May 2025. Heaton Mersey. Stockport.
I always like to give the impression of knowing everywhere on the map, an overconfidence attributable to a) having actually travelled so widely, b) being a man.
As I walked along the banks of the Mersey towards Heaton Mersey I realised with alarm I knew little about western Stockport, or the Heatons in general. There’s a famous pub curmudgeon somewhere here,
and a particularly well-regarded Spoons where East Didsbury starts.
When you reach Embankment Business Park (carpets, yoga and telecomms) it’s time to follow the finger post towards Robinson’s Crown (top), Greater Stockport’s Pub of the Year.
“I think you’ll like the Crown” wrote Chairman John, and John is right.
The entrance is actually round the back,
on cobbled Vale Close,
and inside you’ve a warren of attractive, unfussy rooms.
It’s the beer that gets it in the GBG, I think for the first time in years,
a cool, rich, chewy Unicorn (NBSS 4) despite the heat which drives me to the cool of the public bar.
But it’s the other stuff that makes this Pub of the Year material. And not just the Hall & Oates/Althea & Donna soundtrack.
It’s the genuine welcome (“Enjoy that my love“), the pint and beer mat brought to my table as I’m dithering,
the general sense of joy among the regulars and sense a visitor could join in (or not).
A gem.
retiredmartin 
That’s a fine looking pint. The pub also appeals.
You have the best job, Martin.
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With the best jobs comes great responsibility!
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Although there are what some might call cobbles in one of your photos – more like random pebbles really – the road surface is actually made up of setts.
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Indeed SH, like the setts I encountered last Thursday and Saturday for the Great Western.
Cobbles are shaped more like cobs, but lacking a strata of cheese and onion.
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I think we should take this argument to Discourse for resolution.
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Hehe, coming from Guildford, all we ever get is mentions of the ‘historic’ cobbled High Street. There isn’t a single cobble to be seen, it’s all granite setts. And they’ve only been there since 1868. So neither cobbled nor particularly historic!
But tourists are idiots with money…
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All Guildford’s tourists head for the Rodboro Buildings.
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