139 The Crofters' Arms - Smithills

First  visited  : 16  October  2016

This  large  pub  is  a  bit  further  down  Halliwell  Road  near  to  the  large  Falcon  Mill. It has  a
triangular  layout  with  a  large  two-sided  bar  but  little  to  warrant  a  further  visit. The  walls  are whitewashed  and  randomly  decorated, there's  a  small  stage  area  and  a  few  TV  screens ( though  it  looks  like  they  don't  have  Sky ). It  was  practically  empty  when  I  went  in  on  a Sunday  teatime.

138 The Stork Tavern - Smithills

First  visited :  2  September  2016

This  is  an  odd  one. It  didn't  look  very  promising   and  the  clientele  on  a  Friday  evening  looked  a  bit  grimy  but  it  had  a  certain  appeal  inside. It's  a  real  ale  pub  and  quirkily  decorated with  a  mixture  of  papered  walls  and  blue-grey  wooden  panelling. There  are  four  separate  lounges  and  a  back  yard  optimistically  advertised  as  a  beer  garden. The  best  feature  is  a  huge  wall  mural  by  local  artist  Lenny  Stevens  based  on  old  photographs  of  the  area.

137 The Coaching House - Smithills

First  visited : Spring  1998

Well  we  put  it  in  the  book  but  this  was  always  a  restaurant  rather  than  a  pub.

I  don't  think  you  can  count  sitting  in  the  porch  as  a  visit  so  I  didn't  enter  the  place  until  nearly  twenty  years  later  for  a  meal  with  Manchester  Christian  Social  Group. I  can't  find  it  on  the  printed  programmes  so  it  must  have  been  a  replacement  for  something  else.

It  wasn't  a  happy  occasion. Although  Julie  and  I  were  now  married  she  still  felt  that  the  MCSG  occupied  too  much  of  my  attention  and  the  focus  of  her  ire  was  generally  my  friend  Aamir  the  co-ordinator. He  said  something  that  she  took  exception  to  - almost  certainly  something  very  trivial - and  she  tipped  her  glass  onto  his  food  and  walked  out  into  the  night . I  assumed  she'd  gone  to  the  toilet  and  it  was  some  time  before  I  realised  she  was  no  longer  in  the  building. You'd  have  to  ask  her  why   a  four  mile  walk  back  home  in  high  heels   on  a  cold  dark  night   seemed  preferable  to  our  society.

I  have  a  feeling  we  went  back  there  a  few  years  later  for  a  meal  with  Bolton  Outdoor  Group  but  I  can't  be  bothered  rooting  around  for  the  exact  date.

It  closed in  August  2012 when  the  owners  sold  out  to  property developers.

136 The Ainsworth Arms - Smithills

First visited :  24 August 2016

We're  now  back  in  Bolton. The  week  after  the  Bramhall  Hall  trip,  Stephen  and  I  went  to  Lyme  Park  ,probably  the  furthest  we  ever  ventured  on  a  day  outing but  I  must  have  forgotten  to  take  the  notebook. It  was  back  for  the  next  trip  to  Smithills  Hall  although  most  of  the  journey  i.e  as  far  as  Bolton   had  already  been  covered.

It  wasn't  the  most  enjoyable  of  trips. Patrick  rejoined  us  and  he  and  Stephen's  seeming  inability  to  get  on  when  I  was  around  ( which  was  strange  given  they  lived  close  to  each  other  and  had  been  pals  for  two  years  when  I  was  at  a  different  school )  resurfaced  once  more  making  the  atmosphere  rather  fraught. It  also  chucked  it  down  all  day  which  didn't  help. We  broke  the  journey  in  Bolton  town  centre  and  walked  round  the  museum  again. I  remember  Stephen  lifting  a  little  lad  up  so  he  could  see  the  piranha,  one  of  those  little  moments  that  stays  with  you.

Our  ultimate  objective  that  day  added  to  our  disappointment . Firstly  the  nature  centre  had  closed  down for  the  winter. Secondly  the  hall  didn't  open  until  2pm  and  the  only  shelter  where  we  could  eat  our  butties  was  the  porch  of  the    adjacent  Coaching  House  restaurant    where  we  sat  amid  all  the  lovely  aromas  drifting  by. I  should  pay  tribute  to  the  tolerance  of  the   management  there  that  day; it  can't  have  contributed  to  the  ambience  of  the  place  to  have  three  bedraggled  urchins  loitering  around  their  entrance  for  more  than  an  hour  but  nobody  came  out  to  evict  us.  Finally  the  hall  opened  but  that  too  was  a  letdown. Coming  after  Bramhall  Hall,  it  seemed  a  threadbare  experience; once  you'd  read  about  George  Marsh  and  seen  his  supposed  footprint,  there  seemed little  else  to  it, a  poor  return  for  the  effort  we'd  expended  in  getting  there.  It  went  down  in  our  mental   records  as  "a  bad  trip". I  should  add  that  these  days  Smithills  Hall  offers  a  much  improved  visiting  experience   but  frankly  that's  just  as  well. Sadly  the  restaurant  is  no  more  and  is  in  the  process  of  conversion  to  living  apartments.

Anyhow  back  to  the  present  day . The  Ainsworth  Arms  stands  near  the  busy  four  way  junction  where  Halliwell  Road   and  Smithills  Dean  Road   meet  the  A58  ring  road. It  doesn't  have  a  car  park  which  means  parking  down  one  of  the  side  streets  off  Halliwell  Road

Simon  and  I  visited  on  a  Wednesday  tea  time  and  were  favourably  impressed. It's  nicely  laid  out  on  two  levels,  tastefully  decorated  and  friendly. The  landlord  seemed   like   a  nice  family  guy  and  chatted  with  us  about  football  and  the  barmaid  was  both  friendly  and  exceedingly  tasty. The  drinks  weren't  the  cheapest  but  I  could  live  with  that.

135 The Star Hotel - Rochdale

Not  visited

This  is  another  Drake  St   pub  that  had  a  number  of  make-overs  including  "Dreams  Bar"  and  "Harry's  Bar" . It's  currently  awaiting  redevelopment.

That  concludes  the  pub  names  collected   on  the  Bramhall  Hall  trip.

134 The Galleon - Rochdale

First  visited : 16  October  1988

Now  then,  there's  a  couple  of  stories  attached  to  this  one.

I  first  visited  it  when  it was  known  as  "Gulliver's"  as  part  of  the  Red  Lion  pool  team  in  1988  on  a  Monday  evening. I  can't  remember  if  I  won  my  match  but  it  was  a  really  good  evening. The  owners  really  put  the  boat  out  as  far  as  giving  us  a  supper  was  concerned  with  a  full  buffet.  I  remember  another  team  member,  an  Irish  guy  called  BJ  saying  "  We  should  apologise  now  for  when  they  come  to  our  place  ! "  referring  to  our  landlord's  stingy  unchanging  plate  of  stale  ham  rolls. It  was  this  embarrassment  that  led  to  the  team's  decamping  to  another  pub  at  the  end  of  the  season.

Also  that  night  I  won  a  bit  of  money  on  the  quiz  machine  and  then  I  won  the  football  card  that  had  been  passed  round  with  Halifax  Town. My  team  mate  Phil  was  much  amused  that  I'd  picked  them  because  Halifax  had  just  thrashed  Dale  on  the  previous  Saturday  which  is  how  I'm  able  to  date  my  first  visit  with  precision.

By  the  time  of  my  next  visit  in  November  1996  it  had  had  another  makeover  and  was  now "The  Mucky  Duck".  My  appearance  there  had  a  very  different  purpose. I've  recounted  in some detail  on  my  Walks  blog  how  in  the  mid-nineties  I  was  in  a  group  called  the  Manchester Christian  Social  Group  and  involved  in  a  messy  dispute  which  led  to  the  Group  splitting  in two. The  biggest  problem  this  caused  me  was  that  I  ended  up  in  the  opposite  camp  to  the guy  who'd  consistently  been  my  best  friend  in  the  Group  , a  teacher-cum-snake  breeder  called Pete. Despite  the  highly  poisonous  atmosphere  at  the  time  neither  of  us  wanted  to  lose  touch so  Pete, who  had  friends  in  Rochdale, suggested  I  see  him  at  The  Mucky  Duck  where  he went  on  a  Thursday  night  to  see  a  live  band ,usually  with  a  lady  friend  called  Val.

It  became  a  regular  thing  on  a  Thursday. I'd  usually  have  one  orange  WKD  then  go  on  to  soft  drinks  so  I  could  still  drive  home. Pete didn't  drive  so  he  caught  the  last  number  17  bus  back  to  Blackley. The  conversation  was  good  but  a  little  wary  as  both  of  us  were  trying   to  find  out  from  each  other  how  the  other  group  was  getting  along.  I  don't  know  what  Val, a  pleasant  enough   fortysomething  lady,  thought  about  it all.  

When  I  mentioned  I  was  going  there  to  another  friend,  Sean,  he  pulled  a  face  and  said  he  avoided  it  because  the  local  National  Front  were  based  there. He  was  probably  right  because  there  usually  was  a  small  contingent  of  skinheads  at  the  far  end  of  the  bar  including  a  familiar  face. It  was  a  very  tall  guy  who'd  been  in  my  year  at  school  called  Ian; I  do  recall  his  surname  but  it's  probably  best  not  to  broadcast  it. We  hadn't  got  on  but  I  remember  he  had  a  reputation  for  being  very  soft.  Unlike  me  he  left  school  at  16  but  I  soon  saw  him  again  as  part  of  the  small  aggressive  contingent  at  the  Dale  during  my  first  few  years  supporting  them  though  I  never  saw  him  do  any  actual  fighting. By  the  end  of  the  eighties  he'd  disappeared  and  I  didn't  see  him  again  until  I  started  going  to  The  Mucky  Duck. It  turned  out  Pete  now  knew  him  slightly  and  recalled  a  conversation  where  Ian  had  started  bemoaning  the  lack  of  celebrations  on  St  George's  Day. He  said  he'd  been  trying  to  work  out  how  racist  Ian  actually  was. We  never  acknowledged  each  other; perhaps  he  didn't  remember  me.

These  Thursday  nights  stopped  a  year  later  when   I  got  married and  moved  out  of  Littleborough  but  I  did  pay  it  one  last  visit  , accompanied  by  Julie,  the  following  summer. We'd  recently  seen  another  member  of  the  Group  with  whom  Pete  had  had  a  serious  disagreement  which  hadn't  been  forgotten. When  I  unwisely  mentioned  this,  Pete  made  a  startling  revelation  about  that   other   person's  past  ( I'd   already  guessed  half  of  it  but  the  full  story  was  still  shocking )  which  I  thought  was  a  dangerous  thing  for  Julie  to  know. Fortunately  we  haven't  seen  the  other  guy  since  but  I  thought  it  would  be  better  after  that  to  keep  Pete  and  Julie  apart  and  let  it  recede  from  her  memory. They  haven't  met  since  either.

I  heard  no  more  about  the  place  until  a guy was  killed  outside  it  in  March  last  year  after  an  argument  over  a  spilled  drink.  It  was  closed  for  a  period  while  its  license  was  reviewed. It  opened  again  but  has  had  another  name  change  and  is  now  called  "Last  Orders".
            

133 Robin Hood - Rochdale

( Acknowledgements  to  Derek  Parsons  for  the  photo )

First  visited : 22  November  1997

The  Robin  Hood  was  right  in  the  centre  of  Rochdale  on  South  Parade. I  don't  know  when  the  name change  took  place  but  I'm  fairly  certain  we  went  in  here  during  my  stag  night  back  in  1997.

132 Citizen Inn - Rochdale

( Acknowledgements  to  Derek  Parsons  for  the  photo )

The  Citizen  was  on  Drake  St  near  to  the  junction  with  Oldham  Road. It's  now  occupied  by  a  house  and  office  clearance  business.

131 Whittington's - Rochdale

Not  visited

This  one  was  just  before  Oldham  road  expires  on  joining  Drake  St.  The  name  of  the  pub  is  preserved  but  it  is  now  a  guest  house.

130 Eagle Hotel - Rochdale

First  visited : 20  August  2016

The  Eagle  is  on  the  edge  of  Rochdale  town  centre  just  before  the  junction  of   Oldham  Road  and  Milnrow  Road.  It's  called  a  hotel  but  I  don't  think  it  offers  accommodation.

It's  bigger  than  its  front  suggests  and  nice  and  clean  inside  which  suggests  a  fairly  recent  refurbishment. There's  one  large  room  with  a  long  bar  , a  small  side  lounge  and  games  room. There's  little  decoration. There  were  about  10 people  in  when  I  called  in  on  a  Saturday  teatime; I  don't  know  where  from  as  there's  not  much  housing  nearby  and  no  parking  unless  you  use  the  retail  park  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road.

I  wouldn't  rule  out  another  visit  but  there's  nothing  to  draw  you  back  really.

129 Dyers Arms - Rochdale

( Acknowledgements  to  Derek  Parsons  for  the  picture )

Not  visited

According  to  Derek  Parsons  these  buildings  now  occupy  the  site  of  The  Dyers  Arms. The  website  www.closedpubs.co.uk   states  it  closed  in  1977  but  it  must  have  been  still  identifiable  in   November  1978  or  else  it  would  not  have  been  logged.

128 Lincoln Inn - Rochdale

Not  visited

This  was  on  the  right  hand  side  of  Oldham  Road  as  you  moved  further  towards  the  centre  of  Rochdale  near  to  the  Rochdale  Canal. It  closed  relatively  recently  ( May  2013  )

127 The Bay Horse - Lowerplace

First  visited  :  6  August  2016

The  Bay  Horse  is  almost  opposite  The  Plough  on  the   opposite  side  of  Oldham  Road.

It  looks  OK  from  the  outside  and  has  a  nice  tiled  vestibule  but  little  else  to  commend  it. It's  small  with  one  large  open  room   facing  the  bar   and  a  small  lounge  to  the  side. It  was  reasonably  well  patronised  for  a  Saturday  teatime  when  we  called,  with  some  guys  playing  darts  with  little  regard  for  the  safety  of  those  having  to  sit  nearby.  It's  not  unfriendly  but  a  bit  tatty  with  nothing  to  entice  a  future  visit.  

126 The White Lion- Lowerplace

Not  visited

 The  White  Lion   stood  on  the  corner  of  Oldham  Road  and  Kingsway.  It  was  demolished  when  the  road  improvements  were  made  in  2007  but  how  long  it  had  been  closed  before  that  I  couldn't  say.

125 The Plough - Lowerplace

First  visited : 30  April  2016

This  isn't  one  I have  any  plans  to  visit  again.

The  Plough  is  on  the  right  hand  side  as  you  approach  the  lights  at  Kingsway. It's  an  attractive  stone  built  property  but  pretty  unwelcoming  on  the  inside.

It's  small, without  a  great  deal  of  seating  plus  an  over-loud  jukebox  and  unattractive  clientele.  The  landlord  is  obviously  into  amateur  football  as  most  of  the  wall  space  not  taken  up  by  TV  screens  is  given  over  to  photographs  and  other  memorabilia  of  three  local  clubs . That's  the  only  positive  thing  I  can  say  about  this  otherwise  charmless pub.

124 The Dog and Partridge - Balderstone

Not  visited

This  was  the  next  pub  down  Oldham  Road  towards  Rochdale. I  remember  when  I  was  in  the  sixth  form  this  had  a  reputation  as  a  place  where  you  could  get  served  and  therefore  attracted  a  few  recalcitrants  on  Wednesday  afternoons. It  is  now  an  Italian  restaurant.

123 The Royal Hotel - Balderstone

(Acknowledgements  to  www.derekparsons.com  for  the  picture )

Not  visited

This  was  the next  pub  down  from  the  Yew  Tree  having  gone  under  the  M62. It  has  been  closed  since  at  least  2012.

122 The Yew Tree - Balderstone

(Acknowledgements  to  www.derekparsons.com  for  the  picture )

First  visited  : 2  April  2016

This  was  a  long-delayed  visit  and  something  of  a  nostalgia  trip.

I  used  to  see  The  Yew  Tree  every day between  1978  and  1983  from  the  windows  of  my  last  school  Bishop  Henshaw  RC  Memorial  School.  The  school's  cross  country  course  , such  as  it  was, went  right  past  it .  A  few  months  before  I  went  to  the  school,  my  Mum  had  dined at  the  Yew  Tree   with  her  playgroup colleagues , in  the  pub's  most  distinctive  feature, a  genuine  Pullman  railway  carriage  which  had  been  parked  beside  it  since  1968. The  carriage  apparently  remained  there  until  1998  when  it  became  too  costly  for  the  pub  to  repair  so  it  was  sold  on  to  the  East  Lancashire  Railway.

Some  of  the  sixth  formers  used  the  pub's  car  park  ; whether  or  not  they  paid  something  for  this  I  couldn't  say.

There  was , probably  still  is , a  bus  stop  right  outside  it  which  I  used  when  returning  from  after  school  activities.

The  pub's  had  a  big  face  lift  since  then  and  is  quite  odd  inside. When  you  go  through  the  front  door  you're  into  a  beige-painted   corridor  and  it's  not  immediately  obvious  where  the  bar  is. In  fact  it's  the  second  door  on  the  right. The  pub  still  does  food  but  I  didn't  sample  any  of  it. It's  spotlessly  clean  and  well  kept.

I  went  in  a  rather  odd  front  lounge  with  painted  photos  of  Edwardian  ( I'm  guessing ) people  whose  names  meant  absolutely  nothing  to  me. But  it  was  the  view  from  the  window  that  captivated  me. Bishop  Henshaw's  has  physically  disappeared ( it  became  known  as   St  Cuthbert's  in  an  unnecessary  sop  to  the  failed  middle  schools  that  used  to  feed  it,  when  they  were  abolished  in  1989 ). Apart  from  a  small  sub-station  on  the  far  left  of  the  site,  all  the  buildings  I  knew   have  been  razed  to  the ground  and  replaced  by  new  ones . I  had  been  back  the  odd  time  for  summer  fetes  and  things  in  the  nineties  but  now  it  is  no  more. There  was  nothing  of  any  great  architectural  merit  to  mourn  but  one's  past  gets  less  tangible  by  the  day  and  sights  like  that  bring  it  home  to  you.

121 The Summit - Thornham

First  visited : 17  February  2016

The  Summit  , bizarrely, is  at  an  obviously  lower  elevation  than  The  Pleasant,  on  the  Rochdale  side  of  the  hill. It  more  or  less  straddles  the  Oldham / Rochdale  border. I  suspected  that  the  current  building  is  not  the  original  pub  and  a  little  digging   clarifies  that  when  we   went  past  in  1978  it  looked  like  this :

 

I  don't  know  when  or  why  the  old  building  was  demolished  but  the  pub  is  now  part  of  the  Flaming  Grill  chain.  Simon  and  I  went  there  for  tea  tonight  and  it  was  quite  good  though  we  had  to  wait  a  long  time  and  there  was  a  pile-up  of  dirty  glasses  on   the  bar  that  stayed  there  all  evening   so  there's  room  for  improvement  in  the  organisation. Maybe  they  were  just  caught  on  the  hop ; it  was  certainly  busier  than  I  expected. The  staff  were  all  very  friendly  and  obliging. If  you  go  through  the  internet  beforehand  they  give  you  a  20%  off  voucher.

Inside  it's  quite  large  with  the  obligatory  TV  screen  at  the  opposite  end  from  the  main  dining  area.

120 The Pleasant - Thornham

First  visited : 13  February  2016

The  Pleasant  is  situated  at  the  top  of  Rochdale  Road  before  it  starts  plunging  into  Rochdale  and  becomes  Oldham  Road.

The  Pleasant  lives  up  to  its  name. It's  relatively  small, friendly  and  spotlessly  clean. There  was  no  one  in  the  nicely  set-out  Lounge  Bar  this  afternoon  but  a  few  people  playing  pool  in  the  snug. There's  some  outside  tables  in  the  back  yard  but  you'd  hardly  call  it  a  beer  garden. The  main  drawback  with  it  is  that  there's  no  parking  facilities  at  all  and  I  had  to  park  quite  a  distance  up  Springfield  Lane  to  the  side  to  get  to  it.

119 Halfway House - Thornham

First  visited : 30  January  2016

We've  dropped  the  ball  a  bit  here  and  missed  out  perhaps  half  a  dozen  pubs  in  the  centre  of  Royton  but  I  can  see  how  it  happened. I  was  initially  using  the  little  red  notebook  for  two  separate  things, one  to  record  the  pubs  passed  and  second  to  write  up  the  trips. Therefore  the  book  starts  with  the  pubs  noted  on  the  14th  October , then  I  left  the  next  5  pages  blank  for  pub  names  before  starting  an  account  of  the  Stoodley  Pike  walk  that  day. Unfortunately  that  never  got  finished  but  I  was  still  intending  to  complete  it   so  when  the  Tipplers  Inn  filled  up  the  last  line  on  the  pages  I'd  left  blank  for  pub  names,  I  had  to  judge  how  many  pages   I'd  need  to  complete  the  Stoodley  Pike  story  before  resuming  the  pub  list. While  I  was  pondering  that  the  bus  whizzed  on  and  so  a  few  pubs  got  missed. I  hope  that  makes  sense.

The  Halfway  House  is  so  named  because  its  half  way  up  the  slope  on  the  flank  of  Tandle  Hill  as  Rochdale  Road  climbs  out  of  Royton  towards  Thornham  Summit. It's  a  John  Willie  Lees  pub  and  seems  to  be  thriving. It's  quite  large  inside , well-lit and  tidy  , with  a  central  bar  serving  separate  areas  for  games / football  watching   and  dining. We  were  a  bit  too  early  for  eating  so  I  couldn't  tell  you  much  about  the  food  but  they  had  a  fair  few  uniformed  young  staff  waiting  around  so  I'm  guessing  it  does  get  quite  busy. The  drinks  seemed  a  bit  expensive.

118 The Tippler's Inn - Royton

Not  visited

There's  a  mention  of  it  on  a  Royton  messageboard  to  prove  it  wasn't  just  a  figment  of  my  imagination  but  otherwise  I've  drawn  a  complete  blank  on  this  one. Anyone  know  anything  more  about  it ?

117 The Marston Tavern - Royton

Not  visited

This  was  on  the  left  hand  side  of   Rochdale  Road. It  closed  in  2011  and  there  is  now  an  Italian  restaurant  on  the  site. I'm  not  sure  whether  any  of  the  original  building  survives.

116 The White Hart

First  visited :  24  January  2016

The  White  Hart  is  a  little  further  on  towards  Rochdale  on  the  right  hand  side. It  looks  spruce  on  the  outside  and  it's  well  maintained  inside  too . It's  sparsely  decorated  but  clean  and  tidy  with  a  number  of  screens  for  football, a  games  room  and  space  for  live  music  on  Fridays. It  has  a  kids  play  area  at  the  back  but  doesn't  appear  to  do  food  which  is  an  odd  combination.

There  were  few  in  it  this  Sunday  afternoon  with  Everton  v  Swansea  on  the  box  but  there  was  a  tasty  barmaid  called  Kirsty  who  was  quite  pleasant.

In  the  games  room  there  was  a  framed  and  signed  picture  of  Joe  Royle  and  I  suspect  it's  getting  by  on  match  day  business.