The King's Ditch, Tamworth

A cute little micro with an airy feel thanks to the windows and bright wood trim. The tiny bar has a cool room behind from whence the beers and ciders are fetched, with a listing on the central wall. We managed to hit it on the day the apologetic owner was going on holiday, so had used up nearly all the beers and was closing early, but it normally has 3 or 4 cask ales, half a dozen interesting ciders and a craft keg or two. Very friendly however and we will return when hopefully it is fully stocked.

The King's Ditch was my favourite pub in Tamworth, the last time we visited the town in March 2015. It's still a very good micropub but has since possibly been usurped by some newer arrivals. 14 of us arrived here and filled the ground floor room, as our first stop on a tour of Tamworth's pubs and bars. There was one guy already present in a wheelchair. When we walked past later on in the evening, I'm sure he was still there. Another couple of locals did arrive and managed to find some seating in between us all. There is some overspill seating upstairs, if needed. The landlord seemed like a friendly and knowledgeable chap and he stocks a good range of ales and ciders. 3 cask ales were Leatherbritches Berry Dangerous, Shiny Disco Balls & Tollgate Ivanhoe. Ciders were Lilley's Mango Cider & Bee Sting Perry, Snail's Bank Rhubarb Cider, Gwynt y Ddraig Happy Daze, Farmer Jim's Sweet, Dudda's Tun Bone Dry, Three Cats Dry & Mr Whitehead's Devil's Device. Hops hanging from the ceiling create a nice drinking environment. I don't recall any music. It is conversation which rules here. I note that the CAMRA website suggests that it is table service only but our group all got served at the bar. Still one of Tamworth's best pubs and well worth a visit when visiting this excellent town for drinkers.

The King’s Ditch is a single room wood floored micro with padded bench seating around the walls and a small counter in the left rear corner. Lots of Hops were hanging from the ceiling and I could see my car sat in the car park opposite next to the Globe Inn where I was staying. The beers are in a back room that is surveyed on a lone TV screen on the back wall. Unfortunately I was sat under the screen so couldn’t see the back room action, which was the only thing going on as the five or so locals all sat in silence staring into space. This is why I mentioned my car, because I sat staring at it for the duration of my stay in the awkward silence. A micro without a host is little more than a room with beer, the beer in question being Shiny Brewing’s 4 Wood, Beowulf’s Zwodder, 3Ps Brewery’s Ave A Minute and Pentrich’s Vanity Haunts Me. There is also a very long list of ciders, in fact I was the only one on the ale going for a decent pint of 4 Wood. The doors are only open from 16:00 until 19:00 in the week, but are less restricted at the weekend. The service was very polite, but maybe just after opening on a Wednesday afternoon isn’t the most joyous time to visit.

A single downstairs room micro with an upstairs sitting room. The pub is famous for its ciders of which 16 were available today, it has been a CAMRA national cider pub of the year finalist and has umpteen local cider awards. However as a beer drinker I was more interested in which of the four beers I should have, two were local and two originated in the West Country. Bench seating round the walls at Britannia tables and separate chairs of uncertain origin. Ordering is at a small corner counter and the beer is drawn on gravity in the back chilled room, you can view it being drawn on a CCTV screen. It uses ex-beer festival lined glasses which is nice in view of this weeks trading standards report on short measures but has a bit of a clique of regulars. Odd place but definitely worth visiting.