The Vine (Bull & Bladder), Brierley Hill

The Vine page at the Bathams Brewery site - www.bathams.co.uk

The Vine page at the Bathams Brewery site - www.bathams.co.uk

The famous Bathams brewery tap with the Shakespearean inscription “Blessing of your heart – You brew good ale” running along the top. A cream coloured building with a central corridor leading to two rooms to the left and two bars to the right, further on are more rooms in what appears to have been an outdoor yard at one time. Apparently these rear rooms were once the brewery offices. The corridor is decorated with tiles showing the brewery symbol of a bull's head. On entering the main front bar all eyes turned briefly on the stranger who ordered a pint of mild and a pork pie, excellent value at £2.95 for both. Excellent quality too, of both beer and pie. Décor is plain old pub with traditional brown furniture, a bit rough round the edges perhaps but lived in and the pub was busy with happy punters in spite of it being a cold wet night.

An institution in its own right, the pub is a lot larger than the picture shows. It is a detached Victorian brick building, in half French mustard colour and half lighter colour (too dark to tell), with fantastic painted signing. The interior is a nesting of four rooms, two either side of the central red tiled and cream passage that leads out to a patio area. The rooms were decored differently, but i only popped my head around the door in all but the main bar - i did not a dart board in one room. The bar is in white and brown. It has various pictures and ephemera on the walls, from newspaper clippings to photographs. There is coloured glass and a nice wood bar. The service was fine, perhaps as i wasn't in a Wolves shirt (big Baggies flag on display) and the clientele mixed, friendly and lots of them! Had a pork pie, which was class, to accompany my beer. Beer; tap stuff, with the superb Bathams Bitter and MILD on handpull. I could stay here all day, it is an excellent place and a GBG fixture. It is the brewery tap for Bathams. A must visit.

Another bostin Black Country pub! Always busy.