The Bridge, Short Heath, Willenhall

A detached canal-side Victorian Banks's pub in a cream render, with a patio at the back. Also has live music. The interior has three rooms. The bar room is large, open plan, with a games area that has pool and darts. There are a few TVs and the Blues v Man Utd games was on, drawing quite a crowd. The decor is white and wood panel, with white ceiling and a few bits on canal memorabilia. Next to this is a small snug room, also in white and wood, with white moulded ceiling, a couple of flower prints and a TV. At the back, there is a lounge that looked to be in a peach colour - it also had a TV. Service was functional, i suppose as there were many in watching the game. It seemed a locals pub, but frendly enough. Beer; tap stuff with a decent enough Banks's bitter on handpull. A better than basic place, but again, the lack of a real ale choice means i wouldn't really bother returning - one for the locals really

I wandered down to the cellar bar which had some jazz music playing and unbeknown to me it was closed, but the friendly maid still stopped what she was doing to serve me and then give me directions to the street level bar up the stairs. This was a shame as this bar wasn't as nice and many of the tables were reserved meaning that I ended up standing in the alley outside with my pint resting on a pillar. Bombardier and Greene King IPA were both available and there was another unused pump and a standard draught selection. There are local pubs that I would choose to visit over this one.

The Bridge is well and truly OPEN. [Admin edit: Marked as open 15/2/09] Bit of trivia. Was once kept by the Grandfather of John Major, former PM.

Looked open (lived in)to me. We slept on a boat alongside the United Kingdom, and there was noise and car park movements at the rear of the Bridge. But I cant say I heard the sounds of beer trade !