I had a rather interesting meeting with Mik (a stakeholder) at Ye Olde Woolpack on Brinksway Ways in Stockport. He expressed an interest that myPUBGUIDE could write a feature to promote the already excellent public house. Most often I refuse but not on this occasion; it is currently the best pub in Stockport.
Ye Olde Woolpack offers everything I would expect from a pub venue. So much so that I use the establishment myself; more now than ever before. For starters, it is the only real ale pub anywhere near Stockport centre that sells non-Robinson’s ale as well as providing food. It has the widest range of draught ciders in the whole of Greater Manchester. It even delivers ciders to other licensed retailers. This is a one stop shop for punters and publicans with an appreciation of real cider and ale. Anyone visiting Stockport and does not visit Ye Olde Woolpack is clearly insane! It is the only real ale pub in Edgeley that is worth a visit.
The venue: This pub had been closed for two years. It re-opened November 2011 and has had a revamp. It is not wholly open plan inside. It has a bar area and two separate spacious lounges.
Family friendliness: It is child friendly to responsible parents, not only at meal times.
Customer Service: It is a clean pub with the best customer service I have experienced in Edgeley or possibly the whole of Stockport.
Drinks: Excellent prices - There is a wide of drinks including real cider, perry, and ale. There are ten hand pumps for cider and perry. There are six for real ale. There is also a blackboard that advertises a selection of bottled world beers.
Food: Excellent prices - a selection of meals for under £5 on Sunday. It also provides food during the week. I believe it also still provides toasties for around £2.
Location: A serene ten minute walk from under the viaduct, if walking alongside the Mersey banks. It really has some of the most pleasant surroundings available in Stockport. It is adjacent to the Co-operative Bank pyramid, a structure that cannot be easily missed. It is well worth the few minutes walk out of town centre. It could easily connect to a pub crawl but I just skip out the other pubs and come directly to the Ye Olde Woolpack.
Clientele: The clientele are normal people, representative of the population. Thankfully, it is not overrun with the moaning real ale stereotype, like we see in some many of Stockport’s real ale houses.
Entertainment: unimposing television for sports and other interests, occasional live entertainment, jazz, quiz, Robbie Burns’s night (tickets only event), two caravan cafes in use outside in warmer months, etc.
4th December, Sunday
Merry Christmas to men of good will!
myPUBGUIDE spent a few days in York. We have been many times before but we have not given this prize city a write up before now.
The pub nearest the York Central Travelodge hotel is the Postern Gate. It is a bit pricey for a Wetherspoon. It is more more expensive than Didsbury Manchester and Holborn London for what we had in mind. It also appeared a bit busy on the two occasions we visit. There was also an unpleasantly strong aroma of vinegar near where we intended to sit. For us this is an unacceptable smell while eating. So, we ditch the place and went else.
The Masons Arms served food but there were no free tables - we were not offered the use of the unused function room. The food looked good but nothing was done to aid a few hungry diners.
Next was the Tassali; it could not get its act together, despite being just about empty. So, we moved on to a takeaway. We went into PFC and a couple of us ate a pizza for £6.
Tuesday 9th August 2011
The Angel
Knutsford is a mile and a half down the Northwich Road. It becomes a pleasant walk when we reach Lady’s Mile. At the end of Lady’s Mile, we find public houses and an area that resembles a well-kept small town. We made our way to the Angel, a Joseph Holt’s public house. It is possible to buy a well-conditioned pint for under £2.50. We opted for the IPA. Also, one might buy a couple of meals for £9.50. We were all more than happy with the drinks, the food, and the prices. The building was not haunting or beholding of mystique but it was clean enough. It was not run down or atheistically displeasing either. I would certainly revisit it for drinks and food. Here are a few photographs to help capture the atmosphere:
Brook Street Chapel
The Cross Keys was not open when we walked passed by again. We satisfied ourselves with minor shopping and a look around Brook Street Chapel. Shortly after that, we took the train back to Stockport. I took the opportunity to take photographs of the chapel too:
N.B. There appeared to be no well signposted child facilities in any of the pubs in Knutsford, let alone anything like a playground area or even a public park.
Monday 8th August 2011
The Windmill
We walked less than half a mile from Travelodge Knutsford Tabley to the Windmill, a Robinson’s establishment. The seasonal beer (Crusoe) was £2.90 in good condition. Coke was £1.70 per glass. Meals were around £8. There was confusion over the children’s meal. We had to remind staff about a second course. We waited a total of fifty minutes for food in a non-busy venue. The only other customers were sales types chatting bullshit bingo. The two main meals were acceptable but the children’s meal looked rather unappetising and pitiful. Here are a few photographs:
Tabley House
After leaving the Windmill, we had a look around Tabley House. This is now a nursing home. There is no refreshment available to the public for much of the week. I believe the shop is open between Thursday and Saturday, even then only for a couple of hours. I suggest you phone ahead first.
It is unlikely that we will visit the Tabley area again. The irony is that it is verging on children-friendly, which we endorse, but it simply lacks for capacity to deliver satisfactory customer service. Considering modern standards, we are not asking much. On this note, here are a few photographs:
Travelodge Knutsford M6
Slightly further along the Northwich Road is a turning down to Moto. There is no public house on site. However, this is where one might find the Travelodge Knutsford M6. You may definitely buy food from here, with its range of outlets including M&S, Burger King, and a few others. Be warned, Burger King is around £2 for the smallest of burgers and over £2 for a tiny packet of chips. There is little opportunity for value for money on the whole of the service area. Nonetheless, the Travelodge there is pretty good. The receptionist was particularly impressive in that we could check-in on time and loaned us extra cutlery. My son even had a sufficiently creative environment to write a ghost story entitled Satan’s Wheelchair.
Sunday 7th August 2011
The Train Journey from Stockport to Knutsford
We travelled from Stockport slightly after three thirty on the Chester line. We were destined for Knutsford. We could not make seat reservations on the train; it always seems to be the case on that line. Thankfully, there was no seating problem. The whole journey went smoothly.
The Cross Keys
We arrived at Knutsford slightly after 4pm. We got as far as the Cross Keys, as just about everywhere else was closed. The Cross Keys had no hot food available. Apparently, food is only available between noon and 2pm during the week. Thankfully, it had no problem to permit children or consent us eating our sandwiches. Of course, we ordered a few packets of crisps to supplement the sandwich diet.
Drinks were in perfect condition. I espied the typical commercial real ale set-up: Timothy Taylor, Kentish Spitfire, and Bombardier. We had several from this range. The Spitfire was particularly exceptional at £3.20 per pint. It was almost as remarkable as the building itself. We had the chance to sit in an old converted cellar. We have made a handful of visuals available to get an idea of atmosphere.
The Cooperative
After several drinks, we decided to find a food outlet. Spice sold little that could be eaten easily outdoors. Waitrose was closed but Coop was open. The Coop often sells hot food and I am partial to Tillington Hills, a Coop cider.
Travelodge Knutsford Tabley
We agreed £10 for a five or so minute taxi ride to Travelodge Knutsford Tabley. This works out at an amazing £120 per hour. At least the drive spoke English and took us to the right hotel. Typically, it was next to a Little Chef. There is a pattern developing here: where the hotel is next to a Little Chef, no additional cutlery is available from reception. One is advised to visit the Little Chef; this hotel was no exception (cf. Adlington Travelodge). It also shares a few other peculiar similarities. A couple of notable parallels are the use of a traditional key as well as a musty smell. Also, when I left my battery charger and batteries (some £20 worth of equipment) at Adlington, the receptionist was far from useful when I enquired several times about it. Other less than helpful Travelodge establishments include one in Blackpool and another in Durham. Nonetheless, Travelodge Knutsford Tabley showed signs of reluctance to help. I will explain:
Unfortunately, there were issues with the sofa bed. It had no mattress; a requisite normally? Even worse, there were noisy children, who appeared to have been left unattended. These were causing a nuisance in the corridor after 9pm in a most obnoxious way, e.g., banging on doors, trying the key in various doors including the room we occupied, etc. The receptionist became defensive when I suggested to him to investigate or ask their guardians to attend to their children. After twenty minutes, he offered to move us. He continually refused to approach those at fault. After we moved, there were no more issues but he did not tackle the root of the problem.
It is mid-June and we are back in the Steel City. I have been here several times before. It is an impressive city for public houses and family entertainment. We desired to go to Kelham Island. At Kelham Island, we find The Fat Cat public houses, the Kelham Island Brewery, The Kelham Island Industrial museum, and the Kelham Island Tavern. We want to walk there because there are lots of sights in between Sheffield train station and Kelham Island.
Once outside Sheffield station, many water features are visible. These are great for children. These have been detailed elsewhere on the web. So, it suffices here to provide a photograph.
Once over the road, there is a Sheffield Halem building. It happens to have a water feature too:
A little further toward the centre, there is a millennium gallery. Unsurprisingly this has many exhibitions of cutlery. So, a photograph of a pineapple and the cutlery used to eat it would not go amiss here:
We moving on a little, we have gardens:
After these gardens, there are more water features and then the shopping centre. Between the shopping centre and Kelham Island, there is the Fire Police Museum. This incidentally always seems to be closed for repair. It was no different on this occasion:
The Kelham Island is about a five minute walk from here, discounting having to cross a busy road. Once over the road, the first public house we encountered was the Kelham Island Tavern. The next one is the Fat Cat. This is the flagship pub for the Kelham Island Industrial Brewery (next door). Just behind these buildings is the Kelham Island Museum.
We went to the museum first. It is still free on entry and hosts some wondrous items:
After an hour or so in the museum, it was time to eat. Several features I like about the Fat Cat is that it is child friendly, it serves wholesome hot food, the beer although a little hazy at first tastes magical, and it takes visa.
Alex was happy enough in there, with a selection of soft drinks and meals.
The pie was reasonable enough. The roast potatoes were a little chewy. I could taste the flour, unlike what one might expect from a synthetic pie.
I also noticed a board that said that on Monday evening, pints would be available for £1.30. Please read the board message for the specifics.
It is worth mentioning that there are other public house houses worth visiting in Sheffield. However, we did not visit any of these on this occasion. So, we will leave it there.
The Journey to Sheffield
We took the Norwich train that runs through Stockport and Sheffield. The journey was timetabled for 42 minutes but the train remarkably managed the passage is in even less time than that. Typically, there was a little ambiguity over the travel arrangements. This time the carriages were not designated a letter either from the outside or the inside. So, despite reserving seats, it was no surprise to find someone sitting in our seats; thank you East Midlands Trains. This person moved without any real prompting when we arrived to claim the seats; thank you anonymous person.
We decided to relaunch the myPUBGUIDE Facebook Page. As well as that, we thought to include a few Facebook features on the website too. So, now you can leave facebook comments on your favourite public houses.
Last month on GhostPubs, we wrote an account of our trip to Chester. We intend to publish more on Chester ghost pubs soon, when I have a free hour or so.
Of course, later this month, we expect to write on Sheffield ghost pubs. Hopefully, we should be able to gather chunks of ghostly history on two Sheffield microbreweries: Abbeydale and Kelham Island. A previous trip was documented on the old myPUBGUIDE blog.
We attended the Macclesfield Beer Festival on 7th May 2011. I still believe this to be the most impressive one in Cheshire.
1) Easy enough to find. There is a number 4 bus available from Bay 6 at Macclesfield Bus station. It takes around twenty minutes or you could take the 130 which takes slightly longer. We took a taxi. Nothing has changed much in the last two years on this front: travelling arrangements in 2009.
2) Entry to the family session was free.
3) The drinks menu was categorised logically. Some drinks menus force the reader to wade through a ton of advertising and then punctuate the list with more advertising.
4) The drinks menu was free. Believe it or not, some CAMRA organised festivals have their prospective customers charge for a drinks menu. I know it sounds absurd but one such festival did just this last year. What is more absurd is that customers conformed. So, the next time you go to a restuarant, offer to pay for the wine list; even though it is not chock-full of advertising, see what response you receive.
5) Every drink I attempted to buy from the drinks menu was actually present. I cannot say the same for most beer festivals I have been to anywhere. So, it would be unfair to list examples.
6) Every drink was either in good condition or better. I know when a drink is dispensed by gravity it can taste rather different. However, the condition of beer at some festivals has been worse than rank. This is what I wrote when I visited this festival in 2009: Beer selection.
This time around I had:
Steel City - Decadent and Desperate
Beartown - Ginger Bear
Broakoak - Perry (x2)
7) The festival had ediable and substantial food available from £2.50. These were cheese and/or ham sandwiches. Red Leicester is always a favourite; the Black Bob was magical.
8) The entertainment was not imposive. We saw Morris Dancers, bar games, Tombola, and animal shaped balloons. We secured an octopus for £2.50.
9) There were no imposive sponsorships stalls or posters.
10) Soft drinks were available but the price was not value for money.
1) We were turned away because we arrived early. As it was raining heavily, we had to scout around for somewhere to shelter until the rain had stopped. Inviting us to shelter in the large tent would have been not only polite but helpful. It was clearly that not everyone in the tent at that time had any involvement in the setting-up of the event.
2) When inquiring about whether tokens are refundable, we did not expect a smart arse an answer. So, the manners at reception could improve.
3) The use of tokens can become an irritation when having to wade through crowds to re-queue to buy more from a reception area. I wrote on the token usage before: token schemes.
4) Seating inside the tent was scarce to say the least.
5) Soft drinks were available at £1.25 for a can. Eat your heart out Mr. Cineworld Vending Machine because this is expensive.
6) One elderly chap after leaving fell over three times at the gates. He was clearly out of his tree. Please do not serve drunks. They are a danger to themselves and everyone else.
Other than the price of soft drinks and the token system, which are forgivable, it was well planned and executed. Well done chaps.
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