September 2025. Sale.
My new GBG pub in Sale was unexpectedly closed (“hope to be open by 4”, they said), so an hour to get to the soul of Sale. If there was a local TIC, they could have that for a pint of Holt.
We decided to loiter for an hour, despite a less than glowing endorsement from ChatGPT;
Calm ! Who on earth survives to 60 and wants calm ?
Your walk starts at the metro station, with a cute coffee shop and a view of rowing boats on the Bridgewater Canal.
Traditionally two Guide entries, the Spoons and a plain looking Robbies house that also doesn’t open till later. What happened to daytime drinking ?
Chat GPT directs us to the 17th century Eyebrow Cottage, now a skincare clinics where Trafford wives spend their afternoon.
The two stand-out buildings on the A56 are the Volunteer, a gorgeous Holt roadhouse, and an estate agents.
Sale doesn’t feel a Holt sort of town, in fact walking the deserted pedestrianised high street it doesn’t feel any sort of town, certainly not one with 62,000 souls.
One for the Roy Castle fan, perhaps.
But then you reach the new cultural precinct at Stanley Square and it comes to life. A bit.
We walk through the posh houses to Walkden Gardens, which is gorgeous and unfussy,
and then back to the JP Joule, which is gorgeous and cheap as only a JDW can be.
The tram back to Manchester leaves at 16:12, I nip back to my GBG target to find no sign of life, and drag Mrs RM from the Spoons to the platform.
retiredmartin 
Unless you have really good eyesight, you will struggle to see any rowing boats on the Mersey from Sale Bridge, even if it was navigable, and that view looks suspiciously much more like the Bridgewater Canal than the Mersey, with the straight banks being a clue!
To prove the benefits of being in the Good Beer Guide, I went in the Pray Tell in the precinct, alias Stanley Square, for the first time in its current identity, spurred on by its appearance. It was pretty decent and I will revisit, even if it only had one cask ale on (Track Sonoma) though, as I am sure somebody has said, one is more than enough.
It’s a pity you didn’t go in the Volunteer, which was the best pub in Sale in the earlier years of this century before deteriorating. I did hear recently that “”two seasoned landladies” were taking over and it may return to its former glories. I suppose I may have to try it out myself.
It’s always intriguing, I should say, to read someone’s impressions of a place which you know so well yourself.
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I’ve been in the Volunteer before, of course, and if I’d known my target pub was going to be closed I’d have popped in, though I did have a night of Bass and Boddies ahead.
Thanks for correcting me on the water. I knew it was a canal but couldn’t remember which one and the AI response was that ‘the Mersey flows through the centre of Sale” which shows the limits of AI.
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Such mistakes are easily made.
I remember an article about canalside pubs in Staffordshire that, rather than narrowboats, referred to longboats !
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“September 2025. Sale.”
What a gorgeous pic up above.
“so an hour to get to the soul of Sale.”
Is that like getting to the inner ring of Dante’s Inferno?
“despite a less than glowing endorsement from ChatGPT;”
I do believe ChatGPT is learning the art of damning with faint praise.
“Who on earth survives to 60 and wants calm ?”
Pfft! It’s what I strive for every day! (but never quite attain)
“What happened to daytime drinking ?:
Ahem. My own man shed/pub. (and very rarely in just my underpants)
“now a skincare clinics where Trafford wives spend their afternoon.”
Is that like the Stepford Wives* over here?
* – movie
“The two stand-out buildings on the A56 are the Volunteer, a gorgeous Holt roadhouse, and an estate agents.”
Blimey. Do they have the lock on every home for sale in… Sale? 🙂
“in fact walking the deserted pedestrianised high street it doesn’t feel any sort of town, certainly not one with 62,000 souls.”
Oof. No argument here.
“But then you reach the new cultural precinct at Stanley Square and it comes to life. A bit.”
Looks like the same number of people in both photos to me.
“We walk through the posh houses to Walkden Gardens, which is gorgeous and unfussy,”
(looks at pic below)
Is that the building where Daleks are manufactured?
“and then back to the JP Joule, which is gorgeous and cheap as only a JDW can be.”
Heh. This faint praise thingy is catching on.
“and drag Mrs RM from the Spoons to the platform.”
Phew! Brave man, that.
Cheers
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