6th February 2020
Onto my latest trip now, a rather disastrous attempt to get my hair cut.
My base for the next two days was Heaton Chapel, which some of you may have heard of. It’s in Greater Manchester/Stockport/Cheshire Lancashire.
I paid the princely sum of £54.40 for a two night stay in Trivelles on the A6, a place gradually losing its sheen but at least the WiFi works.
Which is more than I can say for your trains, Northerners. Good grief.
Anyway, I brought the sun up North with me again, and Ramsbottom looked splendid.
You really feel you’ve left the string of pearls constituting the northern Manchester mill and black pudding towns behind and arrived in the real Lancashire when you set foot on the Ramsbottom cobbles.
To use a Suffolk analogy, it’s more akin to a Sudbury than a Newmarket, with wedding shops and bistros and “heritage” attractions.
If only it had a really great traditional pub to go along with the microbrewery bar.
But the Royal British Legion is a little gem.
New to the GBG, it’s a little cagey about the price of a pint, but it’s less than in the micros up the valley, anyway.
The RBL has the exciting opening times of 15:30 – 17:30 and then 20:00 to 23:00, which isn’t quite Connoisseur Tap but certainly means you’ve got to get your timings right.
I turned up on the dot of 15:30 to find a couple of regulars with pints poured, and a cheery barmaid pulling the Carling for the Old Boy due to arrive at 15:35. And he did, “Glory Glory Man United” blaring out as his mobile ringtone.
No signing-in, no CAMRA cards, no “I told you lot we don’t want your type” (ask Si), just a lovely crisp foaming pint of Jarl (3.5+) which was better than the Laurieston, though Glasgow’s finest has other attractions.
Home Swap Bargain Watch was on the TV, but no-one was watching it.
The locals were debating Kirk Douglas’s passing at 103, which is no age, really.
“Terry had him in the Celebrity Death Sweepstakes, he’ll be chuffed”.
“Oh, I thought he’d placed it on himself“.
A cracker, as was the offering in the £1 Ploughman’s Lunch. The cheese was a tad disappointing.
A great pint is Jarl, whatever glass it’s in.
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Jarl, £2.00 a pint? Died, and gone to heaven… probably pretty rapidly amount I’d drink at that price.
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£2.70 the sign says, probably cheaper for the other one. I did see £2.30 pints of Golden Best in a club near Haworth the other week, and plenty of micros under £3 in Lancashire.
But, hey, let’s slag off Spoons for undervaluing beer😊
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A true recreation of the happy plough persons half-time snap. It’s a wonder that detectorists aren’t pulling dairylea foil out of fields everywhere. Paper branding though so perhaps they are.
I keep meaning to try the Tewkesbury RBL, looks like a homely bit of formica and strip lighting from outside. I’m guessing it’s already in your GBG bag!…
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Visited on a glorious day 18 months ago, poshest RBL anywhere, very cheap.
https://retiredmartin.com/2018/07/26/tewkespury-reignites-the-cob-v-bap-debate/
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Correct – Heaton Chapel is in historic Lancashire. The boundaries between the Four Heatons are always a bit fluid, but I’d say Heaton Norris gives way to Heaton Chapel at the crossroads on which Trivelles stands.
In 2005 I worked for nine months doing maternity leave cover at the now-demolished paper mill by the station in Ramsbottom. You are right that it (or the town centre at least) is much more upmarket than the name might suggest.
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Sub three quid pints, which look foamy and top notch, clubs open to all should be the way forward!
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