The Sir Nigel Gresley (JD Wetherspoon), Swadlincote

The former Granville Arms was converted by 'spoons over 20 years ago and remains a distinctive feature in the centre of town (but it is also handy for the 'bus park' to the rear). Behind the facade, no character of the original pub remains, but the new layout - including the side conservatory - works well enough, even on a very busy Saturday afternoon. With two banks of five handpumps, I found the expected Ruddles, Doom Bar and Abbot plus Pedigree and five more interesting cask beers. The Coach House Hoptober, green-hopped Windsor & Eton Green Gold (£1.99), Hobgoblin Red and Bateman's Victory Ale were from the ongoing Real-Ale Festival list, and the local No Escape from Black Hole was also featured.

This one is named after the famous steam loco engineer who lived in the area as a boy and was responsible for the record breaking big beasts that used to thrash up and down the East Coast Main Line. A Wetherspoon outlet is usually only as good as the current manager and team so I'm guessing from the previous review that this one has changed managers. I was surprised to learn from What Pub that it was formerly a Bass owned pub called the Granville Arms. This may be because I approached it from the bus station where the first you see of it is the conservatory like extension that looks more like a former shop. Inside it's an open plan L shaped area with the shop like conservatory over to the left. There was a fair sized daytime brigade contingent in on my Thursday afternoon visit but they were cheerful enough. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had the two GK beers and Pedigree doubled up, Everard's Red Ale, Milestone Fletcher's Ale, a cider and Arundel Winter Knights. I went for the Milestone beer (£2.45) which was a lot better than other offerings I've had in the past from this brewer and was in excellent nick. This one is GBG 2017 listed so it's a shame that the beer choice is limited by three boring beers being doubled up but overall it seemed OK. At least there was no Doom Bore.