105 The Colliers Arms Cross Hotel - Hathershaw

Not  visited

This  one  was  further  up  the  road  from  The  Honeywell  Arms  towards  Oldham .Although  some  of  the  signs  for  it  are  still  in  place  it  is  now  a  white  goods  store.

104 The Honeywell Arms - Hathershaw

First  visited : 14  November  2015

I  certainly  wasn't  looking  forward  to  visiting  this  down-at-heel  Robinson's  pub  situated  just  outside  the  Park  Cakes  factory  which  is  presumably  the  reason  for  its  survival  ( although  many  of  the  employees  are  Muslims ). The  peeling  paintwork  and  rotting  window  frames   promised  absolutely  nothing  and  my  visit  was  as  brief  as  possible.

I  only saw  the  lounge  area. I've  been  in  dirtier  places  but  there  was  nothing  charming  about  it. A  few  tawdry  Christmas  decorations  had  gone up  or  possibly  were  left  over  from  last  year  and  somebody's  hand  drawings  of various  celebrities  had  been  framed  and  put  on  the  walls.

The  barman  was  a  grizzled  middle  aged  guy  wearing  an  anorak  and  bobble  hat  as  if  ready  to  vacate  the  premises  at a  moment's  notice. Some  guy  wearing  white  overalls  passed  through  but  none  of  the  seven  or  eight  guys  drinking  at  the  bar  looked  like  they  worked  at  the  factory,  or  anywhere  else  for  that  matter. Some  younger  people  were  playing  pool to  the  side  of  me,  all  of  them  swearing  away   like  troopers , particularly  the  females. The  best  thing  I  can  say  about  the  place  is  that  I  got  out  unharmed.