CHEADLE – FLAT CAPS, FLAT WHITES, FOAMY BEER

Next stop, Cheadle. No, no, not THAT Cheadle.

The one Stockport owns.

And seamlessly from one Hulme to another one;

W. Hulme Farm Produce is still boarded up. Information welcome.

Bar the Church of St Mary’s, it’s the architectural highlight of a village that’s little more than a main road from Stockport to the A34 and the south.

So I’ll do what I always do when there’s little to say and give you a pic of a cuddly cat.

We were here, in a campervan no less, last summer, when the James Watts was alluring but closed.

And now this Hyde’s house with crafty allusions is in the Guide.

Several of us GBG tickers were sure we’d been to the James Watts before, but that was the James Watt in Greenock, or possibly David Watts by The Jam. Fa fa fa fa fa.

Apparently, it’s Christmas in Cheadle. Time for me to buy my Doom Bar advent calendar, I guess.

There’s an inviting/scary (delete as applicable) range of Hyde’s beers,

and the wall display carries a hundred more alcoholic options, including what appears to be gins displayed in ABV order, which is daft as you’ll always just start with the strongest, surely ?

A modern soundtrack, exemplified by NONONO, Swedish rockers and a favourite of Mudgie.

“No No No” is probably what the gentlefolk custom are thinking, though at least it’s the acoustic version. Two Old Boys in flat cap drinking pints, two ladies having their usual flat whites.

The lovely lady behind the bar forgot to top up my cool, foamy half of Original (NBSS 3+), distracted by putting the foam on the coffees, but I didn’t mind at all.

It’s lovely to see gentlefolk back in pubs again, drinking pints, reading papers, making small talk.

I can even forgive that seating.

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.

13 thoughts on “CHEADLE – FLAT CAPS, FLAT WHITES, FOAMY BEER”

  1. James Watts was a cotton merchant who was mayor of Manchester in the 1850s. He lived at Abney Hall in Cheadle. One of his descendants married Agatha Christie’s sister, who often travelled up to spend Christmas with them there (there’s a theory that she named her female sleuth Miss Marple after her train was held up at the station just south of Stockport on her way to Cheadle).

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  2. You may have been in it when it was the Old Star, but I don’t think that had been in the Guide for some years before the conversion.

    Interesting that they’re now offering only Hydes’ own beers, whereas initially it had several guests from other breweries. Does this mean they’re changing the focus away from being a craft alehouse?

    I’ve only been in once – apart from the two bays at the front it seemed to be all posing tables! 😮

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      3. The pub blogging “market” has plenty of space for all types of posts, Peter ! Some of BRAPA and my posts forget what we drank, let alone what was on the bar. Paul Mudge of Stafford has record of all the beers he drank and how much he paid going back 50+ years.

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      4. Nowhere near as detailed as the GBG tickers, but if I visit a pub that’s outside my regular haunts, I note that I’ve been there and record any points of interest.

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      5. “Paul Mudge of Stafford has record of all the beers he drank and how much he paid going back 50+ years” – but you surely wouldn’t expect me to trust it to memory. .

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    2. Not the Old Star, but I remember the Crown being a fairly basic boozer on that side of the road.

      Obviously I’m delighted to see a traditional brewer promoting its own range and specials rather than an obsession with guests, but a few too many on the bar despite my half being good.

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      1. The Crown is still the traditional old man pub in Cheadle. And it’s a conversion from a shop unit. Has been in the GBG in this century, I think.

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