Ratcliffe Road were I was living and close to the canal which is a couple of streets away. I remember it as a Marstons pub doing cask Pedigree, and I recall it was an old corner terrace house style building. I see the Boat Inn is nearby – but I don’t think that was it.
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I’m not too far from Loughborough so I’ll investigate….
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That’s got the second series sorted then…
‘Gone Cycling II – The Search for Pub Hermit’s Lost Pub’
🙂
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Cycling (or drinking) on towpaths between derby and Southampton! It’s a winner! 🍻😉
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Only just read these comments – I think the pub that pubhermit is describing was The Albion Inn in Loughborough, which sadly is no more (I believe), but was one of the best canalside pubs we ever visited!
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Oh no! How many new canal pubs have been built in last 30 years? Apart from mill house in stretton I can’t imagine too many?
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I’ll second that… and the good thing is towpaths are flat aren’t they? (Just as well as my son’s bike is a fixed single gear variety – extremely useful for flat country 🙂
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Yes I’m a big fan of cycling on flat pieces of tarmac!!! I’ll work out the derby to Oxford route you can sort out the post Oxford stretch 😉🍻
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