It's been a while since I tapped out my last piece of drivel, but then I've been on holiday. That's if you can call three weeks of cat-sitting a holiday. Yes, Mrs Bygone Boozer and I did manage to get a bit of pedalling in and I did manage to haul myself up to the Venta Puerto de Galiz. It was at the second attempt though. I knew on setting out for our first try that it wasn't go to happen and it would be one of those random days of fatigue that hit me from time to time. However, with only a few feline-feeding days remaining we made it up to the venta...
...just in time for the end of breakfast – toast and a homemade paté of uncertain contents. Accompanied by the obligatory Americano, of course.
Having made the thirty, mainly but not totally uphill, kilometres to the venta it was time to cover the thirty, mainly but not totally downhill, kilometres back before half-past three, to proffer fodder to the felines. That's right, felines in the plural, as since our last visit Delilah had acquired a companion. Meet Tilda.
This unchipped Birmanesque individual arrived over the shed roof, liked what she saw, and moved in. But it was an image more akin to Delilah, in Queen of the Castle mode, than Tilda that adorned the bottle of the post-ride beer.
Aurum is the name given to the own-brand range of beers produced for the supermarket chain Eroski. Whilst many brews are sourced from the big name, multinational breweries, this IPA and a lighter session version, at a mere 4.7%, are made by Cervezas Arriaca, an independent craft brewer in Guadalajara.
Even with the Xtra Lupulo (extra hops to you and me) its IBU score only reaches 65 which is towards the lower end of the bitterness scale for an IPA, but in many ways made it just right for quaffing to mark the successful trip up to the Puerto de Galiz. I now feel that this will be my go-to drink-at-home brew for any future feline-feeding visit.
And so, at last, to our bygone boozer called – appropriately enough, The Cat.
What caused this particular bygone to feature in this post? Well, whilst in Spain I heard that another pub in Willenhall had closed. Although I never frequented the Cat, I've certainly had a few pints of Banks's brews in the Bridge. My best mate from my Bangor days, and my Best Man to boot, used to live a stone's throw away from the place and we'd visit it every time I went to stay with him. It was whilst reading about the Bridge's potential future that I was made aware of the Cat, or as it used to be called, the White Swan.
The image of the White Swan below comes courtesy of Willenhall History Society, and whilst they are of the opinion that it was taken in the 1960s, the presence of, what I think are, an Austin Allegro and a Mark II Escort suggest that it's from the latter part of the 1970s at the earliest.
Sitting where Clothier Street exits onto Bloxwich Road the pub is unmarked on this Ordnance Survey map from 1913...
...when it's likely that George Jesse was its landlord. He was certainly there the previous year when caught by the researchers for Kelly's directory.
The more observant amongst you may well have spotted something odd about the address in Kelly's record and it's been a bit of a pain. The pub is supposed to be on Bloxwich Road. ake another look at the map and you can see Monmer Lane disappearing to the northeast at the end of Bloxwich Road. It seems as if the two thoroughfares did seem to shift their boundary back and forth on occasions. In 1871 Edwin Lewis was a beerhouse keeper at the Swan on Bloxwich Road...
...and five years later he was keeping a beerhouse on Monmer Lane.
Another five years on and he's returned to Bloxwich Road...
...before finding himself back on Monmer Lane three years later in Kelly's list of beer retailers.
With all this name changing I really couldn't be bothered to dig much deeper. I was on holiday after all. I can't even tell you when the Swan acquired its adjective, but it was certainly the White Swan in the 1970s, and I can't tell you when the swan morphed into a cat either. But it did. I can tell you that the Cat closed sometime around 2015 and the building now earns its keep as the Best Choice Chinese Takeaway and I can't help but wonder if a nice IPA from Guadalajara would go well with their 宫保鸡. That's their Chicken in Kung Po Sauce to save you bothering Mr. Google.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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