June 2025. Poynton. Cheshire.
A rare stop in Poynton, doggedly in Cheshire though feeling like Stockport overspill.
A burgeoning commuter town famous for the shared space at the heart of its 4 lanes that dispenses with frippery like traffic lights and invites everyone to be polite and give way to each other.
There was an abundance of middle-class politeness on the stairs to the toilets at the Kingfisher,
the busiest thoroughfare in town.
And this is a busy Spoons on a warm Friday in June. There must be 200 folk inside and out, leaving chaotic scenes at the water cooler.
And 199 of them are so nice, though the lady opposite is in a strop waiting for her wine. Elsewhere, the notorious Spoons vertical queue is growing longer…
Honestly, pubs may be a bit quieter than you’d hope (Derby was desolate), but Spoons seems to be bucking the trend.
I was even able to risk a half of Cheshire microbrew with my tea, a cool Chocolate Brownie Porter from Tatton (NBSS 3.5) reaching my table before the large glass of Rose on the next table.
Of course, Poynton has Proper Pubs, too.
A particular favourite of Pub Curmudgeon, that one.
retiredmartin 
The patient people must all take after Jackie Weaver
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I had a rare visit to one Tim’s venues yesterday and realised that 9.45am can be a good time for beating the queues. The Abbot was drinking remarkably well, so a couple might have been sold during the previous three-quarters of an hour. Sat near the front door, I noticed what would have been a nice bit of stained glass had the acorns been accompanied by oak, rather than olive, leaves.
It was something of a distress purchase before the £3.15 Bass at Craft Union’s George IV which didn’t open till 10am.
Having caught the 6.45am bus on a hot day it’s no surprise that by mid morning I had quite a thirst, one which hadn’t been quenched by a black coffee with my breakfast ( four sausages ) in the Tudor.
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That’s a good place to show anyone who claims that Spoons are all rough. The raised seating along the front is particularly congenial, with plenty of natural light.
However, in my experience the cask quality is distinctly variable – it’s one of the pubs on my list of shame where I have had to return two pints in succession. A rather marginal GBG entry.
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Rather different from before the collieries closed in 1935, wouldn’t trying to find anything “rough” in Poynton nowadays be quite a challenge ?
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Yes, as evidenced by taking so long to make the GBG after opening.
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Er, so does being “rough” in whatever respect help a pub get in the GBG nowadays ?
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Simon Everitt will confirm there’s a lot more plain pubs, not quite Craft Union but perhaps “just” serving e.g. Wainwright and Moorhouses, making the GBG these last few years. Perhaps that reflects the slowdown in new micropubs, perhaps some recognition that a good pint of a beer you’ve heard of isn’t such a crime.
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Yes, and describing “a rough pub” as “a plain pub” is what the polite gentlefolk of Poynton might do !
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I have very fond memories of Poynton in the 80’s/90’s. Every year I’d catch the train up with a friend for a weekend of sleeping on the snooker tables at the Folk Centre, the bar never seemed to close if you had a ticket for the folk festival. Nearby was a Chesters Brewery house, even then it was full of pringle jumpered golfers, and I recall that whilst the Dark Mild looked stunning, it disappointingly tasted of very little indeed…
(The Real) Mark
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