Adam & Eve, Cheltenham

As I write this post, pubs everywhere have been forced to shut up shop in the wake of the global Coronavirus pandemic. That some of these pubs may struggle to re-open again seems a very real possibility at this time, which is of course small-beer when set against the bigger picture of loss of life, and the potential collapse of our precious health service. It is however, sadly ironic that the social distancing required to tackle the spread of this virus, can itself affect our health in less obvious ways. Because for most of us, human contact and the kind of socialising that's at the very heart of pub-going, isn't an optional extra to a healthy and happy life, it's essential to our mental wellbeing.

All pubs fulfil this vital social role to some degree. For many of us, if we didn't already know it, this sudden absence in our social lives will have highlighted the true value of pubs, a value that goes beyond their role as mere purveyors of alcoholic drinks.

Whilst drinking the very best beers, wines, and ciders at home remains an epicurean pleasure that's thankfully still open to most of us, for me, and many pub-goers like me, this represents just a fraction of the pleasure derived from spending time at the pub in good company. Perhaps this awful and utterly depressing health crisis will be the thing that finally opens peoples eyes to how special pubs can be, and the important place they still occupy in our increasingly fractured society.

The Adam & Eve

What would turn out to be my last proper weekend away before lockdown was a trip to Gloucestershire in late March, and even this was touch-and-go given that it was during the latter stages of yet another devastating Severn flood. As it was, Tewkesbury was damp, but very much open for business, and I'm so glad that I went even though some of the pubs I was aiming to visit were closed due to the flooding. I finished the weekend with a short Sunday stopover in Cheltenham, the town braced for a deluge of its own given that this was the weekend before race week...

Now I've got into the slightly lazy habit of heading straight to the Bath Road when in Cheltenham. The new-ish Bath Road Beers bottle shop/micropub has lately become the go-to venue for more 'modern' styles of beer in Cheltenham, and as such it's been a while since I've visited anywhere new, different, or indeed any of my old favourites. This time I fancied a change, and with the benefit of hindsight I'm very glad that I did.

I like to think I know my way around most of Cheltenham pubs, but the fact is there are still plenty that I've never been to, including a good few that represent the towns longstanding skittles tradition. I had a couple of pubs in mind that day, including a large estate pub in the leafy post-war suburbs that would have to wait for a less rainy day.

The Adam & Eve is just a short walk from the town centre in an area I've never properly explored. Quite why or how I've managed to miss the Adam & Eve all these years is a bit of a mystery though. It's such a well-loved pub locally, a former Good Beer Guide regular that nobody I know has a bad word for, even though it seems to have fallen off the beer enthusiasts radar in recent years. This is an Arkells Brewery pub, so you'll find no murky craft beers or cutting-edge imported hop-monsters here. Just a solid, traditional, locally special backstreet boozer, serving the local beers its loyal locals want.

It's likely that pubs like the Adam & Eve will be missed more than most by their locals during this crisis. When I popped in at the crack of opening time on Sunday, I don't think I could have got through the door any earlier, and yet a scattering of locals were already settling in for the afternoon. A couple of chaps methodically working their way through a game at the Dartboard. A smartly dressed elderly couple occupying a prime position near the door, all the better to greet friends and acquaintances as they arrived, myself included. A handful of bar flies of course, chewing the fat with the gaffer over the first pint of the day. And half a dozen regulars grouped around a table on the edge of the Skittle Alley, the unmistakable banter of a serious card game that looked like it would go on for most of the afternoon. I had a pint of something good from the local brewery, I don't recall what it was. Watching the timeless workings of a solid traditional locals pub on that most traditional of all pub sessions is thirsty work after all.

The Adam & Eve is one of perhaps a dozen or so venues in Cheltenham for Skittles. The alley located slap-bang in the middle of the pub, which must dominate proceedings when a noisy match is progress. The pub hasn't always had this slightly unusual layout. The story goes that the pub was originally just the left-hand side of the current building, the alley running down the right-hand wall and projecting out to the rear of the building. Needless to say this was something of a noise issue for their immediate neighbours, so when the chance arose the brewery bought the property to the right of the pub and knocked through. At a stroke doubling the size of the pub, putting the alley in the centre of the resulting space and no longer adjoining a residential property. That's real dedication to Skittling! Or perhaps an acknowledgment by the brewery of the serious trade that Skittles brings to pubs like the Adam & Eve.

When this lockdown ends, and pubs are finally allowed to re-open, I doubt whether the locals of the Adam & Eve will have gotten so used to drinking at home that they won't be rushing back to the pub for the Sunday session. Proper locals pubs like the Adam & Eve are social-centres first and foremost, and represent what pubgoing is all about in my view. When this lockdown ends, it's pubs like the Adam & Eve that I'll be rushing back to.

Greasley Castle, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire

This was originally going to be a 'before-and-after' post on the Greasley Castle. As it stand it's merely the 'before' that you see here, the 'after' will have to wait until the travel restrictions we're all labouring under are lifted and I can finally return to Eastwood. These photographs were taken almost a year ago as part of an exploration of pubs in the Eastwood area, taking advantage of travel on the Trent Barton Rainbow 1 bus route on a rainy midweek afternoon. There's a lot to explore on this popular route because the whole area is very well pubbed, many of which are very good pubs indeed. Needless to say I didn't manage even the half of it that day, and have been looking for an opportunity to revisit the area ever since...

The Greasley Castle pub is itself unfinished business for me. When I popped in for a pint and a chat with the landlord that day it was clear that things were about to change at the pub, and change for the better I was assured. So the pub that you see here, whilst certainly attractive and traditional enough (certainly for my tastes), was perhaps not showing at its best after several years in the hands of a locally unpopular national pubco. In an area that's now regarded as something of a beery destination by those in the know, literally awash with new-ish micropubs as well as some very highly regarded traditional older boozers, the Greasley Castle had perhaps fallen behind some of the local competition. Enter Derbyshire pub chain the Pub People Co, who have good form revitalising pubs like this in the Derby and Notts area. As it happens, the pub was due to close for a welcome refurbishment within days of my visit.

The Greasley Castle is one of many Hardys & Hansons pubs in the area that subsequently passed into the hands of Greene King following the unfortunate family sell-out. The painting below, which hopefully still hangs on the wall of the bar, shows the pub in its former 'Kimberley Ales' livery, a common sight throughout the area given Eastwoods close proximity to the now closed brewery. This was 'Kimberley Country' back then, and the traditional dark Mild and refreshing Bitter were popular with local drinkers in a way that some of the replacements from Bury St Edmunds don't seem to be, which probably explains why the Greasley Castle has always served local guest beers, including longstanding Derby and Midlands favourite Draught Bass.

What was probably a multi-room pub in its original guise has been opened out over the years to form a single room, albeit retaining three distinct areas. The larger bar area is clearly the social hub of the pub, the place to prop up the bar and chew the fat over a pint, but there's also a cosy lounge/snug to the rear (above), and a smaller tile-floored area that was home to the pubs Dartboard when I visited. Televised sport is clearly very important at a pub like the Greasley Castle, but so too are traditional pub games, as evidenced by the shelf-full of plaques and trophies for that most traditional of pub games, Dominoes.

It's not at all clear at this time whether the Wednesday 5' & 3's Domino session is still going strong at the pub, or indeed whether the Darts throw has survived this most recent refurbishment. All of which I'm keen to discover on a future visit whenever that might be. One other thing I'm particularly keen to explore is the newly spruced-up patio to the rear of the pub, because the Greasley Castle, in common with many community locals in this neck of the woods, was once a pub for the local Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire game of Long Alley Skittles. The pubs outdoor skittle alley was certainly still in situ at the time of my visit, though sadly not in any state to be viewed or photographed. It may still be there underneath the garden furniture, so I'm keen to record its existence even if it may never see action in a game of skittles again.