Top pub crawls and ale trails Shropshire and the Midlands

Here in the Midlands and Shropshire we are spoiled for choice with various historic tours and crawls that explore our ancestry, as well as the delicious brews we have on offer. In no particular order, here are our top picks of beer crawls across the Midlands and Shropshire:

Have you visited any of these? Have we missed any off? Be sure to give us your thoughts in the comments below.

Black Country Tours - Dudley

Established in 1983, Black Country Tours in the heart of Dudley offers a range of unique and quirky double decker buses for you to scope out the Black Country in style, all equipped with a fully-stocked bar and experienced staff to guide you through your adventure.

They offer a range of tours that involve beer crawls, such as the Beer and Skittles Tour which makes a quick stop at a skittle alley for your teams to play, the Desperate Dan Pie tour that makes a stop at the legendary Pie Factory in Tipton, the Ladies Night Tour, The Real Ale Tour that takes you off on an evening of tasting the divine pleasures of hand crafted real ale brought to the Black Country from all over Britain and simply the Booze and Cruise with traditional entertainment.

Tours are offered usually to groups of 30 or more with pick up and return points negotiable.

For more information, click here

Bostin' Bathams Tours - Halesowen

Back in 2009 Bathams and Richard James of Themed Tours and Excursions created an attraction for The Black Country, designed to bring new visitors to the area as well as offer local people a great day or evening out based around the Bathams' 11 pubs.

The tours range from exploring four to all of the Bathams' 11 including Y Giler Arms, The Fox and Grapes, The New Inn, The Plough & Harrow, The Unicorn, The Plough, The Swan, The Royal Exchange, The Vine, The Lamp Tavern and The Brittania with lunch options also available.

The price of tours ranges from £14 to £20 per head with discounts available for bookings of more than 30 people.

For more information, click here

A Black Country Beer Day Out - Dudley, South Staffordshire, Stourbridge and Halesowen

Dudley and South Staffordshire CAMRA and Stourbridge and Halesowen CAMRA invite the public to the completely free Black Country Beer Day Out in conjunction with Black Country Day each year (July 16).

The event starts at 11am at the Fixed Wheel Brewery Bar in Black Heath and swiftly moves onto the Swan before moving onto Halesowen via bus and walking to the Wagon & Horses, King Edward VII and Hawne Tavern.

From 2.20pm, the event begins to move towards Dudley hitting the Black Country Day Festival, the Fountain and Old Bull's Head before winding through Gornal's Britannia, The Mill and Jolly Crispin at 6.30pm.

This is a totally free event.

For more information, click here

Black Country Ales' Real Ale Tours - Kingswinford

A micro brewery with major taste, Black Country Ales have branched out into the world of beer tours and trails that are available all year round.

Their tour takes you across their finest pubs and brewery to sample their wide variety of real ales, including The Black Country Arms, The Robin Hood, The Pretty Bricks, The Bull's Head and many more.

Every year, as the days darken between September and December, the Black Country Ales Real Ale Trail brings exclusive rewards to dedicated ale enthusiasts who complete visits to all their participating pubs.

For more information, click here

Mappiman's Real Ale Walks - various locations

What better way to enjoy the great outdoors than to keep a blog that details various real ale walks across the UK? Well that's exactly what Mappiman does.

The site features various detailed routes ranked by difficulty for you and your friends to try, such as the three-stage Outer Circle Walk in Birmingham that champions urban surroundings, the Shrewsbury Pub Crawl that highlights all of Shrewsbury's major landmarks and pubs, the Middle Earth walk and crawl across Birmingham and many more all illustrated with their own pictures, reviews and ratings.

For more information, click here

Severn Valley Railway Crawl - Shropshire and Worcestershire

Utilise the heritage railway that is the Severn Valley Railway and the plethora of pubs across Kidderminster, Worcestershire and Bridgnorth with the Severn Valley Railway Crawl.

The crawl begins at the Black Boy Inn in Bridgnorth through to The Black Horse, The Railwayman's Arms, River & Rail, The Unicorn Inn, Ship Inn, The Harbour Inn, The Woodcolliers, The Little Pack Horse, George Hotel, The Mug House Inn and ends in Kidderminster's The King and Castle.

For more information, click here

Midland Metro Pub Crawl - Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell & Dudley and more

The Midland Metro Pub Crawl is a crawl made up from 2010 entries in the Good Beer Guide, using the Midland Metro system between Wolverhampton St Georges and Snow Hill Station in the centre of Birmingham to plan your route.

The trail begins in Wolverhampton with The Great Western, The Posada and the Duke of York conveniently close to the first Metro stop, moving onto The Trumpet and The Olde White Rose near Bilston Central, the Old Blueball and Rosehill Tavern by Wednesbury Great Western Street.

The crawl continues with the Old Hop Pole and The Wheatsheaf at Dudley Street Gun's Village, The Billiard Hall near West Bromwich Central, the Black Eagle near Soho Benson Road, The Red Lion, Lord Cliften and the Jeweller's Arms near the Jewellery Quarter and ends with the Old Contemptibles and the Wellington near Snow Hill Station.

Tanat Valley Run - Oswestry

For decades people have enjoyed the idyllic Tanat Valley with a difference - by touring the pubs within the area with the luxuries of flexible transport options, inclusive meals and a well-versed host.

The well-known Tanat Valley Run tours a whole range of popular country pubs starting in Llangynog with the Tanat Valley Inn and New Inn, moving on to Railway Inn in Pen Y Bont Fawr, Plough Country Inn in Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, Llanfyllin with Cain Valley, Old New Inn and Eagle Bistro, then ending in Llansaintffraid's Sun Inn.

Tanat Valley Run prices start at £10 per runner with added meal options just £5 extra.

For more information, click here

Summer Ale Trail and The Spring Sprint - Cannock

Organised by the local sub-branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, Cannock's Summer Ale Trail and The Spring Sprint have become annual events after their successful start in 2014, with its aim to get the public to go out and use pubs they may not normally go to and sample a range of local ales.

Many local watering holes take part and when you sample a local ale in each of the 16 establishments, you will receive a sticker for your unique collector card. Once the card is full, you will receive a limited edition polo shirt.

The regions and pubs included range from the Crystal Fountain, Stumble Inn, Linford Arms and White Hart in Cannock itself, Cross Keys, The Bridge and Five Ways in Hednesford, The Vine, Mossley Tavern and The Plaza in Rugeley, Burntwood and Chasetown's The Drill, White Swan and Uxbridge Arms and finally Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay's Royal Oak, Colliers Arms and Ivy House.

Fownes Brewery Real Ale Pub Crawl - Gornal

Could you tackle a three-mile walk while you're out on the town? Why not take on the Fownes Brewery Real Ale Pub Crawl in Gornal, in the heart of the Black Country.

The crawl starts at the Jolly Crispin before moving onto The Brittania, The Black Bear, The Red Cow, The Fiveways Inn, The Fountain and ending in the Chapel House.

There may only be seven pubs on the list, but the trail also gives you the option to loop back round to the Jolly Crispin with ease for one last pint of some of the finest real ale.

For more information, click here

Stumbleground Map - Stourbridge

Not quite a crawl, rather multiple crawls cleverly mapped out into one, well-organised boozing trip, the Stumbleground Map is everything you need to peruse the pubs of Stourbridge.

The Stumbleground was a fundraising idea from Karl Jones, a children's nurse who is from Stourbridge himself.

The map combines four different crawl roots starting from The Foresters, The Mitre, The Duke William and Scary Canary: The Venue that can all be linked into one gigantic pub crawl with a whopping 39 venues in total. Do you think you are up to the challenge..?