The Britannia, Dudley

Spotting a Batham's house was enough to make me jump of the bus at the next stop and walk back to have a look. The main bar and seating area at the front were busy late on a Saturday afternoon, with a fine community atmosphere immediately apparent. With no spare seats there, I found a perch in the very comfortable rear lounge (with its renowned wall-mounted pumps and heritage cash register). Also has a basic parlour off to one side for the darts, plus a patio beer garden at the back (but it was hardly the weather for that). Of course, it was only the Delph Brewery Bitter and Mild (£2.35) on tap, but that was exactly what I was after, and the unexpected stop here quite made my day.

On the other side of the road and a short stroll down from The Jolly Crispin, is The Britannia Inn, a small Bathams pub, still seemingly better known as Sally’s, named after a legendary long serving former landlady, Sally Perry, who was, apparently at the helm here from 1942 to 1991. Batham’s acquired the pub in 1997. The small curved bar counter is on the left hand side as you come in and has a Bathams tiled bar back and large mirror. This bar serves a small area in front and a much larger area on the right hand side of the door, which features fixed padded seating, red velour bar stools and walls decorated with old black and white photos of the vicinity. It’s a comfortable, carpeted lounge style area. High up on a wall in one corner is an old style push button TV – the type of set that will probably crop up on The Antiques Roadshow before too very long. The highlight of the interior is undoubtedly Sally’s Bar, a small room at the back, off the main bar area, which features an old cash register and handpumps, fitted into an old sideboard and mounted into the wall. There’s no actual bar counter as such here, just drip trays. This room has much wood panelling, fixed padded seating and a pleasing lightish green colour scheme which extends to the carpet. There’s a real granny’s living room feel to this room, which is enhanced by plenty old style circular- framed black and white photos, many of which feature Sally herself and other members of her family. An old photo of a charabanc outside the pub full of passengers ( presumably pub customers going on an outing ) particularly caught the eye. This is a charming and delightful room, very much evocative of an earlier era. The pub is listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors because of the surviving original features here. In this room is a serving hatch to the bar servery, but this was not in use on my late September visit. A notice on the wall advised that Sally’s Bar would now open on a Saturday evening, not Friday evening, due to staff shortages. Even when there is no service directly in this room, based on my visit, this is still a popular well patronised room where the friendly locals meet up and put the world to rights, one of whom told me that table service is still offered here when the room is staffed and the wall mounted handpumps are brought into use. An outside garden at the rear offers additional seating space in good weather. Here also is a disused former brewhouse. The Britannia Inn is a Batham’s pub offering Bitter and Mild ( £ 2.55p and £ 2.30p respectively on my visit ). The Mild had just run out, but the Bitter was in decent nick. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular. It’s a splendid community local and, yes, I know it’s a cliché, but it’s the type of place where you enter as a stranger and leave as a friend, although, like me, you may well struggle at times to understand the Black Country dialect. This is another Black Country pub well worth making the effort to seek out ( it’s on a main road and bus route ) and, when combined with The Jolly Crispin just up the road, makes a pretty good double header

This isn't one of the original eight Batham's pubs that I recall from spending an excellent day touring over thirty years ago. The Unicorn at Wollaston became their ninth pub in 1992 after which there were a couple of other changes to their estate, so I can only assume that Batham's acquired this one in the mid nineties. Batham's seem to have a template for many of their houses, an old building with several small rooms and this one is just typical. I missed the garden but did manage to find the completely separate Parlour. I tried the Batham's Mild (£2.30) and Best (£2.55) both of which were in good condition but somewhat on the warm side. This is the only thing that stops me awarding it a 10.

Very busy on our Friday eve visit, which was expected. We got the No 1 bus up to Upper Gornal and the stop was just at the pub. Have to say the pub did look stunning when lit up in the dark. We didn't have much of a wait getting served in the front bar, in spite of it being mobbed. To my disappointment again no mild on, still the bitter was superb. Managed to have a look round, but it was slow and difficult, even the beer garden was busy. If on a return visit, I will call a lot earlier.

This excellent Bathams pub was the most popular of those we called in yesterday, the garden at the rear was full. It serves both the Best Bitter and Mild, and we were told the mild was on the way out and if it wasn't right she would change it, and she did - no quibble. In the 2012 Good Beer Guide and shouldn't be missed off any tour of the area. Lovely interior.