7th February 2020
A short break from the Beer Guide now, as I join a Pub Legend in Congleton.
I’d picked Heaton Chapel, not just for the Booking.com Genius rate if £27.20, but also because it’s a doddle to get to Beartown (look it up yourself) via Stockport. Assuming the train from the Heatons makes it to Stockport before the connecting train leaves in the direction of Stoke. In 2020, that’s too much to ask.
I’d have made it from Platform 0 to Platform 2 just in time if I hadn’t spilt black coffee over my ticket. So, 59 minutes and 40 seconds killed in Stockport Wetherspoons, always a joy when you get John Smiths Smooth man in a purple pullover singing “Winter Wonderland” (honest).
Half an hour later I arrived at a station labelled Congleton but actually in a different continent.
Twenty minutes uphill, and no, I didn’t take a taxi. A scenic walk along the canal and a chance to see the first buds of Spring, Winter having gone on Summer holiday this year.
It’s almost as if they built the station a mile away to deter the Beer & Pubs Forum, but Stafford Paul will NOT be deterred. With my hour delay in Stocky he’d already got a head start on me, which I compounded by taking photos to show Dick and Dave how similar the town is to Leek.
No, it can’t match Leek for pubs, or meringue shops, or oatcakes, and the GBG entries have been, well, a bit dull. But it’s still an attractive place.
We skipped the GBG to explore the lesser honoured pubs.
I caught up with Paul in the Bull’s Head at 10.45 as he was finishing his third pint, which shows the great man’s commitment to saving pubs (albeit the previous one was the Spoons).
A tidy pub, “Wuthering Heights” playing, perhaps a dozen refugees from the corporatism of Spoons dotted about.
I had ticking business later, so I was sticking to halves for now . The Titanic was a quid.
“Wow, is it always that cheap ?”
“You could have had the other one for £1.75 a pint” said the pleasant young man.
Cheap and tasty beer (NBSS 3) in a well-run wet-led Amber Tavern competing nobly with Spoons, just as Amber does in Worksop and no doubt several other market towns.
We consulted Paul’s immaculate maps (top) and headed for the posh hotel.
retiredmartin 
Come on, the town centre is mostly downhill from the station…
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We’ll sponsor you to do it on a toboggan…
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Conjures up visions of turning a B&PF outing into an episode of “Last of the Summer Wine”.
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And it isn’t already 😉
Talking of LofSW, Duncan came back from Holmfirth with lots of positive stories, though I suspect more from innovative micro ventures.
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“I caught up with Paul in the Bull’s Head at 10.45 as he was finishing his third pint,”
Yes, Bod ( Stoke station ) 8.15am, Counting House 9.40am, Bulls Head 10.30am and Lion & Swan 11.20am was the plan for four pints before noon and a leisurely afternoon but the last of the four with its “we’ve got bottles” let us down and meant forty wasted minutes wandering around.
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Does Bod really serve beer before 9?
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Yes, from 8am.
I arrived on platform 2 at 8.11am so it was a pint of Titanic Steerage at 8.15am.
That’s what many other railway stations could do with.
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I’m always confused by opening times. Nearly all Wetherspoons open at 9am, except at airports where you can have a Doom Bar at 3 in the morning.
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And I wasn’t the first customer with a pint.
And it’s civilised. No high vis.
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Nothing wrong with Hi Vis 😉
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Indeed, I wore one at work for ten years but would take it off just before entering a pub.
But I must admit that all the yellow ones and the orange ones were a bit of a distraction from the carpet in the Counting House.
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“Civilised” was most definitely the wrong word as I have NEVER thought there to be anything ‘uncivilised’ about going to a pub in work clothes, not even very bright ones.
It was better though when nearly all pubs had two rooms, a Bar for work clothes and a Lounge for when accompanied by ones wife.
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