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".