retiredmartin

February 2026. Timperley. Greater Manchester.

At Sunday School we used to sing “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam“. No, not the Wolverhampton pub serving 9am pints of Abbot, Paul.

I guess I’ve maintained that positive outlook on life, finding the best in everyone and everything. Even Maidenhead.

But that relentless positivity is occasionally tested by a combination of light drizzle, unpredictable opening times and oddly joyless brewery taprooms.

Let’s walk to one now, starting in the centre of Timperley

at the Greene King roadhouse,

and then weaving east through a tiny collection of Proper Pubs and south Manchester suburbia.

The Quarry Bank is the only Timperley GBG entry I’d done before (a quarter of a century ago),

though the Moss Trooper sounds very familiar.

You could do a decent crawl of Abbot, Hydes, Lees and Landlord in the Gardeners Arms,

but tickers gotta tick,

and in Timperley that means homebrew on an industrial estate.

I’ve been a strong advocate of CAMRA branches putting whatever they like in the Beer Guide, even if it’s a brewery shed only open Friday and Saturday afternoons (or Monday and Tuesday evenings in New Mills).

And I’m a libertarian; businesses can open when they like, but goodness me it’s a tough tick when places change opening hours by the weekend, which makes that “open Sat 2-9” embedded into the Stubborn Mule entry particularly odd when it’s firmly shut at 2:30. ChatGPT and Google yell at me “It’s open !“. It’s not. Should have looked at Facebook.

The Mule has been particularly hard to visit, open when City play at home and shut before I can make it there after, so a night game at the Etihad is a boon.

The door opens at 3, the lady tells me to take a seat as she’ll be 10 minutes setting up,

so I peruse the tight beer list.

Oh, who knows, always pick the middle one.

I’ve read mixed views from fellow tickers, but the Plum Porter (£5.80) is a chewy NBSS 4,

and if you like sitting on a long bench in an industrial estate while “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” blares out from the telly then you’ll love this place.