retiredmartin

July 2023. Crewe.

During the first lockdown of 2020, that one you’ll remember so fondly, I entertained you with some cut-and-paste editions focusing on some of the UK’s tourist honeypots.

And Crewe.

For many pub tickers, it’s the planning the pub trip that’s the highlight rather than the actual pub and the beer. With a free Friday, I spent all of Thursday working out I could add Crewe to a trip to Uttoxeter and get a Cheshire/Staffs double.

Our UK rail system is the envy of the world. Germans are astonished you can save half your ticket price by splitting your trip with a (pretend) stop in Uttoxeter. No doubt if you pretend to stop in Stoke they’ll pay you to travel, but I’m not trying that.

Derby station is looking quite smart these days, with this gent providing the musical accompaniment to my 20 minute wait to the Uttoxeter connection. Better than the pianist at King’s Cross, anyway.

Just before we leave Derby an elder lady jumps up and leaps off the train.

“I guess no-one wants to end up in Crewe by accident” I say, to zero response.

Crewe station is, of course, a junction famous for inexplicable reasons. The walk from our platform to the entrance actually takes longer than the walk through town, and almost as long as the hike from Piccadilly’s Platform 13 to the gate.

The tourist office have kindly provided a walking trail from the station to the centre, taking you past the splendour of Gwesty Road.

So you get detailed signposts every 50 yards directing you through housing estates and shopping centres, rather than via the undoubted delights of Edwardian Crewe.

But the centre is unrecognisable.

It’s had a high quality spruce up since my last, pre-Covid, visit.

And the conversion of the market hall into a mini Mackie Mayor in 2021 is quite something, particularly for fans of authentic pub bench seating.

OK, more Warrington than Altrincham, but it’s all independent vendors and the Crewe Dog is a classy bar with a “toasted coconut lemon drizzle doughnut sour“, which isn’t something you’d have found in Cheshire, let alone Crewe, a decade ago. They had noodle, too, but I resisted those.

I had a Brew York x Gweilo because now I’ve finished the GBG I don’t need to try that silly cask anymore.

I toyed with the idea of staying an extra hour to do the Hop Pole, but apparently it’s lost its character, and something even more exciting awaited back down the line.

I’d given myself 22 minutes to walk the mile back to the station and find Platform 3, andhad walked 200 yards before I realised I’d left my (unnecessary given the heat) jacket in the market so had to run back, which I blame entirely on drinking craft rather than cask beer.