retiredmartin

April 2026. Tyldesley.

You can’t come to Tyldesley and just do the lone new GBG entry.

Perhaps I should have gone craft, but the lure of the longstanding “Proper” pub was too strong,

so the Union Arms it was.

Thwaites on the bar,

a clear preference to how you pay (“Ooh, a fiver, I love fivers !”).

and local legend Ella Toone immortalised on the outside wall.

Yes, yes, she’s a United player, but unlike the men’s team she’s one of the England women’s team I could name.

What does she drink here ?

Probably not the Thwaites Gold,

which is the very embodiment if “OK” (NBSS 3).

Gentlefolk diners and the Four Tops to the right, gentlefolk drinkers to the left, stoking the fire even though it’s a heatwave.

Unmarked hand pumps in the public bar, too, make of that what you will.

The firestarter, the twisted firestarter, shouts “**** iff BBC” and the Old Boy with Last of the Summer Wine gives me a knowing look.

It’s what you go to pubs for.