Ye Olde Boars Head, Middleton part 3

So, we had quite a chat with Leanne. She told us a little about Samuel Bamford, a local poet and reformer, and his connection with the pub.  In 1817 he was imprisoned in the New Bailey Prison in Salford on suspicion of high treason (this was on account of his political activities). From there he was taken to London and examined before the Privy Council presided over by Lord Sidmouth. After promising to be of future good behaviour he was released and was then able to return to live in his cottage at Middleton with his wife Jemima.

In August 1819, Bamford led a group from Middleton to St Peter's Fields, to attend a meeting pressing for parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws, where they witnessed the Peterloo Massacre. Bamford was arrested and charged with treason. Although the evidence showed that neither he nor any of his group had been involved in the violence, he was nevertheless found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to a year in Lincoln gaol. 

Bamford was the author of poetry, and his Passages in the Life of a Radical (1840 – 1844) is an authoritative history of the condition of the working classes in the years after the Battle of Waterloo.

Samuel Bamford pictured inside Ye Olde Boars Head

Sadly, Leanne had to go and get ready for her night out with her family and left us to our own devices. (Incidentally, I tried to read a couple of Mr Bamfords poems and found them unintelligible. Maybe it's my lack of education. Maybe they're crap. I don't know which.)

So we decided to go and pester a few of the locals in the bar. This is where Clint met Rod.

Leanne just walked me straight up to a bloke who was enjoying his drink with a friend, and barged in and exclaimed, "This is Clint, he's after a bit of local history, see ya later!"

Needless to say, I felt on the spot, but clearly Leanne knew what she was doing, as she'd introduced me to quite possibly the ultimate font of local (and international) knowledge. Rod is a lovely elderly chap, but at first he didn't seem to have anything to say, but with a little coercing and few more sips of his ale, he had a few tales to tell. One of those tales I am gonna share with you now.

      As Rod was an older gent, he was now retired, but in his working years, he was some sort of travel agent, and he used to do his fair share of globe-trotting. He was on a visit to Australia, and one night he was out at the local watering hole, and he proceeded to  get extremely drunk with two locals. After what he said was "A cracking night out", he thanked the the lads who he was drinking with, handed them his business card and then left. He had a few more days in Oz, then flew home. 

         About 6 months later, he was sat at home when his phone rang. It was his mate Paddy (is there a Paddy in every local pub?) Paddy told Rod that two big blokes were in the pub looking for him, and that they sounded "funny". Rod thought he'd better go and check this out, so he made his way down to the pub, and there was the two gents he'd been drinking with in Oz! They were in Blighty buying a boat on the south coast and, while in England, they made their way up to Middleton and asked for him at the travel agents he worked at. The staff there had, of course, refused to divulge any personal info, so they asked a local copper, who told them "Yeah! 'course I know Rod, he drinks in the Boars head!" So off to the pub they went, met up with Rod and they carried on their piss up! 

           Rod was a real nice bloke, and he was an infectious character, as the guys from Oz would tell you, I could have stood and talked to him all night, unfortunately he couldn't stop as his wife had had a tumble and broke her hip, and he was on his way to visit her. Fingers crossed that Mrs Rod was Ok...

Shortly after this I went outside for a fag and met another social leper (someone's gotta pay extra taxes, we're all in this together you know). We got talking and somehow the conversation got around to Rod and his exploits. This guy (sorry, but I've forgotten his name {cardinal sin for a blogger}) told me another story about the traveller. Once he was in New York at some big shindig and, after a few sherbets, was dared by one of his party to de-bag one of the other guests. So Rod crept up behind a guy, grabbed hold of his trousers and swiftly yanked 'em down, which all of Rods friends thought hilarious. It was only when the trouser-less man turned round that Rod realised it was Freddie Laker, the king of budget air fares!!! Not a particularly shrewd move for someone who works in the travel industry!

Sadly, by the time I'd finished my ciggy, Rod had left and I wasn't able to verify this tale with him, but I like to believe it's true.

There was a couple of guys with Rod who we had a chat with and they told us that Brian Kidd and Paul Scholes, both ex Manchester United, used to drink in the Boars Head. "Paul Scholes only ever drank orange juice, you know" one said. "Did he?" I asked. "Did he fuck!" he replied.

These gentlemen were obviously the early doors crowd and soon, they all left leaving me and my son alone to consider everything we'd heard. We thought we'd had a great start to our visit and even if we spoke to no-one else it had been worth the trip. We were chatting and I noticed a lady looking around the pub and thought she might be looking for us but after a couple of minutes came to the conclusion she was looking for friends who perhaps hadn't turned up yet. 

We were just discussing whether to go into the bar to try and engage some locals in conversation when a guy appeared at the doorway of the little room we were in. 

"Steve?" he enquired.

 "Yes" I replied.

"I'm Geoff Wellens." he said. "I'll just get a drink and I'll be with you.

We thought things were looking up. We weren't even sure whether he was going to turn up. After a couple of minutes he came back AND he had the lady who had been looking around the pub and her husband in tow. They'd turned up just to meet us after reading the piece in the paper! Things were just getting better and better!!!

Geoff, if you recall, was dads contact for the Middleton archaeological Society, and due to his kind words and contacts, he was the reason we made the front page. So we were both pleased he made it along. He told us he had returned early from a break in the national forest to come and see us, which was nice, but then he said that the day before he came back, the Friday, he was with his grandson, who was playing football against Moira united, Mine and Dads local football team. So 24 hours earlier, we were less than half a mile of each other... Talk about a small world...
               The Lady accompanying him was a regular local of Ye Olde Boars Head, Maggie, and she had dragged along her unwilling fella, Mike. He was not unwilling to meet us, you understand, but he was not happy about drinking in the Boars as he thought it was too expensive, and would much rather head down Wetherspoons for the cheap beer. I'd like to add, that beer must be proper cheap in and around Manchester, as I thought that the prices were quite good. Anyway, Mike reminded me of Gorgeous George, built like a brick shit-house, but dead likeable. But as every married/co-habiting bloke knows, no matter what you want/don't want, what she says, goes! He couldn't have been that bothered, cos the first thing he did was buy us a drink...
   Before long, Joanne, Maggie's niece, (I think..) joined us, along with her bloke, Aussie Dave! guess where he's from...
    So we all settled in for the night, and, unfortunately  this is where my information ends, as I remember drinking with them all night, but not much else...

Mike (Gorgeous George), Maggie, Joanne, Aussie Dave and Geoff Wellens

Sadly, a lot of my recollections are a bit blurry from this point, too. It seemed that everyone was in a race to buy the next round of drinks. The conversation became the normal thing in pubs, you know, putting the world to rights, talking bollocks, that sort of thing. At around 10 o'clock Geoff left and the rest of the crew decided they were going further into town (for cheaper beer) and asked us to join them, but, as we had been drinking since 4.30 we had to decline. It was time for pizza, a taxi and the hotel.

Next time we'll give our conclusions but for now, Cheers!

Ye Olde Boars Head, Middleton, Part 2

Anyway, this is me outside Ye Olde Boars Head in Middleton.

On arriving we entered and........bought a pint, of course. We had a bit of a nose round, getting a few strange looks as we examined all the old pictures on the walls and then the walls themselves. Then I asked the girl behind the bar if Leanne was around and after a few minutes she appeared. We made our introductions and we sat in one of the back rooms and had a chat. She told us a little about the pub and that, after my first call to her, she had gone straight to our blog and read it. This was promising after our previous dealings with managers. She then took us on a tour of the pub.

Turns out, not only were we lucky to have some time with the landlady, Leanne, but she also knew loads! She told us about how she was trying to get a bit of the history of the pub into a leaflet, and was hoping to do some tours. Surprisingly, it seems as though Middleton gets its fair share of our friends from across the pond. 

Canadians?

Shurrup Dad...

Anyway, I had noticed walking through Middleton on the way to the pub was a strange experience, starting from our hotel, we passed some nice housing estates and it seemed like a nice place to live. Then as we got closer to the centre, we started to see some some strange juxtaposition. For example, as we were looking for the St Leonards Church sign, we passed a cracking little lively pub, next to the church on the hill, which was in huge grounds, surrounded by cobbled roads, and next to that, there was a park with a feature bandstand. All looked brilliant. But then turn around 180 degrees, and there were the ugliest, run down parts of the town, all boarded up industrial units, probably 100 years old. I got the feeling that with a little investment on these run down areas, Middleton would be a gem of the area, especially with all the nice people we had met. 

 Middleton library

Middleton Park and Bandstand

I did see these things but it didn't register quite so much with me. I was seeing everything through a red haze and was fighting for breath in the thin atmosphere. I was now suffering for my sedentary lifestyle at this altitude (Oh all right...all I'd done was walk a couple of miles but it was uphill  for the first mile). 

The pub was originally three dwelling houses which were built around 1587 according to one source, but the date 1632 is cut into a stone lintel in the cellar. At some point the cottages were bought by the clergy from St Leonards church and the building was used as a courtroom. As you pass from the front lounge area into what was once outside but is now inside there is a trapdoor in the floor which leads down to a very small box-like room under the lounge. This is where the prisoners were kept while waiting to be bought before the magistrate. In the event the accused was found guilty and sentenced to death for his crime he was kept in this cell until he was taken to be hanged.......... at the church!!! 

Later an extension was added on one end  to create a bigger court and this now serves as the pubs function room named the Sessions room in honour of it's history.

The Sessions Room

One of the many interesting features of this room is the pub sign hanging on what was once the outside wall. It was here that Clint asked Leanne how long she had been at the pub and that little story was interesting to us. 

Her mother had worked at the pub as a young girl and met her father when he joined the pub football team. Years later Leanne went to work in Scotland and came home at Christmas to see her family. Her cousin was now running Ye Olde Boars Head and, being Christmas, was very busy. Leanne offered to help out behind the bar and has been there ever since and as manageress for the last 4 years. In a further twist, she employed a young man to work in the kitchen but they became very friendly and she had to sack him so that they could have a relationship as it would be frowned on by the brewery. They get married next year. How cools that?

The visit was getting better and better. Excellent sights. Excellent people, Excellent tales, and we were only on the first pint. Next blog we'll write about the people and tales they tell. 

This Blogger site gives us some excellent statistics, but the most interesting one is the audience. We have readers from all over the world, and truthfully, we would love to hear from you, So please, follow us on facebook, Search Ye Olde Innseekers, and come and chat to us online, tell us what you think, and hopefully, like our page.

Anyway... got 1 beer left, so I'll open that and toast to the next blog....

Cheers!

Ye Old Boars Head, Middleton, Part 1

More Press than Aldi....

Well, this is gonna be hard to beat. We have had quite a poor show in the past, but Middleton and its community have more than made up for it. These blogs we've been publishing are about the cards, and the pubs we visit, but this time round, the time leading up to the visit is, to us at least, just as appealing. 

Dad did the normal "pre-visit" check list. Contact the pub, search Google, look on facebook for any willing locals that would fancy meeting us for a beer, and maybe have a tale to tell us. Just so I don't miss any details  (and he's sat right next to me) I'll let Dad tell you about the people we spoke to before our visit...

  Firstly, I rang the pub and spoke to the manageress, Leanne. She turned out to be a diamond.  She said she would pass the word around and try and get the locals interested. Then I found Middleton Archaeological Society (MAS) so I posted a message on their facebook page asking if anyone could help. I got a message back from a Peter Alexander (Thanks Peter) who asked the members of MAS for their help and suggested a Mr Geoff Wellens would be a good chap to talk to. I searched facebook and found ONE Geoff Wellens and messaged him on the off chance that HE was the Geoff I was looking for. Over a week went by and I thought it was a dead end. but then I got a message from him and, after a little confusion (he thought I was trying to flog him something), he said he would see what he could do to drum up some interest.

Then I got an e-mail from a Chris Jones who works for the Middleton & North Manchester Guardian, a weekly newspaper in the area. Geoff had contacted him and told him all about us. He asked me to mail him back with a contact number, which I did. He rang me the next day and asked me loads of questions about me, my son, why we were doing this and how our wives felt about it. 

Then, a couple of days later I received a mail from Geoff saying that we were in the local paper and it was a good spread. Clint messaged me on facebook Wednesday posting me a link to this....

WE MADE THE FRONT PAGE!!!!! (bottom right)

and inside on page 8.....

and we got a bigger piece than Aldi's new store (page 11), and they're creating 15 new jobs! How mad's that??

As you can imagine, as soon as we saw this, we couldn't wait to get there. And this time, as I promised in the last blog, we were staying the night, so we could thoroughly enjoy the establishments board of fare. By the way, being on a budget, we booked a Travelodge just outside the town, and its a good job we aren't reviewing hotels, because this one was a right... (Careful Clint!) sorry Dad.... anyway, it weren't the best.

Us en route...

While we were prepping for the trip, maybe Thursday night, We decided that, being as though, A, we were on a budget, and B, we like to take in the sights, that we would walk the 2 miles from the hotel from hell to Ye Olde Boars Head (what a mistake! It looks flat on Google). So, as all great explorers do, we Google mapped our route. And we noticed something VERY interesting....

Not sure if we mentioned it in this blog, but our surname is Gardner.  And to be more specific, Dads full name is Stephen Leonard   Gardner (cheers Mum) (lol). On our virtual tour of Google Middleton, we spotted, just around the corner from Ye Olde Boars Head....

Which, was just around the corner from....

But to get to these, and Ye Olde Boars Head, we had to pass....

Although, truth be told, we may not have just walked by that last one...

Eventually we made it to Ye Olde Boars Head and met the lovely Leanne, landlady for the past five years, who was very helpful and gave us a tour of the pub and our FIRST Ye Olde Innseekers FREE PINT!!!! (and our first interesting tale, about herself and her family) despite trying to get the function room ready for a 50th birthday party and herself ready for a family evening out. 

Next time we'll go into more detail and bring you more tales of the inn-expected (get it??)

Cheers for now

The Three Swans, Market Harborough, Summary

February 11th 2013

All in all, I really liked the Three Swans. The staff were friendly and helpful and the customers were welcoming. We had one or two laughs, like when two ladies came in who, I would guess were in their 40s (hope I'm right). (you're not, mid 20's) When they ordered their drinks one of them asked for a particular wine and the barman thought it appropriate to point out the price of that beverage as "some of our OLDER customers" were shocked at the price. My son quickly pointed out, in front of the two ladies, his lack of diplomacy and when the poor man tried to recover  he made a pigs ear of it, so we asked him if we could get him a bigger shovel. Luckily for him the two ladies saw the funny side and we all had a laugh at his expense. 

My son and I also had a giggle over one of the locals who I won't identify. We saw him drink at least 5 pints and he was already in the pub when we got there. It was a few days after the sad death of the nurse at the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for severe morning sickness and, later in the night, the topic came up in conversation. Comments were passed on how sad the death was, whether there were any other factors that would compel the poor woman to take her own life, how much blame should be attached to the two Australian radio presenters, what action should be taken against them, should they be prosecuted, should they be sacked, should the radio station lose it's licence, etc., etc. But this guy just said " what was a nurse doing answering the phone"?.... After every comment..... No matter who said it..... Or what they said..... It was always "Yeah, but what was a nurse doing answering the phone"? 

The first time he said it I thought "Well, I suppose it's a fair question, but who else is gonna answer the phone in a hospital at night"? But after 6 or 7 times I was thinking "Who cares who answered the bloody phone". After the 12th or so time it got funny and by 16 or 17 I was in hysterics, so much so, that when he forgot to say it I was really disappointed.

I had a good night, even on the coffee, I was interested in the setting of the pub, the huge building it occupies, with it's outdoor features, it would be a nice summer pub. And inside, a very well kept Olde Worlde place, which has lost none of its history or character, making it a very welcoming pub. What normally happens when I've had a drink in a strange pub, is that after a few beers, I get brave and start some conversation with whoever is in earshot. maybe this time it was the caffeine kicking in, cos as normal, we were into some random drunken pub chat. The bloke on about the fecking nurse answering a phone might've been funny after a few pints, but when your sober as a judge, teeth itching from everyone around me drinking, he was starting to grate a little. Thank the lord when he finally shut up! (TBH, I'm being a bit mean, he was a nice bloke, but he did go on about that phone) 
Still, I had enjoyed the night, and its places like the Three Swans that make me feel good about the mammoth undertaking that Ye Olde Innseekers have ahead of us. Hopefully the next pub will be just as inviting, just as interesting, and just as welcoming, cos next time, I'll love it more, cos I'll be Drunk!!

To be honest, there's not a lot more to say about The Three Swans and that's mostly our fault. We didn't get to talk to many people because nobody knew we were going (The one fault I can  mention is that although I rang before we went and left a message for the manager and e-mailed her, twice, she couldn't be arsed to respond. Maybe if she had, we might have had more interest from the locals, but as she didn't, the locals didn't know we were turning up! Great Western take note. Poor customer relations). The few people that were there were very nice, as were the staff, but it was Monday, in December, two weeks before Christmas..... what do you expect? 

Anyway, as I said, this is down to us because we started by announcing where we were going ONE week before we went. This obviously isn't long enough for anyone to make plans to come and see us, so today we will tell you where we are going next and it's three weeks away (it was going to be a months notice but my son and I have been struggling to get the time together to write this), so hopefully we might get a better response. I've already been in touch with the next pub and the landlady seemed quite interested so keep your fingers crossed for us. One other thing, just to ensure that neither of us ever has to face the ignominy of being sober on one of these trips again, we promise that, for all future trips, we will stay overnight and party hard!!

We are going to create an event on Facebook for the next pub, and hopefully, any blog followers or Facebook friends will be kind enough to join us, come and see us and share a tale or two over half o' mild, so, for the big reveal, over to you Dad....

On Saturday 2nd March we are going to Ye Olde Boars Head, Long Street, Middleton. Lancashire M24 6UE (it's north of Manchester and west of Oldham). One final word about The Three Swans. The toilets were very nice, clean and smelt fresh. The Gents also contained a piece of artwork that ended up being our favourite photo of the evening and here it is.

 Cheers!!!

The Three Swans, Market Harborough, part 2

Sunday 13th January

Firstly, I must apologise for our tardiness in posting this part of our blog. It's now over a month since our visit but, what with Christmas and my wifes operation, I've been a bit busy ( I also came down with bloody norovirus the day before New Years Eve, had to cancel my party, gutted). We promise to be a bit more up to date in future.

Well, we think the "ghost" is Mr Fothergill. According to people we've spoken to all the strange happenings that have occurred started after his death and involve his portrait. This picture hangs close to the bar (sorry about the reflected light) and shows him (I think) looking quite stern.

 Mr Fothergill was landlord and owner between 1934 and 1953 and was considered an eccentric. He could,apparently, also be very rude, sometimes refusing to serve customers just because he took a dislike to them.

He wrote three books about his experiences in the licensing trade, An Innkeepers Diary in 1931 telling his reminiscences of being landlord of an inn in Thame, Oxfordshire (he was the first person to be published by the newly formed Penguin Books), Confessions of an Innkeeper in 1938 and My Three Inns in 1949.

When Mr Fothergill and his wife first arrived at the Three Swans she described it as "the foulest little pub possible, with dirty sheets" and he wrote "Inside the inn, however much dirt, not always apparent, the awful furniture, the beds, the rat holes, the wall papers coming away from the walls, the tiny unventilated lavatory on the first floor, used by the whole house, the bars and people of the town, and the strange stillness throughout, for no one seems to come in, you could see at once the building had a lovable character.

Well, that's enough copy/paste for now dad...(Didn't. It wouldn't work. Had to type the whole bloody lot out. Twice! And still wouldn't work. So I shortened it.) SO! The ghost stories are rife in the Three Swans. Room 33 is apparently haunted, not sure why, but the bar staff told us of a time when a guest bought a dog, and the dog refused to go into the room. Some cleaning staff refuse to go in, claiming that they feel like they're being watched (some folks will do owt to get out of work!). While we were there, one of the young barmen told one of the other patrons of an "eerie" corridor  where one would walk down it feeling perfectly fine, and then a person would feel a disturbing chill at a certain point along the corridor. She promptly made her way upstairs, then 2 minutes later, appeared back at the bar, stating "I could feel it! I could feel it!", so I thought, "I'm havin' some o' that!" then made my way upstairs to said corridor... load of bol... (Rubbish)... couldn't feel anything.

The ghost stories are numerous, to the point where a ghost hunting team have turned up with all their ecto1's and proton packs and spent the night. Apparently, they didn't find anything...

The best "story" (some would argue "coincidence") is the Ghost of John Fothergills painting. The painting was displayed in the pub shortly after his death and, as the tale goes, the next landlord's wife didn't like it up in the bar (it is a bit grim) (a bit?) and took it down and hung it up in the cellar, out of sight. The next day, a torrential rainstorm struck and flooded the basement, and the water level rose up and stopped..... at the bottom of John Fothergills portrait! (The water was probably too scared to go any further. Have you seen him? He could get a part time job as a child frightener!) Spooky eh? Another story tells of a woman who took down the picture while cleaning, and the day after she suffered an unfortunate incident with a horse and cart (made up the horse and cart bit, but she did die). Stories of Mr Fothergill tell of a mean and spiteful landlord while he was alive, and it seems that he hasn't chilled out any in death...

Personally, I love these old ghost stories, although I have never witnessed anything spooky, and don't really have any reason to believe in any form of afterlife, but these tales keep strangers talking in a pub on a cold Monday night in December, which is no bad thing.

We were also told that one of patrons in room 33 saw her bath water "parting" (like the Red Sea??), that one landlord moved the picture and promptly went bankrupt (what, overnight?) and that the last time the portrait was moved all the computers in the hotel went down. Spooky? (or bonkers) (note no question mark. Statement).

Anyway, back to reality, Mr Fothergill was considered such an interesting character that in 1981 he was the subject of a BBC play starring Robert Hardy. I haven't seen it so can't pass comment but if Robert Hardy was in it you'd expect it to be a decent piece of work.

The Three Swans is reputed to have a most famous patron some 350 years ago. On June 13th 1645 the Royalist army of Charles 1st were at Market Harborough when there was an attack by parliamentarians which led to the battle of Naseby a couple of days later. Before the battle took place the King himself is reported to have taken refreshment at the inn.

As with most Olde Inns, there is a rich and varied history, but the Three Swans has a published author, a ghost and a popular local figure all in one. Mr Fothergill has really given this cosy pub even more character than it had already, with even the young local barmen having a tale or two.
Enough history for now, next time we'll wrap up with some drunken tales and our thoughts on the evening.

The Three Swans, Market Harborough., part 1

15th December 2012

Well, that's me outside The Three Swans in Market Harborough last Monday night. We made it at last! However, lack of preparation on our part meant that we had no-one turn up to meet us again, but we'll go into that later. But we still had a good night (even though my son couldn't have a drink as he was driving. More on that later too). Now back to the pub.

The Three Swans was one of five coaching inns in Market Harborough (the other four being The Hind Hotel, The Peacock, The Angel and The Talbot) and was first mentioned in a will in 1517. Originally known as The Swanne, it changed it's name in 1790 to The Three Swans, presumably because the original sign, with one Swan (described as "the finest in all England"), had two more added in 1780.

The story goes that, at some point in the 18th century, a gentlemen in red hunting dress climbed out of a window upstairs during a wild party and sat on one of the swans on the sign which promptly snapped and fell to the ground taking the poor unfortunate hunter with it where the beak, "reportedly" , pierced his heart and he died!

So, yeah, No drinking. On the mother of all pub crawls, I wasn't drinking... It was my dads birthday, and mum was due in hospital on the Wednesday for her second hip replacement. Things have been pretty hectic just lately. I've been working all hours for a promotion, and dad has been taking care of mum, so YOIS pub crawl had been pushed to the back of our minds/lives, so as a likkle birthday treat for dad, I offered to drive just so we could get in another pub before mums op, and it was his birthday, and I had to be up at sparrow fart the next day as I was on earlies, so driving did seem the obvious choice. I really wanted to visit the next pub, so if that meant being on the wagon, so be it, but, with Gambrinus, the patron saint of beer, as my witness, I vow, from this moment on, never to be sober on this pub crawl again. I have let you down, and I have let myself down, and for that, I am truly sorry....

(sniff)

ANYWAY!!! Moving on... we were on a limited time-scale  as we didn't get there til 8, so I got straight on with some photos and sightseeing, and the place is HUGE! we parked at the back of the pub, and had to walk past a restaurant, hotel, dining area, and down a drive way to get to the front door. It's a very well kept, attractive place. We arrived at night, and all the Christmas decs lit up the courtyard, all very picturesque. So far, so good...

Back to the history. Nah, screw that for a bit. As Clint said, the place looks pretty good, even if it was dark. To draw a comparison with the Bears Head, Brereton, these were both coaching inns (admittedly, one in the middle of nowhere and one in a busy town centre) which had now had hotels built on to them, but, where the owners had made a complete pigs ear of the Bears Head, this pub has been done skilfully and tastefully. 

The Restaurant, patio and general appearance of the building are very pleasing to the eye and fit in with the surrounding buildings very well. The upstairs has been modelled in keeping with the rest of the place, even showing a cut-out in the wall of the original wattle and daub plaster at the top of the stairs. (we both had a good look, and we had a good chat about it, however, we both neglected to get a picture) (what a pair of numpties! We've gone there to record stuff, seen something interesting, chatted about it and then NOT took a picture!)

Any road up! (local South Derbyshire saying). We went in, ordered a beer (a Coffee) and had a look round. What I liked about the place was that it was like a proper pub, not too many customers (it was Monday night) but it was warm, friendly and welcoming.There were about 5 or 6 people in, one being a chap stood at the bar on his own. After a few minutes I took the bull by the horns and introduced myself. Turned out to be a good move...........

 We got settled in for the night, propping up the bar, with a coffee, (a beer) and started to introduce ourselves to the locals. We had some good and bad luck, as the local history expert had stood us up, (which may be a recurring theme) but we were stood next to a local, lived there all his life, and knew a little bit of the life and times of the Three Swans. What did surprise me, was the knowledge of the two young bar staff, both twenty some-things, and both of them had picked up some tales from somewhere, and both proved to be interesting and knowledgeable. They told us of the ghost, Mr Jonathan Fothergill.

Spooky!!! Well, we've been doing this for four hours now, believe it or not, and we've consumed too much Stella to carry on tonight (it's four minutes past midnight) so we'll leave it at that and carry on in a day or two with more details of Mr Fothergill, more history and a couple of laughs. In the meantime we'll have yet another Stella. Cheers!!!!!