Yesterday I managed to see a fair bit of Ayrshire and the Rosneath peninsula on my birthday (22/12), but us tickers are often treated to unexpected beauty in our pursuit of tisks.
To soften the disappointment of my birthday having ended (extend it NOW !) I bring you TWO (2) ticks five minutes walk apart across the expanse of Rivington Reservoir.
Some lovely parts of east Lancashire there, and I’ve walked Rivington Pike along with half of the pashmina population of Horwich, last year I even walked along the waterfront from the M61 services, but I’d never noticed these two pubs hiding in the trees.
Perhaps that’s because one is a new brewery tap and the other is a bowling club.
Rivington Brewery‘s pub garden must be one of the most bucolic in the Guide,
Although the outside loos will not be to everyone’s taste.
It’s one of those places where the beers are listed in small writing on ever-changing screens high up on the wall, which is my excuse why I ended up ordering one of the keg beers rather than cask as the screen changed just as I was reading it. #WontTheyThinkOfTheOldFolk
Actually, I’ll think I’ll blame that Blackpool FC bobble hat for obscuring my sight.
If you must know what the beer was, and it was very good, it’ll be one of these (possibly);
What happened to beers called Mild, Bitter and Old Freddy Walker ? And NO, I don’t do Untippd.
The walk across the reservoir was a highlight of 2021. Look at the skies I brought with me from the Blind Monkey.
The Rivington is only in the Guide to a) confuse BRAPA as there’s another pub called Rivington just over the motorway, and b) impress the font fans who read this blog.
Actually, this bowling club-cum-cafe is called simply “Rivington” in its Guide debut, so expect confusion when the “The” is added next year.
I’m boring myself now. But the Rivington is a very good café, akin to that Pine Marten place in Aviemore, and served a very decent Abbeydale Moonshine (NBSS 3+) so no-one can doubt the quality of a swathe of new Lanky entries this year.
But I really should have drank it out in their beer garden too, shouldn’t I ?
retiredmartin 
We’re not their target customers are we?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Er, no.
LikeLike
Plastic wisteria. Now there’s a name for a craft beer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looks like Blackpool Jane’s bobble hat !
LikeLiked by 1 person
She didn’t notice me steal it when she visited Sheffield !
LikeLike
So if “The” gets added next year, does it count as a name change so Duncan has to revisit?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only if there’s an umlaut on the h.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is now (looks out marker pen).
LikeLike
I could write a dissertation on this very point but it’s all to do with the footprint of the building. A move next door (eg New Brew-m in Burnley moved across the road) requires a revisit, a name change doesn’t. A near relative in football Groundhopping is when a different club plays on a ground you have already been to. This is known as a bracketed tick. Some specialists (including a guy in Inverurie) pursue this with relish but most don’t bother (continued on Page 94)
LikeLiked by 2 people
So if Charters moves mooring spot by three feet the system insists it needs to be ticked again?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Will have to put that to t’Committee! But if I hear of anyone attempting to shift it on the dead of night you will become ‘a person of interest’ as they say in the tv crime dramas.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes. But if it stays still and converts to a Wetherspoons it doesn’t. Odd world.
LikeLike
That would be interesting, a Spoons with a vole infestation.
LikeLike