retiredmartin

May 2026. Congleton.

I’d walked east from Congleton station, along the canal, west along the disused railway line, and now after Bass in the Throstle’s Nest it was a walk past the cemetery into town.

I must stop reading gravestones;

to have all three children predecease you is unimaginable.

Congleton is a quaint Cheshire working town that seemed too quiet on post-COVID trips,

and clearly the answer to revitalising a Cheshire market town is to stick a food court in an old market area (their pic).

Not quite as busy as the Mackie Mayors of Altrincham and Manchester,

but I am here mid-afternoon on Thursday before the “girls who wine” and mums and children arrive.

R & Gs’s Taphouse is the craft flagship, and if its craft is of the household name variety (Floc, Left Handed Giant, Track Sonoma) I don’t think Comgleton will be too upset.

I have a Floc Whisper I can’t finish (never craft after cask), mispronounce the name of the Indo-Pakistani Twist hut,

and suddenly realise there’s an actual cask brewery tap (Bollington’s Foundry) hiding round the back.

It’s all a bit too much in the heat, though the Bollington is pretty good, and the superb Butter Chicken Curry bowl might even have won over the Americans.

But really, I’d come back to Congleton for Bass in the Throstles Nest.