ON THE TRANSPENNINE TRAIL

May 2025. Stockport.

Last Friday saw my last City home match of a frantic season (and no, I’m not spending £125 on a cup final ticket), and with an 8pm kick-off v Wolves a chance of an ultra rare new GBG pub, and a leg stretch along the Mersey.

By being old, and promising to extend your trip to the honeypots of Hyde, you can get to Stockport for £13, and Stockport will be delighted to see you.

Yes, Stockport is a fantastic place, famous for vaults, viaducts, Redrock Entertainment Centre and its astonishing collection of closed pubs (the ones marked “P” in grey on the What Pub map).

Oh, and behind the old Woolpack, presumably “beloved” by many, lies the pyramid.

And I was headed in that direction now, a route following the Mersey I’d never done before.

Hollywood Park is gorgeous, who knew ?

Royal Nawaab has just taken over the Pyramid from the Co-op. There’s a Co-op building near the Etihad that would make a great curry house.

Expect reports soon.

For now, a 40 minute stretch of Trans Pennine Trail ahead of tea with Matt,

2 miles to remind you of Stockport’s natural beauty, and to confirm Matt’s view that Manchester’s number 1 pursuit is jogging.

Lots of industrial history, though the information panels are arguably older than the remnants of Samuel Oldknow’s bleachworks.

If you look closely at that finger post, you’ll see where I’m heading next, and wonder how it took so long for me to get here.

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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.

12 thoughts on “ON THE TRANSPENNINE TRAIL”

    1. Paul,
      Yesterday I had a very nice curry in the Crown at Sedgley with a pint of Holdens Golden Glow. That was after four pubs on the West Midlands Mild Trail and before a Bathams in the Great Western.
      On Thursday it was a hot pork bap in the Great Western with a Holdens Mild and on Friday a roast beef and salad cob and two Bathams Best Bitters in the Royal Oak at Church Eaton.

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      2. I don’t think you will have passed the Crown on your sprint along Bilston Street to catch last orders at the Beacon. I’ve never been to the Crown which would have been a few yards further up the High Street from where you got off the bus. You’ll have passed the Bull’s Head.

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      4. No Paul, for the Beacon Hotel we used the Market Hall stop, a quarter of a mile south of the Crown, from Dudley and then to Upper Gornal for the Britannia.
        Yesterday eight minutes on the 229 bus yards from the Holdens Brewery Tap ( Park Inn ) had me at the Beacon Hotel by 1.40pm, then it was right along Bilston Bilston Street for a Thai meal with Holdens in the Bulls Head if they hadn’t just stopped doing food by 2.30, so a bit further before turning right along High High for the Crown with chicken bhuna and naan for £12.75 and Holdens Golden Glow rather than the Doom Bar mentioned on What Pub, then the road crossed for the 1 bus to Wolverhampton and the great Great Western.

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