We had planned a trip to Scotland this September, but events knackered that, so with the leave already booked we needed to do something with some of the time.

We’d been planning a trip to Burton-upon-Trent, the historical centre of English brewing for some time: the combination of pubs and a restaurant we specifically wanted to visit gave us an excuse, so a hotel was booked, and we headed for Lichfield (from where there is a fast bus service to Burton that handily almost passed the hotel). We tried the X35 bus to la-di-dah Lichfield- further to walk this end (which is a bit painful and tiring, but avoids a change in Brownhills), but direct and fast, but then just missed the Burton bus as we pulled in, so had to go and find somewhere dry to wait (as Lichfield bus station has no undercover seating).

The X12(PDF) is surprisingly fast and frequent- using the A38 rather than minor roads for the bulk of its journey, so that found us in Burton shortly after mid-day, so we obviously headed to the nearest pub.

We managed an impressive pub count, some planned, some just chanced upon, but sadly didn’t manage The Cooper’s Tavern as the opening hours, location, and our increasingly drunken state by the time we got to The Devonshire Arms didn’t fit with circumstances: a few years ago we’d have walked miles around the town and fitted it in, but that’s not possible these days: the furthest out we managed walking was to Stapenhill Gardens via the viaduct and Ferry Bridge, which are both lovely. Other than that, we made it around some of the town centre pubs, got a look at some of the architecture, and (on our second day, when the rain had stopped), got to sit in the sun a bit.