Back to the travels, as I tackle the area popularly known as “Posh Stoke”.
It’s nearly a decade since I last nearly lost the contents of my stomach (possibly a Balti in Leek the night before) on a ride at Alton Towers called the Veloctitraptor or something. The one that just drops to earth at 300mph.
Until I looked at the OS extract just now I hadn’t realised just how close the village named after the theme park actually was.
I could literally have nipped to the Alton Bridge/Talbot over lunch and been back in time to get soaked at that place where kids from Kidsgrove squirt water as your pirate boat meanders round the lake.
Oddly, 3 years ago I stood in this exact spot outside the Alton Bridge Hotel (Wincle, NBSS 1.5),
and wrote “And mysteriously, seems to have its own pub in the grounds. Now, I can find nothing about the Talbot at all on the internet, so it’s over to you.”
Back then the two Mudg(i)es reminisced about the Talbot, mainly the schitzels, but it was another 6 months before it actually re-opened and then burst into the GBG and the Wickingman’s Bass list.
Yes, it’s more Bass for us tickers to enjoy, if there’s anyone around to drive it down the A50.
The Talbot shares outside areas and parking with it’s big brother hotel, but retains an Olde Worlde styling that will delight the Southworths if not Stafford Paul.
We actually tipped up well before noon on Sunday and got a pint, a particular joy.
Well, Mrs RM did, I was on driving duties having called “Tails” on a dice with six “Tails” on it.
I had the legally required sip though, to get the tick. NBSS 3+, I thought. Let the lacings reveal all;
Nice people, nice place. Unfussy and despite lots of nervous diners arriving at the door as 12:00 approached I’d pop in for a beer once one of my lads learns to drive and repays his old Dad with some taxi duties.
Be warned though, on Sunday mornings a little van (Project D, of Spondon) selling doughnuts pulls up in the car park and like the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tempts you out of the Talbot with gooey goodness.
We gave that box to James and his mates, boosting my likelihood of that lift to a pub by at least 17%.
retiredmartin 
That’s a very clever marketing ruse. Doughnut smeared with peanut butter, doughnut with Jalapeños pinned on, carpet fluff doughnut, and of course doughnut surprise. That’ll be £45,000 for the 30% hole in the middle of the business please Deborah…
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I’ll be honest, they look fantastic but they were ambitiously priced at £2.50 each, but then there’s a cost for a van to trek from Spondon to Stoke. The lads loved them, I’ve had better.
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Kind of a common trend here. The doughnut that really isn’t a doughnut. Most places have two tiers of pricing for them. And they are not cheaper…I knew things were changing when I went into one of the shops that sells them and I felt underdressed. Never thought that could happen in a doughnut shop. Apparently you can make anything upper crust.
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Your doughnuts are different to ours, aren’t they ?
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Somewhat. Raised are similar. Ours tend to be much sweeter. The ones in the picture above would be similar to some of our craft doughnuts.
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“Posh” and “Stoke” …. 2 words I thought I’d never see next to each other
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Nice use of an Oxymoron in this post Martin with Posh Stoke….great part of the world and walks in the Churnet Valley…always some cracking boozers too and this one fits the bill perfectly.
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I bought my parents breaks in Trentham a couple of times. No pubs (well, a Toby carvery at the hotel) but they loved the gardens and the potteries. Stoke gets a bad press in my opinions.
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I lived in Stone for three years and there is some magnificent countryside within about five/ten minutes drive of Stoke.
Mind you, some of those central suburbs were very gritty by way of recompense. Great people though and always friendly
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The ‘Man In Space’ was a fairly popular/lively Trentham pub in my youth, though I doubt it’s ever graced the pages of the GBG, and is now part of the ‘Sizzling’ Pub chain. There’s also a Titanic ‘bod’ bar that opened a couple of years back in the former NatWest bank (just up the road from the Toby).
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That’s really helpful, many thanks. I remember the “Man In Space” when I explored Trentham from the Toby, which I might even revisit when that new “bod” inevitably makes the Beer Guide. It looks to be in exactly the location I’d expect a Stoke bod to be (similar to the suburban one in Stafford).
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