AND A NIGHT OUT IN ALSAGER….

July 2023. Alsager.

Four ticks by four, which sounds like a Ted Nugent album, and time for some non-GBG exploration.

We were heading back to Sheffield in the morning, so nothing too adventurous.

How about Alsager ? Said no-one ever.

I couldn’t tell you anything about Alsager, bar its GBG history and location, all the more reason to visit.

Parked up in Fanny’s Croft Car Park, we admired the view to Bignall End.

“A lot of bushes in Fanny’s Croft” said Mrs RM, coming over all Julian Clary.

She needed the loo, and I promised her the route via farmland into town would take no more than 15 minutes.

Reader, I lied.

It took 17.

But it was a bit special, bucolic Britain at its best.

And, like all the best Bucolic Britain, it ends with Bass.

The Lodge is the only Guide pub I’ve ever visited in Alsager, a good decade ago, and I’m ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it was a micropub back then.

Now, it’s a multiroom upmarket bar with electronic display board and HUGE garden heaving with folk in puffer jackets drinking Madri, Prosecco and Beavertown. A real cacophony of noise from table pushed close together, and nearly all with groups of two or four. No lone drinkers at all.

I hated it/I loved it. Dido waved the white flag;

she didn’t.

I reckon cask made up 5% of the sales, but the Bass edged up from a 3+ to that crucial 3.5 and I couldn’t have been happier to see a pub so full.

Mrs RM noted that the Bass was “distinctive” and I felt suddenly elated. I’ll take “distinctive” all day long. No-one ever said Verdant Lightbulb or Deya Steady Rolling Man was distinctive, did they ?.

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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.

17 thoughts on “AND A NIGHT OUT IN ALSAGER….”

    2. Can’t remember what else they had but that’s actually a decent trio in that picture; I’ve had quite a few Brew York beers recently. I really ought to revisit York and do their flashy modern tap. Stafford Paul would be horrified.

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    3. Most definitely. But why did a 15 minute walk take 17 minutes?

      I think the artistically framed photos of the fields suggest that there were some unnecessary pauses along the way.

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      1. Yes, definitely the photographer’s fault, Will. We also paused to look for the home of the Gideon’s Society which is marked on the map but nowhere to be seen.

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  2. Yes, distinctive. Well done, Christine!

    Bass ought to be distinctive.

    You should be able to tell that it’s Bass even if it’s served in a Carling glass.

    If it tastes like Madri, Prosecco and Beavertown, something has gone badly wrong.

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  3. The Lodge was a scruffy pub with an occasional brewery out the back. The current owners used to own the Gresley at Alsagers Bank (no relation), renowned for fabulous views. I am a weekly solo drinker at the Lodge, but midweek. The garden extension is attracting the tattooed shaven headed Madri drinkers, but cask drinkers are prevalent during the week, hence 8 cask beers in good nick.

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  4. I only knew Alsager from the ‘Staffotdshire Potter’ evening rail ticket of the 1980s.
    The Alsager Arms was “a large pub situated next to Alsager railway station …… Used to have a reputation for being a rough pub in the 80s/early 90s” and had a trendy refurbishment by Allied Breweries.

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  6. I thought the Lodge was a lot better at a quieter time. Fairly modern-styled, but has separate public and lounge bars, plenty of bench seating, and Bass 😀
    Odd place, Alsager, as it’s a straggly village that has grown into a fair-sized town.

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