‘Accept that some days you are the statue and some days the pigeon.'

Wise words above the bar in the big and bountiful Fox and Hounds pub, in Barnston, Wirral, one of the locals frequented by the Pub Column’s latest visitor, Lady Penelope of Pensby.

And appropriately, as it had been a day for being repeatedly dumped on from a great height, Yours Truly was in the mood for a little respite – and found it here in a no smoking (again!) real ale paradise voted Wirral Camra’s pub of the month for March.

Landlord of 23 years Ralph Leech keeps a regular cluster of six cask ales.

Among them are the Trapper’s Hat and the Rhode Island Red, two little crackers from Brimstage Brewery, Wirral’s first since the closure of the Birkenhead Brewery in the 1960s.

Based in a converted dairy shed, funnily enough, in nearby Brimstage, local man Neil Young’s brews have been taking the Fox’s drinkers by storm since they were first unleashed in late autumn last year.

The Rhode Island Red is especially rich and refreshing with a mixture of the tart and the smooth leading you on to try some more.

We were sitting supping this ambrosia in the pub’s cosy snug underneath a fox’s head with a snarling demeanour that suggested in his last moments before getting stuffed he’d seen Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho walk in the room and told them to do the same.

Our mate Reynard was a dead giveaway that we were indeed inside a classic country pub.

Despite only being built relatively recently in 1911, it is on the site of a former alehouse which served the needs of the Barnston Dip.

In days long before the likes of Lady Penelope’s jalopy pootered through these steep leafy groves, a farmer with a heavy load destined for market would leave horse and cart at the bottom of the hill below the pub, climb to the top, borrow another horse from the pub’s former stables for extra haulage power and later, with climbing mission accomplished, sit down for a rewarding pint before moving on.

The snug, as well as the adjoining bar and the spacious but homely lounge, is packed with pastoral pictorial memories, as well as a series of odd-bod collections accumulated by landlord Ralph over the years.

These include a selection of brass ashtrays, a one armed bandit with working appendage still intact, a vintage ciggie machine, a plod of policeman’s helmets – and last, but not least, a single pair of gigantic lady’s knickers which used to be on display all the time but now only come out at Yuletide with the words Merry Christmas emblazoned across the front.

God knows what Santa makes of these as his stocking alternative.

Our favourite bit of memorabilia, however, was the framed poster above the door linking snug and bar. It announces that on June 30, 1962, Heswall Jazz Club would be presenting Parlopohone Recording Artistes the “Fabulous� Beatles supported by The Big Three at the tiny Barnston Women’s Institute nearby.

How cool is that for any visiting Fab Four fan?

We were even half-tempted to finish our pints and march the short distance, Withnail-and-I-like, to demand the Institute’s finest cakes while we investigated the hall where the Mop Toppers played not just once but three times, in 1962.

But we didn’t.

The excellent beer, the sense of heritage, the friendly ambience, and the penalty shoot-out on the pub’s discreet plasma screen showing Liverpool beating Man United in the Youth Cup Final, proved to be a much too potent chemistry for that.

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