Delivering in West Lancs

A view of the canal from the beer garden
of the Ship in Haskane

I distribute the local CAMRA mag, Ale & Hearty, to certain pubs. As I have a car, I've agreed to cover some of the West Lancs pubs, most of which are either hard or impossible to get to by public transport from Southport where I live.

My friend Alan agreed to come along on yesterday's trip. I say 'agreed' but why would he say no to someone offering to drive him around half a dozen pubs? As well as being company, he was my surrogate drinker: I don't like diving into pubs with a pile of magazines, and then shooting out again without buying a drink, but I have to do that, or end up over the limit. In the event, I had three halves over five hours, but Alan had something in every pub. Neither of us had a bad beer all afternoon.

I had also decided to make notes about each pub and take pictures for the articles I've been writing in the Southport Visiter, which I also post on this blog (previous articles here). Someone once asked my when I'd agreed to start writing advertorial. The answer is I haven't, but I won't be writing negative comments about pubs for the paper for two reasons:

• The articles appear in the What's On section of the paper, and I believe the paper wants positive recommendations of nice pubs to go to. If I visit a pub and don't like what I find, I simply won't write about it. So far, I've made that decision once.
• Real ale for us is part of our social life - for licensees, it is part of their livelihood. For that reason, even if I can't stand a pub, I won't criticise it in the paper, assuming the editor would accept such an article. I reserve the right to write what I like here on this blog, but even then I'm not keen on being too damning.

The pubs we visited were:

1. The Ship, Haskayne.
2. The Kings Arms, Haskayne.
3. The Martin Inn, Ormskirk.
4. The Farmers, Burscough.
5. The Slipway, Burscough.
6. The Heatons Bridge, Scarisbrick.

Pubs 1, 4, 5, and 6 are canalside pubs, and 2 is very close. 

We were given a friendly and hospitable reception in all of them. Next week, I have a few more places to deliver to. I'd like to say, "Tough job, but someone's got to do it", but I'll be driving! Still, it is nice to visit them and bring myself up to date on what they're like.

My articles will appear here, as well in the Visiter, over the next couple of months.

Ale & Hearty

I didn't feel like attending the CAMRA Branch AGM this year after I received a phone call from someone in the campaign that was based in a complete misunderstanding about my post on ReARM about GBG entries. The suggestion was that I'd published the list for 2015, when in fact I'd published the current list, as available in every book shop in the country. A quick glance at my blog would have prevented this embarrassing phone call. As it happens, I didn't - and still don't - know which pubs were listed for next year, and wouldn't print them before the GBG publication date if I did.

At the AGM later that week, in my absence I officially ceased to have responsibility for our local magazine, Ale & Hearty. I'm not particularly upset, if the truth be known, because my enthusiasm had been eroded when I repeatedly received insufficient help to collect adverts. I wrote here last year that I'd resigned and explained why. I was never formally reinstated, but stepped in to do the Autumn/Winter issue when we got an outside firm to take care of the adverts. While I was preparing for the Spring 2014 issue, my computer gave up the ghost and was out of action for 3 months, so some other arrangements had to made anyway. Our new editor is Pam Kelly, our first female editor; I wish her well and intend to continue writing articles for the mag.

Back to being an ordinary member, although I'll still design our beer festival poster and awards certificates. Though I say it myself, the certificates do look better than the ones done by CAMRA HQ.

The mag that never was

On 6 October, I published the cover of the latest issue of our local beer magazine, Ale & Hearty, which we had hoped to have printed in time for the Sandgrounder Beer Festival last weekend. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it printed in time for the festival, which has necessitated changing the front cover and a couple of articles. Here is the new front cover showing how it will appear within the next few days in a pub near you, providing you live in the in the Southport and West Lancs area, of course.

The picture is of the now-closed London Hotel, estd. 1866

Ale & Hearty ~ preview

I have been sent a proof copy of the issue 63 of Ale & Hearty, our local CAMRA magazine and the first printed by our new printers (more details about that here). The cover photo shows festival goers watching the Argarmeles Clog team dancing at last year's festival. We hope to have it out very soon; here is a preview of the cover:

Ale & Hearty reborn?

I wrote in June that Ale & Hearty, the local CAMRA magazine that I have edited for the last couple of years, had folded - please see previous post for the full story. Since then, Mike Perkins of our local CAMRA branch has been in touch with a couple of companies that undertake to collect the adverts and the payments, set the magazine and then return complete issues to us. All we have to do is provide the articles and pictures. After much thought, we have come to an arrangement with one company and I have spent quite a lot of time recently getting together enough items to fill a magazine, editing them (just for the basics such as spelling and punctuation to ensure clarity - I don't rewrite other people's work), suggesting a design for the cover and getting all these off to our new printer.

Although this has been a lengthy task, it's been quite a breeze compared to the last couple of issues I have managed to get published. I haven't had to spend afternoons going around dozens of potential advertisers, firstly to get them to agree to advertise and then a few weeks later to collect the payments, and then having to go back when they're not available, even when we'd arranged to meet them. On one occasion the licensee was upstairs and claimed she didn't have the time to come and see us; we were rather irritated by this as we only needed  five minutes, so we never went back. I haven't had to create adverts or spend hours laying out the whole magazine (including the adverts) in the form virtually ready for the printer, who - to be fair - always went through it and considerably improved my amateur efforts.

We're hoping to have the magazine out for our beer festival next month. For the first time in ages, I'm beginning to hope that we can get our magazine back on track, and published much more regularly than it has been in the last couple of years.

Not so Ale & Hearty

The most recent issue of Ale & Hearty

Ale & Hearty has for a long time been the magazine of the Southport & West Lancs Branch of CAMRA. I was its most recent editor. When I took over in 2010, there was a team: editor, sub-editor and advertising manager. First of all, our sub-editor resigned as he was busy with other CAMRA work and being over 70, wanted to wind down. Fair enough, even though I was still getting to grips with what was required. Then the advertising manager resigned, and as he was over 80, that too was fair enough, except that no replacement was forthcoming.

This meant that I was now responsible, not just for writing a great deal of the mag, asking others to write articles, assembling it and preparing the layout and format for the printers, but also for going around pubs canvassing for adverts, often designing them and collecting the money. Some help was forthcoming for the October 2012 issue, which was brilliant, but most of those helpers became unavailable for what should have been the Spring issue this year.

I eventually realised that, despite my repeated requests, I was not going to get committed permanent help such as I'd had when I became editor, and that each issue would be a daunting mountain to climb every single time. The only consistent help offered was from a Branch member who was in my opinion in danger of being over-committed herself. I had an extended period of ill health - nothing serious, but debilitating - for the couple of months on each side of the New Year, and the stress of worrying about the mag and the size of the job didn't make me feel any better. So I resigned as editor. I was reluctant as I knew that would probably be the end of the mag, but I really could do without the worry.

The real problem is that the people involved in voluntary social activities - not just CAMRA - are getting older, some are not unreasonably scaling back their activities or packing in altogether and there are fewer people prepared to take their places. A lot of the people who are still active in CAMRA now became involved when they were in their 20s and 30s, in some cases decades ago. In fairness, there's no shortage of people who are prepared to spend time criticising what others do, but nothing new there.

Two suggestions have been made: an on-line version, such as St Helens Branch do. That will not get to the public in the way that a paper magazine does in the pubs, but it may be better than nothing. Another is to hand the production over to company that gets the adverts while you provide the editorial content. The problem is that there would be more adverts and less space for articles compared to what we've done in-house. The advert charges would be higher, which may well deter some of our regular advertisers, so there is no guarantee that a viable magazine could be produced.

I'm not happy about resigning, but if the Branch is serious about wanting a magazine, then it needs to provide some help, not just as a one-off, but on a permanent basis - and it needs to stop expecting those who are already busy with CAMRA to plug every gap. If such help were to become available for Ale & Hearty, I would be prepared to edit it again, assuming the Branch would still want me, but I'm not really expecting to get the call.

Glad to be back

Specially for ReARM readers, here's an advance viewing of the latest Ale & Hearty, the Southport and West Lancs CAMRA magazine, the first since early last year, for reasons covered in previous posts.  Thanks to Dave Thackeray for transforming the PDF in printer's pairs into this page-turning, easy-to-read version.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ale

CAMRA magazine not issued - again!

Ale & Hearty from April - June 2009

My job as editor of Ale & Hearty, the magazine of the Southport and District Branch of CAMRA, is becoming more and more theoretical.  Our Summer edition, due out in August, didn't materialise because Fred, who collects the adverts for us, was in hospital for an operation, which was followed by a period of recuperation.  No adverts = no money = no magazine.

The Winter edition, due out in November, fell by the wayside because two advertisers withdrew their adverts at the last minute:  one because the licensee never got around to designing it (we'd have done it if he wanted), and the other because of a change in licensee.  This created an immediate loss of £330 and as we have no reserves to fall back on, all the work in trying to get adverts and in obtaining and writing articles has gone completely to waste, and our credibility with licensees has taken a bash.  Unsurprisingly, Fred and I are feeling rather deflated at the moment.

Ale & Hearty is basically a two-man operation nowadays, and it's too much for us, but requests for extra help at meetings usually result in silence with people staring fixedly ahead.  I have a plan to resolve this, but if extra help is not forthcoming, I will with great reluctance (as I was very keen when I took over) consider throwing in the towel.  I hope it doesn't come to that.

Doesn't time fly?

The latest issue of the local CAMRA magazine which I edit, Ale and Hearty, has just been published with an embarrassing mistake on the front cover:  although it came out last month, the cover proclaims it as the Autumn 2011 edition.  I didn't pick this up when I proof read it, and I noticed it only when the magazines had been printed, at which point I scurried back and checked my cover design, which clearly said Spring 2011.  So I'll claim to be only 50% to blame, as it wasn't my mistake originally but I should have noticed it in time.

It's surprisingly time-consuming doing this magazine, even though it comes out only four times per year.  Just collecting the income from adverts can take up quite a lot of time; I help with this, but it's Fred who does most of the collecting.  It doesn't help when licensees are on the premises but won't see you.  Sometimes you suspect this, but it was made crystal clear to us recently with one licensee who is notoriously difficult to pin down; she told the bar staff that she wouldn't come down and could we come back another time?  We simply decided we won't keep wasting any more time and petrol going out to her pub yet again.

We've tried making appointments by phone.  The first hurdle is getting licensees to answer their phones, but assuming they do, they can sometimes forget any arrangements, although I doubt they would if we were from the PubCo.  For example, one licensee had arranged to meet us at 4-00 pm, but when we rolled up 5 or 10 minutes early, we were told that she'd gone out to Tesco's and they weren't sure when she'd be back.  The same licensee later complained that she never saw any CAMRA members in her pub.  I must remind all members in the next issue to stamp CAMRA on their foreheads before entering pubs.

But such behaviour is from the minority.  Many licensees welcome us and seem happy to have a chat, and some of them pay for their advert immediately, which is always encouraging.  And contrary to what some CAMRA haters allege, we don't get free pints and we never demand them either - we're happy to pay for our beer.  While chatting to licensees, I've been told some horror stories about their treatment by PubCos, and would like to print what I've heard, but I'm wary of risking anyone's livelihood.  Suffice to say that the bad tales you hear about PubCos contain a large dollop of truth.

Back to the mag:  despite the error on the cover, I hope it's still worth reading.  I've already been on the receiving end of a lot of mickey taking, with doubtless loads more to come!

On festivals and CAMRA mags

While working at the Liverpool Beer Festival, Ken and Carol of Wigan CAMRA and Doug, of my own CAMRA branch, were questioned about my previous post, The Pieman and The Liver Bird, which contrasted Liverpool and Wigan beer festivals.  Ken was asked whether he'd put me up to it, and Doug was so taken aback by what he was being told I'd written that he went and read it for himself.  He later said to me he didn't think it was that bad, and of course it isn't:  there is no personal abuse, and the most that can be said about it is that Liverpool branch and I have different ideas about how beer festivals should be run.  For the record, it was all my own work and when I wrote it, I never expected the overreaction that has ensued.

Since then, I've come across a spoof of Mersey Ale (Liverpool CAMRA's magazine), called MerZoeAle, full of pictures of a young woman who works in the Dispensary and who has appeared many times in the mag or on its cover.  It's simply a skit at Mersey Ale's tendency to print pictures of attractive young women, which I know doesn't please some of the women members of Liverpool branch.  I understand Zoe herself, an intelligent young woman who is genuinely enthusiastic about real ale, had no part in the spoof.

Because of what I wrote about Liverpool festival, I have been asked by more than one person whether I had a hand in MerZoeAle.  This post is to set the record straight: it was nothing to do with me, and I haven't a clue who was behind it.  All I'd say is that if you make yourself into a target, sooner or later someone will take a pot shot at you!

One or two people in Southport have pointed out Mersey Ale to me and suggested that I do the same and put pictures of attractive young barmaids on the front of Ale & Hearty, our Southport CAMRA mag.  My answer is no - we want to attract women to CAMRA, not reinforce stereotypes of it being a LAD's organisation!

While on the subject of Ale & Hearty, I have been harangued by no fewer than three former chairs of CAMRA Southport and District Branch for a decision that I made when I became editor, which was to remove the old Southport Corporation coat of arms from the cover.  My reason was simply because the Branch now covers a large part of West Lancashire for whom the coat of arms has no relevance - I don't want those areas to think CAMRA sees them merely as an appendage of Southport.  However, one shouldn't lightly dismiss criticism from such distinguished sources, so I asked them when they had noticed it had gone, and they told me it was when they read my report to the AGM last month - by which time two issues had been published without it.  In other words, they hadn't noticed until I told them myself ~ so much for it being a cherished symbol of our heritage.

Joni Mitchell sang, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone." Or, in this case, until someone tells you it's gone 5 months after the event!

Closed pubs

Ship Inn, Haskayne

Fred and I were out visiting pubs about adverts for our local CAMRA mag, Ale & Hearty.  Two pubs we went to in Lancashire were closed unexpectedly:  the Ship Inn in Haskayne, an attractive canalside pub that has won many CAMRA awards, and the Blue Bell, just down the road in Barton.  I'm fairly sure the Ship will reopen, as I suspect the closure is due to the fact that the couple running it have separated, but I'm not so sure about the Blue Bell as it has been almost empty each time I have visited, but I hope my worries are unfounded.  This follows closely on my  recent post about the Railway in Hoscar, and the closure of the Ring of Bells in Lathom, about which the general view is that it won't reopen.  Our rural pubs seem to be having an even harder time than the town ones.

Closing pubs temporarily between licensees is a mistake, and it's certainly something that never happened years ago.  The danger is that regulars will find somewhere else to go during the closure and not return when it reopens.  I put it down to the fact that many pubs are run by property companies (called pub companies) with no real interest of the pub trade.  Pubs are just cash cows and licensees there to be exploited, and if the pubcos decide a pub isn't viable after all, they usually have a valuable piece of land they can sell.  Letting them take over our pubs after the Beer Orders of the late 1980s was like putting Herod in charge of the crèche.

Formby pubs

Formby, a few miles south of Southport, consists of a village surrounded by large dormitory estates. It has often been described as a real ale desert in the past. Fred and I decided to check a few Formby pubs to deliver the local CAMRA mag, Ale & Hearty and see whether we could get any more adverts.

Our first stop was the Grapes on the corner of Ryeground Lane and Green Lane. It is a large, comfortable pub that is clearly food-based. The beers they had on were Bombadier and Pedigree, with a Landlord clip turned around on a third hand pump. Usual suspects perhaps, but if you have a limited range, beers like that sell.

Next was the Freshfield on Massams Lane and near Freshfield Station. Nine cask beers and a cask cider (Westons Scrumpy) were on: York Guzzler, Titanic Iceberg, Purbeck Thermal Cheer, Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted, Red Squirrel Mild, Lancaster Bomber, Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles County. My Iceberg was lovely and Fred enjoyed his half of Guzzler. The Freshfield features regularly in my What's On column for its music nights: open mike nights twice a month, and a monthly roots and acoustic night, a monthly jazz night and a comedy night.

The Railway by Formby Station was third. Nine pumps were in operation selling Fullers Bengal Lancer, Brains Rev James, Landlord, Cains Bitter and Black Sheep. The Bengal Lancer at 5% was deceptive, but very enjoyable. There were good offers on food, and this pub is proud to boast of its cask beers in large letters, as the sign shows.

The Cross House in Three Tuns Lane had a surprise: as well as Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen, there was BrewDog Rip Tide, a stout. You don't see BrewDog in this area very often, so this was a pleasant surprise, and a very well-balanced and flavoursome drink it was too.

The verdict on the Formby pubs we visited was favourable overall, and the Railway and the Feshfield are very close to railway stations; it's certainly no real ale desert. I'm reliably told that Formby Conservative Club, also on Three Tuns Lane, is very good for beer too, but for obvious reasons, I haven't checked it personally!

Ale & Hearty - my 3rd issue

The Winter issue of our local CAMRA magazine Ale & Hearty, the third that I have edited, has recently been published. I am now learning the problems of taking on such a venture. People promise articles that don't turn up, so you have to write things at short notice to plug the gap. What I sometimes do is raid this blog to see if there is anything that I can adapt (there usually is); on the other hand, I have used in this blog one or two articles I wrote for A&H, but only after the mag is published. I don't think there is much overlap of readers, but if it was written for the mag, that's where it should appear first.

When taking over, I was warned against using pictures of local pubs on the cover, otherwise other licensees begin asking why it wasn't their pub. This at first seemed a strange constraint on a CAMRA publication, but I soon twigged that pictures of pubs aren't excluded: licensees that advertise with us put pictures of their pubs in their own adverts, so you can still see the range of good looking pubs in this area in every edition, and all of them pubs whose support helps keep the mag going. This can however make the question of what to put on the cover difficult. I had an idea last night in the Guest House while supping Everards Sleighbell: have pictures of views from pubs. With the range of pubs in our area - town centre, suburban, country, canalside, even seaside - that should keep me in cover pictures for a while.

So what have I changed since taking over? It's now officially a magazine, not a newsletter, and the title is in a much simpler and bolder font. I have ditched the Southport coat of arms, as we now cover most of West Lancashire and Formby as well as Southport. The political content (in relation to pub and beer related matters) is more overt ~ as a former union rep, I'm used to giving it straight. I've begun a couple of new series, such as pub crawls easily accessible by public transport, and relics of old breweries in pubs, and my friends Carole and Ian (aka Ale Ian), have written cheerful items about their beery adventures elsewhere in England. My articles on Real Ale & Real Music in pubs began under the previous editor Mike Hoey's stewardship. Old regular features still appear, such as Dave Williams' Classic Pubs of the UK and A. L. Guzzler's humorous view of the world. So it's not all change.

I was quite pleased with my article on a trip to Tetley's brewery in Leeds that we went on in November; as you'll know, the brewery will close next year. I went on the trip, despite not liking Tetley's much (although you wouldn't know that from the article) because it is a shame such an historical brewery, founded in 1822, is closing. I decided a photo of the brewery featuring CAMRA Branch stalwart, Mike Perkins who himself hails from Leeds, was a perfect cover picture. It was a very interesting day, with some nice pints in Keighley on the way back.

Now I'd better begin thinking about the Spring edition. It seems like back to square one each time!

Pub news in West Lancs

Here are some items of news about pubs in the West Lancs area I picked up on my recent trips to collect adverts for the local CAMRA magazine, Ale & Hearty.

The Hopvine

The Lord Nelson, Croston. On a recent visit, this charming village local was serving Copper Dragon Golden Pippin, Young’s Waggle Dance, Stonehenge Danish Dynamite and Adnam’s Explorer. They plan to have a beer festival from 24th to 26th September with 25 beers and 6 ciders in a marquee in front of the pub, with live music each day.

The Hesketh Arms, Rufford had a good selesction when we visited recently: Moorhouses Pride of pendle, Phoenix Double Gold, George Wright and two Brysons beers – Bring Me Sunshine and Thirst Class.

The Crown, Croston is a Thwaites house and was serving from the Thwaites range: Bomber, Wainwright and Original.

The Blue Anchor, Bretherton was serving Old Speckled Hen on a midweek visit, but has two handpumps that serve changing guest beers.

The Scarisbrick

The Cock & Bottle, Tarleton has been tastefully refurbished inside and out. It has a good function room and a pleasant beer garden. It was serving from the Thwaites range Liberation, Original and Nutty Black. A bitter drinker in our group found the Nutty Black (a mild) very tasty.

The Blue Bell, Barton has recently been redecorated and was selling George Wright Nectar and Black Sheep Bitter when we visited. They generally like to have a George Wright beer on sale.

The Ship Inn, Haskayne, a canalside pub noted for food as well as beer, was selling Prospect Blinding Light, Southport Golden Sands and their house beer, Ship Ahoy brewed by George Wright.

The Scarisbrick Arms, a canalside pub in Downholland, was selling Southport Golden Sands and George Wright Drunken Duck recently.

The Ropers Arms in Ormskirk has two regularly changing guest beers, including Paulainey’s brewed by Moorhouses. They are planning to open a bed and breakfast in the pub with 12 bedrooms.

The Wheatsheaf

The Royal Oak, Aughton. When we visited recently, it was selling Wells Bombadier, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Tetley Bitter.

The Derby Arms in Aughton was offering Timothy Taylor Golden Best, Tetley Bitter and Mild, Arran Ale (at £1.50 a pint) and cask Hawkshead Lakeland Lager.

The Dog & Gun in Aughton was recently serving Banks Mild and Bitter, Jennings Lakeland Stunner, Jennings Bitter and Marstons Pedigree.

Ale & Hearty at the Dog & Gun

The new issue of Ale & Hearty, the Southport and District CAMRA magazine, has just arrived from the printers. It's my first as editor, so I hope it's all right. I picked up my copy last night at the Branch committee meeting at the Dog and Gun in Aughton. The main article reports on the campaign to save the Becconsall  in Hesketh Bank, to which I have referred to in several previous postings. The beer blogger Tandleman, who in another guise is deputy organiser of the National Winter Ales Festival, has also written a characteristically punchy article. Ale and Hearty is available now free of charge in all good local pubs.

After the meeting, Mike who runs the pub had a chat with us about the possibility of his running a small beer festival next Spring. He would be limited to the Marston's range of guests, but as he's considering about 20 beers in a marquee, that would still give some scope for a reasonable choice. We chatted about cooling systems we'd used at our own beer festivals and serving beers by gravity to avoid the problems of trying to locate and borrow scores of handpumps, something he hadn't considered before. It's still only in the planning stage, but sounds an interesting venture.

The Dog and Gun had 5 real ales on, including Marstons Pedigree and Fever Pitch and a real mild. There is no keg or smoothflow ales in this pub at all, apart from the inevitable Guinness, although the mild sales are slipping and Mike fears he might have to remove it. It's a nice pub, well worth a visit, and is in Long Lane, about 8 minutes' walk from Aughton Park railway station.

Day of the Swords

It's been a mixed week: helping set up the Spring Beer Festival and finalising the copy of Ale & Hearty, the local CAMRA magazine, which is now at the printers. It's my first as editor, so I'm hoping it will be okay. I wasn't able to work or drink at the beer festival as I was away on both days it was on: Friday in Derbyshire meeting an old friend and Saturday in Liverpool helping at the Southport Swords Day of Dance.

Morris dancing isn't a common sight in Liverpool, and each venue where the dancing was taking place attracted interested crowds. Some didn't even know that this is part of our own heritage, with one woman asking me whether they came from Holland. I also had to explain a few times that the face-blacking that some teams do (most notably Border Morris teams) has nothing to do with race and everything to do with disguise (I discussed this fact in more detail in a previous posting). The level of interest that these displays attracted belies the stereotype of English folk dance being a national embarrassment.

Afterwards to the pub ~ specifically the Dispensary in Renshaw Street, which was full of various kinds of morris dancers, male and female, young and old, and where spontaneous dances involving people from different teams occurred. I've noticed folk dancers like to do this. The beer was good, too: I was on Kelham Island Pale Rider, 5.2% ~ "its sweetness and bitterness continued to the finish" (GBG 2005).

Although I'm not a dancer myself, I enjoyed the day. To cap it all, the sun shone on the righteous.

The picture shows the Southport Swords with their swords held aloft in a swordlock by the Pump House pub on Liverpool's waterfront.

Burscough pub saved

On our travels collecting adverts for Ale & Hearty (the local CAMRA magazine), Fred and I were rather impressed by the Hop Vine in Burscough.

This pub was formerly known as the Royal Coaching House before its closure and did not have a good reputation among real ale drinkers. It was reopened by Mike and Julie, and has been tastefully redecorated throughout. The old pool room is now a side room that can be used as a function room. The food is well thought of by regulars, and there several real ales on: Theakstons Bitter, Moorhouses Pendle Witches Brew and Hop Vine, a house beer brewed by Prospect of Wigan, are always on with changing guests. There is a courtyard to the rear, which will be nice to sit in when the weather’s better, and plans are well developed to open a microbrewery in the outhouses. This would be only the second brewery in our local CAMRA branch’s area, and will be a very welcome development.

They are holding their first beer festival over the Whit weekend. Details should appear on their website soon.

Also, if you'd like hear to hear a great professional guitarist, Alan plays there on alternate (every 2 weeks) Sunday evenings between 6 and 8 pm, whilst you enjoy a meal or a pint. His next performance is on the 16th May. He does a wide range of tunes from most times in the past.

Finding it: the pub is on the main road through Burscough, the A59, and is a couple of hundred yards from Burscough Bridge station and about half a mile from Burscough Junction. The train journey from Southport is about 13 minutes. Postcode: L40 4BY.

Ale & Hearty

It looks as though I may become the next editor of Ale & Hearty, the magazine of the Southport & District Branch of CAMRA.  This is of course subject to the democratic process at the Branch AGM, but there have been no other eager volunteers so far.  As the outgoing editor Michael Hoey reports, he has had health problems and at the same time his job has become more demanding.  He modestly plays down his contribution, but I think his approach has been spot on.

I agree with his expressed intention to focus more on campaigning and local pubs and issues, the campaign to reopen the Becconsall in Hesketh Bank being a good example. I have been told the campaigners there are looking at examples of pubs being taken over by the community, such as the Star in Salford that I reported on a week or so ago. This is definitely something for Ale & Hearty, especially as the Branch has just taken over that area.

I hope I don't let down all the previous editors or the readers of this well-established magazine (56 issues so far). For me, it's "put your money where your mouth is" time! If there's a contested election at the AGM and I lose, my report on that here will be much briefer!

The cover of the Ale & Hearty above shows the display in the Inn Beer Shop on Lord Street, a place I have yet to visit. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Swiggin' In Wigan

On Friday, I went for a drink in Wigan with my young friend Helen, a fellow trade unionist until I succeeded in escaping last year. Helen joined CAMRA at the Wigan Beer Festival earlier this year, but tends to prefer cider to ale. Our first drink was in the Berkeley, a pleasant,comfortable pub just across the road from the railway station, and the beer was a rather nice Prospect golden ale, the exact name of which has slipped my mind. Prospect beers are usually worth seeking out.

A few minutes walk away down a side street and scarcely visible from the main road is the John Bull, a rock pub with an excellent juke box, and serving 3 Thwaites beers, Original, Wainwright and Bomber. The Wainwright seemed a little insipid to me, so I stuck with the Bomber. I didn't get around to trying the Original. We met some other reps there on their Friday night out. A great pub, but with my hearing being what it is due to too much heavy rock in the 1980s, I found conversing difficult.

The final pub was the Anvil, a pub that has won many awards from the local CAMRA branch. There was a selection of golden ales: Banks & Taylor Golden Fox, Northumberland Jolly Rogers Ale and Bad Ass True Blonde cask lager. All were pleasant but tended to taste much of a muchness to me.

There are other good pubs in Wigan, which is well worth a trip out for a change of scenery and a few different beers. I intend to publish a proper pub crawl of Wigan some time in the Southport CAMRA magazine, Ale and Hearty, but as a starter these three pubs are worth trying.