The Bulls Head, Sedgley, Dudley

Well positioned in the middle of Sedgley, the Bulls Head is a great, traditional Holden’s pub with an in-house Thai restaurant. You enter into the main bar, which comprises a bare boarded room with a prominent, angular servery along the rear wall. The servery has a tiled bar back and laminate counter top, both of which look a bit dated and slightly out of keeping with the rest of the interior. A large set of bull horns are suspended from the top of the servery, in keeping with a loose ‘Bull’ theme throughout the pub. There is a small seating area to the left of the entrance, centred around a plain tiled fireplace on the end wall with lots of bull sculptures on a shelf above and a large yucca plant to the left. A similar space has been set-up on the right hand side where the décor includes bits of breweriana, some amusing miniature pub signs and bawdy sketches and a TV screen which was turned off throughout this visit. The room extends to the rear right, into a slightly raised room with a drinking ledge and high stools down the left hand wall and a long table with standard chairs down the opposite side. A few old pictures line the walls and there was also a board detailing the pub’s history and a high shelf displaying various items of vintage kitchen utensils. A further room beyond this houses the restaurant and has a lot of formally arranged tables and chairs in a space that looked fairly functional. A corridor back here leads out to a nice garden with a shelter to the rear and some interesting items of Oriental art dotted around. There were five Holden ales on the go when I visited – Bitter (£2.50), Mild, Golden Glow, Old Ale and Special. The Bitter seemed like a good yardstick with which to assess the range and I enjoyed a pretty good pint of it, with a decent crowd building up as the afternoon went on. In many towns of this size The Bulls Head would be a stand-out pub, but with the excellent Beacon Hotel just up the road, this place is invariably overlooked which does it a bit of an injustice. I found this a great place to settle down and enjoy some good local beer and would definitely call again the next time I’m in the area.

This is a solid back street Holden's pub that has managed to include a small Thai food operation, an unusual and bold move by Holden. It's a much more standard pub than the famous Black Country ones but still worthwhile. I was surprised and delighted to find that the 7.2% Holden's Old Ale was on sale and a real snip at £2.50 a pint. All four of the other standard Holden's beers were present. After a while there was a large bang from outside. A police car had collided with another car and had ended up on the pavement outside the pub with the blue lights still flashing. By the time I left there was an ambulance, more police cars and they were closing the road off. A memorable visit!

A traditional street corner pub which was first opened in 1775 and is now owned by Holden’s brewery. It has two areas that form an L shape open plan room with a small public bar area across the front of the building and an equally small lounge down the right hand side. Both areas have beamed ceilings and brewery memorabilia on the walls, the bar has a short L shaped counter immediately opposite the entrance, a large flat screen TV on the right hand wall and a brick fire place in the left hand wall. There is a small TV in the back right hand corner of the lounge and a brick fire place with an electric fire and large mirror on the right. At the very back of the lounge is the entrance to a modern Thai restaurant area which seems almost separate and out of place in a small traditional pub of this kind. Behind the bar and running down the middle of the building is a corridor which leads to the toilets and a beer patio out the back. Regular ales are Holden’s Bitter, Mild and Golden Glow with no changing guest beers. On this occasion I chose the Mild and the Glow which were in good condition (GBG 2011). Conspicuous by its absence was Holden’s Special which I have not seen in here on any of my visits over the last few years, a little strange as they do have room for it on the bar. This is a great local’s pub with traditional character and I would definitely recommend visiting if in the area. My friend was born and raised in Sedgley but has now moved away, so when we occasionally visit we always have a drink in here and the Beacon Hotel (of course!) therefore I shall return shortly.