Tour of the Inns

Join this pub crawl and tread in the ghostly footsteps of innkeepers, smugglers, authors and bargemen of old.

Ever been on a pub crawl? You'll enjoy this one whether you like drinking or not. The starting point is a magnificent art deco hostelry, the New Mermaid Inn in Wansford, Cambridgeshire, which is sadly now derelict. Other stop-offs include the Butt & Oyster Inn at Cobald, Suffolk - made famous in Arthur Ransome's novel We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea - and the iconic timber-framed Angel Hotel in Ludlow, both of which still thrive today.

Whatever you do, don't skip the Bear & Billet Inn in Chester, purportedly the birthplace of John Lennon's grandmother. And a note of caution: some of the pubs are haunted.