The Castle Hotel, Wem, Shropshire

In the dark days before the craft beer boom, when massively hopped pale ales were the preserve of homebrewers with faulty scales, and barrel-aged sours an old-fangled Belgian speciality, regional breweries reigned supreme in the sleepy provinces of England. And for the most-part that was a good thing.

The Midlands was pretty well served with regional tastes, with even the larger Burton brewers churning out passable sweetish session beers and classic dark milds. True, the choice of beer styles was abysmal, but for lovers of truly sessionable beers in proper local pubs, hindsight tells us that we'd really never had it so good. Until we went on holiday that is...

North Shropshire was somewhere I visited quite regularly in the 90's, sometimes by barge, one of the most drink-friendly ways of getting around rural pubs. I quickly grew to love the area for it's traditional pubs and green hilly vistas, but not it has to be said its rather dull beer. Back then, the unholy trinity of Whitbread brewed Chesters, Greenall Whitley, and Wem Ales held sway in this neck of the woods, and a blander selection of beers you couldn't hope to find. Dreadfully cheap post-war concoctions, and the very worst 60's keg bitters and milds, begrudgingly casked to cater for the growing demand for real ale.

So the village of Wem hasn't been high on my list of go-to places for the past few decades, stigmatised in my mind by association, which is pretty daft I know but then I 'really' didn't like Wem Ales! All three of these breweries have now passed into the brewing history books, their timely closure creating space locally for newer, far better beers. Salopian of Shrewsbury is the new small regional in Shropshire, and a revived Joule's Brewery has a presence in many of the towns and larger villages around their base in Market Drayton, which happily for me includes Wem where the brewery run not one, but two of the village pubs.

Joule's were a massive Staffordshire brewing concern that eventually fell victim to takeover and subsequent closure by Bass in the 1970's. The brewery was revived in 2010, and has rapidly expanded its pub estate to 40 'Tap Houses', representing a wide cross-section of village and town-centre communities but with a common theme. The house style is very traditional, with plenty of wood on show and retaining as much of the heritage and character of the pub as possible, as it has been at The Castle Hotel in Wem. I've no idea what The Castle was like prior to Joule's acquisition, but chatting with the hospitable locals, the consensus is they've done a marvellous job of refurbishing and revitalising the pub. Multiple rooms serve different functions, including a large dining area and adjoining lounge-bar, and a public bar which manages to be both plainly functional and cosily comfortable. The Joule's Pale Ale was in superb condition, and went a long way to banishing those earlier memories of dull Shropshire beer.

The public bar functions as the space for games play at the pub, Darts and Dominoes the principal games on offer. A good few of the more traditional pubs we visited in Shrewsbury and to the north are conspicuously Dominoes pubs, none more so than the Castle where a game had just finished when we arrived on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. Handy, as we had our own mini-tournament running through the week and this gave us the opportunity for a quick game to move things on. The two gentlemen who'd just finished their game are stalwarts of the local Wem Darts & Dominoes League, and were more than happy to answer my questions about the pub and league. Both the Dominoes and Darts teams at The Castle are firmly mid-table in the league, but the Dominoes team are proud holders of the Consolation Knockout Shield (below) for the 2018/19 season.

The Wem league commenced as a competition shortly after the war in 1948, making the current 2018/19 season its 70th anniversary year. 12 teams compete in each of the two sections from pubs and clubs in and around Wem, which is a healthy enough number though down from 14 teams in the 2011/12 season.

"...and the winner of 'Four Best Domino Players In Wem' goes to..."

The equipment for Dominoes play can be found easily enough, a pair of table-toppers and brass Crib Boards located beneath the Domino Clock to the left of the bar counter (below). The Dartboard may be less easy to find, often hidden as it is behind a door that carries the scoreboard (bottom).