Following In Martin’s Footsteps – Burntwood

That Martin Taylor, he knows his pubs….

On my recent jaunt into Collymore Corner – also known as Cannock Chase – I thought I’d see if I could tick off a Midlands boozer the doyen of Britain’s pubs hadn’t visited.

It can’t be that difficult surely…I know, let’s go to Burntwood.

In fact, whilst I’m there I’ll take a photo of the old sixties style shopping centre with Heron Foods and BetFred next to each other…no one else has does that – Oh I’ve just seen the boy Taylor’s post!

Blimey, he’s even taken a picture of the iconic miner and pit pony statue in the centre of town so what else can I do?

534 – Sankey’s Tap House WS7 2BX is not in the old school shopping precinct and yes – before you say it – Martin has been there before me as well.

Although with City’s impending points deduction he might have been scouting out Chasetown’s ground for a pre-match pub visit in a couple of years.

It’s a unit in Lambourne House and flagged up as Burntwood’s first Micropub although it doesn’t appear to have any competition at all in the centre and is a welcome addition to the drinking scene.

Martin has covered all this far better than me and you can read about it here but at least it was open at midday on a Wednesday, which means it has proper pub hours and the barmaid was cleaning the windows when I arrived having had all the carpets steam cleaned.

It was a friendly place and the selection of beer was excellent with a cracking half of #wetFebruary (Dancing Duck) hitting the spot.

A bloke came in and perched himself next to the bar and was great value and basically said if you work hard, you can finish early and come had have a pint whereas procrastinators can’t!   I liked his viewpoint…

(not wearing  a Hi-Viz jacket on this occasion)

However, the beauty of inter blog rivalry means I can look at Martin’s gag fest and see exactly the same bloke sitting at the same position at the bar in a Hi-viz jacket.

Clearly a regular in a pub that is open six days out of seven and thriving in an area that needs a boozer and is attracting locals as well as random blokes from Cambridge and Derbyshire.

Duncan and Si will no doubt be in here chatting with the bloke at the bar and drinking some top notch beer before the GBG churns out another 500 tap houses open for 26 minutes per week.

(Look, more Ember Inns)

A great pub, well worth a visit and you know you’ll be following in the footsteps of the Fens’ finest!