Longdon

Two Necks and a Blacksmith's Forge

The sign outside the Swan With Two Necks doesn't quite make sense until someone explains it: two nicks, not necks — the marks cut into a swan's beak by the Worshipful Company of Vintners to mark their birds apart from the King's on the Thames. Sign-painters wrote down what they heard, and the pub has carried both since 1755.

It sits at 40 Brook End with original oak beams and a beer garden. A blacksmith's forge once stood next door — Tom Broadhurst worked there as an apprentice in the early 1900s; the forge is now the Longdon Women's Institute Hall. The pub's lore includes a Rolling Stones fish-and-chip stop.

The Pubs Around the Parish

Out at Longdon Green, the Red Lion has a garden overlooking the green. The bar has a choice of cask ales, and the food menu changes between classic British dishes and more adventurous influences. Dogs are welcome on a lead in the bar. A 9.8km circular walk starts at the pub and heads onto Cannock Chase.

Up at Upper Longdon, the Chetwynd Arms is a family-run local serving simple, fresh pub food, with well-kept real ales and a beer garden. Shopping is thin on the ground, with the post office based at the village hall on Brook End.

A Norman Arch Worth the Detour

St James's Church is worth the detour regardless. The Norman chancel arch has three orders on scalloped capitals — outer and inner carved with zig-zag, the middle one plain roll-moulding — and forms a remarkably fine example. A green man is carved into the north doorway, and the font has a C12 basin cut with diagonal reeding; the later stem came from Lichfield Cathedral. A monument to William Orme records heavy Royalist fines and his account of losing most of his fortune.

Heathland, Old Names and the Road In

The parish takes in Gentleshaw Common's heathland. The name derives from the Saxon "Langandune" — long hill — and an old local rhyme still gets repeated: "the stoutest beggar that goes by the way, cannot beg through Longdon in a summer's day." The A51 connects Longdon with Lichfield and Rugeley.