Wheaton Aston

Canal-side pints and family ties

Bridge 19 on the Shropshire Union Canal carries the towpath past the Hartley Arms, whose beer garden overlooks the water in most weathers. Before 1900 this was the Canal Tavern, serving boatmen who "did not mix with the local people" — the innkeeper doubled as a wharfinger, and a weigh-bridge stood out front for canal goods and for the hay carted daily to Wolverhampton. It was later renamed for Squire Hartley of Wheaton Aston Hall.

Ben Peace runs it now with his wife Faye, since early 2023. Ben's grandparents, Ralph and Jean Broomhall, ran the pub before him — a full circle, the Express & Star called it. The menu covers a mixed grill, pizzas, beef lasagne, steaks, fish finger sandwiches and a Sunday carvery from midday to five; reviewers rate the fish and chips exceptional. Real ales include Banks's Amber, Wainwright Gold and Wychwood Hobgoblin Gold, plus a rotating guest from breweries such as Holden's, Salopian or Wye Valley. Dogs are welcome throughout, on leads.

A real pub and village essentials

Further along Long Street is the Coach & Horses, run by Paul "Doddy" Dodd and Jackie. Dodd had his first pint here in 1990, aged eighteen, and has since ended up behind the bar himself. The building is thought to date from the 1880s or 90s; locally it's claimed to be the last coaching inn built in the country, though that one's unverified. One Tripadvisor reviewer titled their review, simply, "A pub. A real pub." Tuesday quiz nights draw a crowd for insanely difficult questions and plenty of banter.

A third pub, the Bradford Arms, is Grade II listed but derelict. For shopping there's a post office, a general store, Turners for hardware and chandlery, and Hinsley's for motor repairs; the Bridge and Whitegates farms sell produce direct to the door. Tavern Lane Studio, a community arts hub, reopened in 2021.

Glass, fire and folfallarum

St Mary's, on the Green, was rebuilt in stone in 1857 after the wooden original — one of the few buildings to survive the 1777 fire that destroyed half the village's houses — fell into disrepair. Its stained glass is by Charles Eamer Kempe, the Victorian master glazier; the three-lancet window at the front is the one to look for.

Before the fire, Wheaton Aston had a small reputation as a spa, on the strength of a mineral spring in one of its gardens. What survives instead is Mottey Meadows on the parish edge, a National Nature Reserve holding the UK's most northerly wild colony of snake's-head fritillary — known locally as folfallarum, picked by tradition on the first Sunday in May.

Towpaths, wartime skies and ways in

The towpath north to Brewood takes about an hour, crossing the 1832 Stretton Aqueduct into woodland before the first lock. Monks Walk, an older footpath through the village, was described by one resident as giving "a totally different perspective," like being "whisked back in time."

The M6 is five miles off at Junction 12, with Stafford nine miles northeast on the 877 bus. RAF Wheaton Aston, sited nearby at Little Onn, trained aircrew on Airspeed Oxfords through the war; its control towers reportedly still stand in the farmland.

An Illinois twin and an indie echo

The village has been twinned with Wheaton, Illinois, since 1990, and produced, among quieter exports, the band Epic45, whose members grew up here before anyone outside Staffordshire had heard of the place.