A RAINBOW FOR ROCHDALE

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Back to The North, and real hills.  And proper place names like Trub and Slattocks and Tandle Hill.

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What an exciting slice of the Ordnance Survey map this chunk of Rochdale is. Home to famous pubs up potholed lanes, esteemed beer bloggers, golf clubs, canals, the tiny A627(M), and a garden centre with a contender for the scariest (if not most premature) Christmas display.

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Mrs RM at least resisted the lure of a new Christmas tree, which means she’ll be up in the loft again on November 30. I’m no fan of Christmas, me.

This is Lees land, but the last new Guide pub I did round here was (I thought) a basic Sam Smiths place which has long closed. The stretch of Manchester Road that leads under the M62 into Castleton has great views and austere mansions. And a rainbow.

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There might always be rain but there’s always a rainbow in south Rochdale. And a lot of Chinese takeaways hidden among the terraces.

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And the closure of the boozers, classic or otherwise, along the A664 is at least partially offset by the opening of the inevitable micro pub by the canal.

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You could miss it from the outside, but the usual part-frosted windows of the Old Post Office reveal the tell-tale signs of pub life.

“I’m regretting that Jaipur last night”

“How many did you have?

“Only 3 or 4 .  Plus 8 of the others.

There followed an evaluation of the pub’s regulars and their likely state today.

“He’ll be wobbling today”

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Firmly in the “cheery pub that just happens to be small” category of micros, I loved this place, and the Wildside Dark was £2.70 a pint.  Hit the North.

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Perhaps the bar seating is a bit cutesy for Rochdale, but that’s the only downside in a place where they still say “Ay Up“.

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A similar feel to the other Castleton pub on the mini-crawl. The Blue Pits has proper banter and a smooth Lees bitter,

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I presume Rochdale Council saves money by never taking down its Christmas deccies.

A proper two pub crawl by the canal.

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And if you’re desperate for Tetley’s.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

19 thoughts on “A RAINBOW FOR ROCHDALE”

  3. Thanks for the map Martin, I always wondered where Tandleman’s local was.

    Seating definitely too cutesy for Rochdale, and rather too posh for Kent as well. (Not only that, they look really uncomfortable).

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  4. Martin, you used the evil C word four times in this post. Thus I see that as essentially saying it so by my regulations you owe the Lincolnshire Hedgehog charity £2.00. Further offences will see further action, which could involve you being sent to Scunthorpe for a fortnight.

    £2.70 a pint sounds very dear to me.

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  5. More about the A627(M) on Pathetic Motorways.

    One of the select band of motorways that has a roundabout half-way along.

    Plus it has its own little spur, the east-west section on your map extract, known as the Slattocks Link Road 😀

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      1. The author hails from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, and his reaction to any suggestion that his home city was “part of Birmingham” would make mine to the idea that Stockport was “part of Manchester” pale into insignificance.

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  6. If you live in a dumpy town then the lights always go up early,ours were put up early October and will stay there until March,the tree does come later to stop it being wrecked.
    No doubt if you live in a nice place like Cambridge,then the lights are put up on the 30th November and took down on 7th January.
    I love Christmas,so this is for you Tom,Christmas,Christmas,Christmas,Christmas,Christmas.

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    1. Alan, I quite agree. You have reminded me to write my annual letter of complaint to the local council regarding the early morning closure of the main road to my flat due to the erection of illuminations. Said street doesn’t receive a tree, though there probably will be one on the market.

      There’s only one Sir Isaac Newton.

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      2. I agree with honouring those people who actually deserve it and have done something which is both remarkable and significant.

        I should also point out that I am technically wrong to refer to the greatest person Grantham have ever claimed as one of their own as a knight as this is technically revoked upon death, although it is possible to be posthumously knighted.

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