Manor Farm, Birmingham

Now one of Farmhouse Inns chain, this is a substantial family pub / restaurant near the Jaguar Land Rover car factory towards the eastern edge of the Birmingham conurbation. However, once you get inside, with the expected anonymous, semi-modern furniture and decor in the various seating / dining areas, it's no worse than anywhere else of this type. One surprise was to come, however, despite just finding Abbot (£3.80) available from the three handpumps, because this turned out to be the best example I've had of this particular beer for many a while (and justified the prominence given to the Cask Marque signage on and beside the main door.

Official site of Manor Farm - www.farmhouseinns.co.uk

Official site of Manor Farm - www.farmhouseinns.co.uk

Facebook page of Manor Farm - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Manor Farm - www.facebook.com

This is a modern Fayre & Square build next to a new hotel (Premier Inn style). The site used to be the offices for Wimpy Construction many years back. Anyhow, this place is a family entertainment centre, with a Whacky Wharehouse, outdoor kid's play area and toy and sweet grabbing machines inside. The building is in brick, white and black beam, in a slight Tudor style, with a gable end entrance. It also has a patio area. The large L-shaped room has some raised areas, all foody based, as the food scraps on the floor showed, as did the smell of food, which pervaded everywhere. The décor is one of mixed colours; red, green, tan etc and wood panel, with some fake beams. There is a brick fire and a small tiled one. Strange photos - railings, girders etc are on the walls, along with a couple of Jaguar cars and Spitfires (Castle Vale was an airfield in WWI-II and Spits were made in the now Jaguar plant). There was no TV that I saw, but the music was charty stuff, but at a decent level. The service was ok and the clientele family based. Beer; basic keg choice with Hobgoblin on handpull. The scanned clip should have made me worry and, indeed, it was pretty poor: I left after a couple sips. Fort Jester, indeed, they are having a larf... If I remember, there used to be a 60s housing estate pub, called the Stagecoach, just around the corner. It was far nicer I am sure.

Currently undergoing a change of ownership or branding and is closed for refurbishment