the pretty bricks interview

Mark and Lucy are landlords of The Pretty Bricks, a fantastic Black Country pub serving great ale and delivering great company.

Come September they'll have been behind the bar for six years, having given up their previous jobs as a roofer and a teaching assistant respectively to run the pub.

This lovely couple have made The Pretty Bricks something rather special, and here's just part of their story as told to me by Lucy ...

Why do you like your job?

It's the people who make it. I've got to know lots of them over the years - some good, some bad. So many fascinating characters come in here.

We've got a lovely regular who's very patriotic and always dresses up for St. George's Day and there's one chap who puts on noise-cancelling headphones if he doesn't like the conversation!

What sort of things can we expect to find at The Pretty Bricks?

Lots of groups use the pub. We have a Quiz Night run by the folks from St. Peter's Church just up the way in Stafford Street. There's a group who come in with their own tapas and we've got a regular Folk Night.

There are function rooms and a room upstairs that bands use for rehearsals. They tell me it's got good acoustics. The West Coast Eagles rehearse here - they're very good and they play right across the Midlands.

 Loads of CAMRA people visit us.  The pub helped the folks down in London set up CAMRA and became Walsall's first member - have a look at the wall by the side of the bar.

We're also home to Stenhousemuir Away Supporters Club, the Warriors Abroad.  We had a chap come in here who used to go to all the matches and we've kept up the tradition. There's lots of Stenhousemuir mementos in the cupboard above the fire-place.

What do you think makes your pub special?

There's always lots of conversation at The Pretty Bricks - everyone talks to one another. We won't have a juke-box or a TV here. We want to be different. It's a place where people can speak without distractions.

The one thing I won't allow though is swearing. Gentle ribbing is fine, but not swearing - I want this to be a place where women can come in on their own and not feel intimidated while they're waiting for their boyfriends to arrive.

What's your average day like?

I'm off into town at 8:30 to buy the cobs.  I make them up fresh every day and I see them in my sleep!  Our pork pies are also local, they come from Taylors the Butchers in Cheslyn Hay.

It's back to the pub then to clean up ready for lunch.

It's quieter than it used to be at lunch-time. There's zero tolerance of alcohol in the workplace these days so we don't get so much trade from the local factories. Instead we get people coming in with a book to read while they have a pint and a pork pie.

We get a beer delivery once a week on a Wednesday morning. Usually we keep around thirty or forty barrels down in the cellar and we use about half of them each week.

Evenings are really busy, as I say, we get lots of groups coming in each night.  We shut the doors at 10:45 and I clean up behind the bar. It's a busy life and we never get a weekend off!

Tell us about the history of the pub...

The building was finished in 1845 and it's always been a pub.

You can find a lot of history scattered about in here and Black Country Ales, the owners of The Pretty Bricks, are really keen on preserving it.

The old wooden bar has been sanded down, restored and sealed and looks lovely. When it came to replacing the windows at the front they put in etched glass to match the original window panel.

At one time the pub was called, 'The Tap and Spile', though everyone always knew it as, 'The Pretty Bricks'.  We found a collection of old tap and spiles in the bottle-room and they've been made up into a display by the side of the bar.

We have a bit of a family history with the pub, too. My Auntie Eileen was going to run it but then she fell pregnant and never got the chance.  It feels strange I'm now doing it!

What are the owners of The Pretty Bricks like?

Angus used to work in the brewery trade and he set up Black Country Ales. They've got over thirty pubs now.

They're really good to work for and I can't fault them at all.  If we ever have a problem they're straight onto it getting it sorted out. They're really easy to talk to.  They're constantly doing their pubs up and they refurbish them really well - they make sure they keep the character of the place.

Angus and his wife recently took us and some of their other publicans out for the night and we had a great time. It was like a real family.

So can you finish by telling us about one of your favourite regulars?

Gordon's ninety years old and he grew up in Portland Street, just round the corner from The Pretty Bricks. He's such a nice man, always jolly.

 There's a photograph in the back room of the Pretty Bricks Darts Team of 1948.  Gordon's in it with a lovely smile as always!

curry, beer and the gentle pleasures of a fine conversation

Dear Sheddists,

another terrific afternoon in the company of my dear friend, Clive - a very special gentleman indeed!

We feast royally at the legendary Asha's a cheeky pint of refreshing Kingfisher being the ideal accompaniment to an Executive Special Lunch. Neither of us lays the remotest claim to being an executive, but it's cracking curry all the same and is dispatched with customary gusto.

Suitably replenished we make our way across the road to Birmingham's finest real ale emporium, the The Wellington.  Possibly the only pub in town to have no food available bar nuts, crisps and pork scratchings, the fact it's full by the end of the afternoon is testament to the expansive range of fine keg beers on offer from around the country, the names of which are helpfully displayed on a screen by the side of the bar.

We begin with halves of Brother Rabbit, a delicious pale golden brew with a light frothy head perched precariously atop that is reminiscent in certain lights of the new President of the United States.  Regrettably, the former is capable of recycling in the adjacent Gents whereas the latter is not, much as one might wish to be the case.

Brother Rabbit goes down a treat, as does the following halves of Masterwork. At 5.6% it's the strongest beer on offer which sets us up nicely for ....

Ruin - a beer the young bar-tender assures me is a fine choice, being brewed with native botanicals.  I should have spotted a 'ringer' when he goes on to observe it is the beer equivalent of gin. We taste it, look at each other with shocked expressions before replacing our glasses on the table.

"Washing-up liquid", opines my learned colleague and I find little cause to demur.  We pass on this one and a swift return to the bar is made for halves of Fireside, an ever-dependable Black Country brew and two bags of salted nuts to remove the last lingering taste of Ruin.

Conversation flows throughout the afternoon across a wide range of topics that include the origin of the God gene, bereavement, the trials and tribulations of our beloved Aston Villa, the importance of family life and the current position in Sierra Leone.

Time for our last halves, the coffee-coloured Simcoe Stout and then it's out into the light once more as we go our separate ways.  All in all a fantastic way to spend an afternoon!

Best regards,

electrofried(mr)