Hourglass Not Feeling Squeeze

“Take it to the bridge, throw it overboard
See if it can swim, back up to the shore
No one’s in the house, everyone is out
All the lights are on and the blinds are down.”

A classic chorus from Difford and Tilbrook – or Squeeze to their mates – on one of their best tunes, Hourglass.

I say one of the best as, clearly no tune betters “Up The Junction,” but this catchy little ditty certainly stands the test of time.

Why one earth is he waffling on about a Squeeze hit from the eighties I hear you cry?  Well, it’s a tough school this pub blogging lark and there’s a lot of jousting for top music links in the titles.

Duncan’s most recent effort saw him deliver a Fugees classic (they did the Roberta Flack cover Dunc) of “Killin Me Softly ” – read here – whilst Si went all Madness on us with “Welcome To The House of Plum.” – read here.

Martin is by far the most prolific blogger so he has to dig out plenty and plumps for Billy Bragg and “Northern Industrial Town,” on his latest post…read here.

So any opportunity you get then the ante must be upped and after my recent foray into Leicestershire then it was time to head back into Staffordshire and a trip to Tutbury (the link is coming…hang on)

This is the sort of village our transatlantic visitors such as Dave and Dick would love as it’s got some marvellous listed buildings, lots of local independent shops and, most importantly of all, some excellent boozers.

745 – The Hourglass DE13 9LP is the new kid on the block as it has only been open for just over ten weeks and is situated in an 18^th century Grade II building that has been empty since ChatterBox Ceramic Cafe shut down.

It’s a cracking little place and has a courtyard out the back and a top notch selection of beer, including Bass!

The barmaid was really chatty and selling the place to me as it has the bonus of being a midday opener so will pick up the trade of punters like me and Dave.

I’ve not seen Dave for years when I bumped into him in The Old Cottage Tavern in Burton, which was set to close a week later – read it here.

I didn’t realise at the time it was the same bloke but what a top class #pubman he is.  We quickly struck up a conversation and this exiled Stokie was reminiscing about lunchtime drinking at work (yes kids, that really did happen…) pub crawls and he looked in great nick for 75 proving that beer really is good for you.

The Bass was on form, the conversation was flowing and I left Dave as he was working his way through the beer board on a Thursday afternoon.

As more and more trad pubs shut their doors for good they are still being replaced by this new wave of smaller pubs but the conversations are good, the beer flows and it feels like a pub should do.

What a time to be alive!