The Homestead, Willenhall

A 1960s/70s, undressed brick, detached Banks's pub, with patio and beer garden. Quite low level, it is pretty unaesthetic from the outside and caters for the estate of that time. The interior has two rooms, a lounge and bar. The bar is accessed from the front entrance and is a tidy room, open plan and filled with football shirts and scarves from all teams; Blackpool to Beyern Munich. It has pool and darts, lots of TVs, though these were not on at my visit, the background music was general and a decent level and there were also photos on the walls of old teams from the turn of last century. The decor (light permitting) looked like a coffee and cream mix, with some undressed brick, nice undamaged green leather seating and a fakey stone floor - it seemed like a pretty good all-round bar room to me. The lounge (accessed via the door marked for the bogs, was a little more up-market and was L shaped and in a more cream, with some coffee colour. The seats here were also complete and patterned, as was the carpet. There were general prints and mirrors on the wall. The service was friendly, as were the locals and there was clearly a good rapport with the landlord/lady/bar staff. Beer; tap stuff with a decent Banks MILD, Banks's Bitter , Old Thumper and Marston's Old Empire on handpull - a couple of winter warmers there. From what looked like a dull building from the outside, i found a happy, tidy and friendly estate pub, with a pretty good selection of real ales. This was a pleasant experience and i would certainly drop by again.

1970's estate pub built to cater for the people on the eastern side of the 'Stroud Avenue' estate. Looking very sad at the moment. The Cavalcade which was built to serve the other side of the estate was demolished last year.