All hope abandoned at the Royal Oak, Cannock

Our first pub of our Cannock tour was the Royal Oak so that we could start building upon our Cask Marque portfolio. Once we’d found it; it looked a bit run down. The outside walls were peeling and the windows were scratched; one was even boarded. Inside, the view wasn’t much better. A lone hand pump stood at the end of the bar was labelled with a Banks’s Bitter clip; hardly a welcoming sign of quality. The floor was sticky; the place was packed with locals either ordering food or hanging around the bar area. We were getting zero vibes of inspiration from just being in the place; so we instantly decided it was hardly worth the long wait just to be served with a half pint for the purposes of sampling to mark the pub as visited. Instead; we walked out the door; apart from the lone ranger of our group desperate to achieve one more scan; before realising there were better places to be explored.