Walsall:

This pub is a real landmark, a beautiful building- a lovely sight if you drive up Lower Rushall St: a proper terracotta-and-tile 19th century pub, and surprisingly, there’s some great stuff inside too; tiling and woodwork.

It’s been a loosely-Irish pub since the Irish pub boom of the nineties, but in more recent times, it’s gone a bit downhill in clientele- sadly there were some EDL types present (presumably a hang-over from the march in town that day). The Stella was serviceable, but no ale. Cheap, though, and the barmaid was very pleasant- but it just could be lovely; it could be a Woodman quite easily.