23rd December 2019
In case you’re wondering, I had been on the road for nearly a week by now.
Mrs RM was working away in Maidenhead (#Pray4MrsRM), James was home from Sheffield guarding Taylor Towers, and Matt was cutting hair till Christmas Eve, so I might as well bring him home when I returned. Nothing to do with staying out to do more pubs.
My last night was a £26 bonanza in the Holiday Inn Express on historic Hyde Road.
Only Quosh and I could so eagerly anticipate a stroll around the tight terraces of Denton/Reddish North/Dane Bank.
Every great journey starts with a walk under a urine soaked underpass with the A57 roaring overhead.
Nice art, mind
Rather like north Liverpool, a scarcity of live pubs but plenty of good uses for the dead ones.
Stafford Paul will name that brewery in one
Quosh was giving me advice on the dodgiest cheapest Carribean cafes, but they were all closed so I found myself approaching the pub options.
Anyone sensible would have gone for Ox cheeks and Unicorn at The Robbies pub.
Nice sign
But who could resist the lure of the Crown Carvery at the Windmill over the road? *
Proper Pubs No. 3,719
Not me. Particularly not when you can dine with Roque Santa Cruz, City legend.
He’s let himself go
There’s a separate adult only area with a few Old Boys watching Sky.
I left them to it andentered a vast dining room full of joyous families, some of them determined to win me that Pinnocchio (you’re right, Mr Johnson Snr, it is tough).
Keep trying
WhatPub promised cask, but a coachload from Castleford CAMRA had drunk the Doom Bar dry on Sunday (probably).
Tough choice
£6 for a big plate of meat and six veg, £2.50 odd for the most interesting looking beer in the fridge.
Without something, all right
Nice staff, eclectic soundtrack (Nick Mulvey, anyone ?), helpful customers who gave me advice on how to order, and a really good roast. Awful beer, artisan or not.
Do Go : for your 5 a day and 2,000 calories
Don’t Go : for your Untappd points, or whatever you do there
*Or is it Stonehouse, which I always confuse with Stonegate, CAMRA favourites.
Gartsides.
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It was Openshaw Brewery Company based in West Gorton. Taken over by Hope & Anchor Breweries of Sheffield in 1957; closed shortly after that; demolished 1964.
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“Stafford Paul will name that brewery in one”.
Sorry, no I can’t – in part from the pub’s inaccessibility with only one train a week from Stockport.
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There is the 330 bus service 😛
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Thanks, but the pub’s closed, I want beer not hoovers and the 330 might be a Bumpy Bus.
And there’s always been too many Proper Pubs in Stockport for me to give much thought to that direction.
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You mean the 203
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And it’s usually a very non-bumpy double decker
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John,
Sorry, I might have been misinformed about the bus number. ( You can’t quite believe everything you read on here )
Anyway, with being otherwise occupied all morning next Thursday I won’t have time to get far out of Stockport during the afternoon and early evening.
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You can believe everything you read on here.
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Even having had the pleasure of his company, I’m still not convinced BRAPA isn’t imaginary.
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You’ve not been the same since Stockport, have you Scott?
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Is anybody the same after a visit there?
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While we’re on the subject of transport pedantry, the nearest station to the former Bull’s Head is actually Reddish North, which enjoys a regular service between Marple and Piccadilly, although not to Stockport.
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We are always on the subject of transport pedantry.
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And that’s the Marple that the fictional Jane Marple was named after.
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And the service at Reddish South has now been doubled as the Parliamentary train now travels from Stalybridge down to Stockport and then back again. So it’s up to two trains a week.
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John,
But I think on Saturdays now not Fridays, so I can’t use it for the York AGM in April but could for Scarborough eight years ago.
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Yes – it is indeed Saturdays now
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Ah yes, the former Bull’s Head in North Reddish, which has probably been closed since the end of the last century. There are now no pubs at all along the two-mile length of Gorton Lane from Hyde Road to the centre of Reddish, where once there were four. So much for the pub renaissance 😉
The Bull’s Head and one or two other local pubs saw an experiment in the late 80s where owners Bass decided to reintroduce real ale in the form of Draught Bass. However, this is very much ordinary bitter territory (keg Stones in this case), and the locals tried it, but concluded that it was “too strong” and gave them a bad head. Usher in the inevitable downward spiral of declining sales and declining quality. It can’t have lasted more than six months. The Windmill was also a Bass pub back in the day.
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Yes, they tried the same thing in the now long-closed (and indeed now-demolished) Reddish Vale. And that really was a former Gartsides house (built 1957, and, per OT November 2008 closed ‘again’ . OT June 2009 recorded its demolition following it being set alight).
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It hung around for a bit longer than that. Consulting our online Lost Locals List shows that Opening Times recorded it closing in 2007, reopening in 2008 and closing again in 2009!
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Funny how your memory plays tricks on you – very often it’s the other way round and places have been closed for longer than you thought. I should have guessed it would be around then, really.
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Incidentally, I agree that St Peter’s alcohol-free beer is utterly vile.
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Best AF so far for me is that version of Punk IPA. The bottle seems a bit better than the can, IMO.
St. Peter’s and anything malty like that are too sickly for words I find, probably about the worst that I have tried.
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Stonehouse…top class M&B boozers…some excellent ones in Midlands
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Yes, i must have walked past a dozen in Solihull and east Brum!
They seem very popular.
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Only cask options in East Brum!!
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Stonehouse and Stonegate – that’s the future.
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Gatehouse. That’s the future.
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