Take your time with that one.
So onto Denton, a place it’s been almost entirely possible for me to ignore over the decades as we whizz round the M60 or the M67, on the way to the car park that is the A57 at Mottram.
No sign on the motorways saying “Denton – rest ye awhile amid it’s bucolic charms“, I note.
As you’ll see from the WhatPub extract below, this is not a hotbed of real ale to rival Stockport or Staly. For five points, identify the glaring omission.
Apart from the cheery Lowes Arms (top right), which I always think of as Hyde, my only stop in Denton was 20 years ago, when Mrs RM was berated for parking close to a raging man’s drive while I nipped into the Chapel House for a half. I think he was a United fan.
So the two (count them) new GBG entries were a chance for a through reassessment of the place, starting at the water feature at Jubilee Square.
The Crown Point Tavern is the sort of micropub that’s been around in futuristic places like Chorlton and Altrincham for many years before the term “micropub” was invented by Mr Hillier.
You could walk past it, several times, just as I did, thinking it was a fitness joint.
Inside, it’s all pub, with the sort of 2pm pub atmosphere you only get in the North West (see Leigh). Horse racing was on, some people may even have been watching it.
Some of the best pub seating of the year so far, and what do folk do – kneel.
I’ll overlook the jam jars and the handled jugs, the beer range was short and interesting, and the Thornbridge Stout cool and tasty (NBSS 3).
But stuff the beer. It’s a pub. The owner said “Hiya !”, it felt like a community pub, not a micro, and I had no idea what was going on, Which is what I like. The Lionel Richie soundtrack, who knows ?
Someone outside on the pavement knocked over the barrier (“Pissed again”), and everyone else seemed to drop their money (including me).
Against the micropub rules, it did everything wrong. But it did everything right as well.
But isn’t that where some places are going wrong – following the micro-pub rules?
Okay, they might not be set in tablets of stone, all the same people seem to slavishly follow an un-written convention. The result being a lot of samey samey micro pubs sat waiting while the DIY enthusiast pops to the local B & Q to fetch some wood stain and varnish – only thing is he never went back to a lot of places.
Different isn’t wrong. In fact different is often very interesting, and satisfying.
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Yep.
Most “proper” micros look incredibly dull and samey to me; racked beer at the back, pumpclips on the wall, high tables down the 2 walls, middle-aged white men sitting one to a table. Yawn.
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Shocking that none of the cluster of traditional pubs around Crown Point, which used to include Hydes’ and Robinsons’, now have cask beer. The newly boarded-up Silver Springs presented a sorry sight at New Year.
The Lowes Arms is strictly speaking in Denton as it’s on the west (Lancashire) side of the Tame.
Is the Jolly Carter the glaring omission?
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Correct. Jolly Carter doesn’t come up on WhatPub markings, not the first time I’ve seen that problem.
Lowes Arms very Denton, though did that on the way into Hyde, and didn’t need a trip into Dento town.
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That Micro pub has nicked the name from an old Denton pub called The Crown Point,it was a three story corner pub situated in the middle of Denton,a Whitbread Chesters tied house,which i went in on the 5th August 1994.
You will have a job to find a pub i have not done in that area of Thameside,though i must admit that i passed the Lowes Arms lots of times when it was a Boddingtons tied house and i never got round to doing it which was a big let down on my part.
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Didn’t know that, Alan. Nice to see pub names recycled.
By the way, a couple of local Cambridge folk on Twitter have said how much they enjoyed your latest post. Pint & Pubs couldn’t comment (same problem as I had) but loved the memories.
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“Horse racing was on, some people may even have been watching it.”
This is where culture plays a big part. My brother lives in northern France. I’ve been there twice in the past six years (once with my wife and once with my dear old mum). No pubs as such, this being France, but bars or maybe brasseries in every small village. He was familiar with most of them. 🙂
In every one you could get nice Belgian beer on draft, and every one has the horse racing on at least one television. In fact, almost everyone seemed to be poring* over the race forms and placing a bet then watching it on the TV… all the while having a beer of course. 🙂
“middle-aged white men sitting one to a table. Yawn.”
That pretty much describes where I live (sigh).
Cheers
* – I was about to write “pouring” but realized that would only be those who lost on their betting and were taking their frustration out on the race form they had used. 🙂
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