A more than adequate replacement

Wigan Central

I'd been arranging a trip for some friends to the CAMRA Bolton Beer Festival this Saturday when someone pointed out to me that there is a problem with the trains that weekend. When I checked the train times on National Rail Enquiries about 10 days ago, no problems were reported.

Looking again yesterday, I see that the trains will be going past Bolton to Manchester, after which you need to get off and catch the train back to Bolton, thus adding an hour to the 45-minute journey - each way. Needless to say, I've called that trip off as I've no wish to spend 3.5 hours travelling to and from a beer festival that's less than 30 miles away.

Instead I've suggested we go to the excellent Wigan Central, Wigan CAMRA's Pub of the Year and a finalist in the CAMRA National Pub of the Year competition, which should be good. A more than satisfactory replacement trip, I feel.

I wrote about this pub in our local paper (and on this blog) in May 2016.

Classic bus pub tours

This sounds like an interesting day out. The local CAMRA branch has arranged with the Merseyside Transport Trust (MTT), a charity that preserves classic buses, a day of bus journeys based on Ormskirk bus station and Burscough interchange to various rural pubs in West Lancashire on Saturday 13 April 2013, all on classic buses. There will be three routes from either Ormskirk or Burscough: in Ormskirk, the bus station is two minutes' walk from the railway station, and the Burscough interchange is next to Burscough Bridge railway station.

Route A (Aughton Circular): Ormskirk - Dog & Gun - Town Green - Cockbeck - Stanley Arms - Royal Oak - Ormskirk
Route B: Ormskirk - Kicking Donkey - Heatons Bridge - Martin Inn - Farmers Arms - Bull & Dog - The Lion - Burscough Bridge (for the Bridge, Hopvine & Burscough Wharf)
Route C: Burscough Bridge - Briars Hall - Ring O Bells

The buses will run at least hourly from 1100 to 1800 approx and are free (donations welcome). Programmes containing all the timetables and information you'll need are available in advance for £3 from: Programme Sales, 3 Sunflower Close, Bold, St Helens, WA9 4ZT (cheques payable to "Merseyside Transport Trust"), or you can buy them on the day.

The Ship Inn in Haskayne will be holding its Spring beer festival at this time, between 10 and 14 April. No longer: the Ship beer festival will now be held from Wednesday 25 to Sunday 28 April.

Tour of West Lancs Pubs ~ Part 2

As I wrote last month, CAMRA Southport & District Branch covers most of West Lancs, much of which isn't easy to get to by public transport.  To ensure the pubs aren't neglected for the Good Beer Guide, we visit them by coach.  This is the second such trip this year (you can read about the first here).

1. The Martin Inn, Burscough:  our first port of call was almost empty when we arrived.  After a year's closure, this pub was reopened in 2010, having been refurbished in a rustic theme with a real fire that was already lit when we arrived.  It is a food pub, and I noticed there were reasonably priced Sunday meals available.  The beers were:

• Dent Aviator.
• Martin Inn - Barney's Brew.

The Aviator was lacklustre - unusual, compared to my previous visits to this pub - but the Barney's Brew was in good condition.  I don't know who brews it for them, although the young barman tried to blag us that it was brewed on the premises.

2. Farmers Arms, Burscough: a pleasant canalside pub with two fires, and a couple of enormous swans just outside.  Food is important here too. The beers were:

• Moorhouses Pride of Pendle.
• Black Sheep Bitter.
• Tetley Bitter.
• Tetley Mild.

3. The Hop Vine, Burscough: a pub in the heart of Burscough with a brewery attached:  Burscough Brewery is in outhouses at the back.  Nicely refurbished from the dump that used to be the Royal Coaching Houses, this pub is noted for its food.  The beers being served were:

• Burscough Mere Blonde.
• Burscough Hop Vine.
• Burscough Ringtail.
• Phoenix Pale Moonlight.
• Titanic Anchor.
• George Wright Cheeky Pheasant.
• Thwaites Wainwright.

4. The Ship (Blood Tub), Lathom:  this is another canalside pub with food and a real fire, and it has a lot of character.  A few years ago, I arranged a social afternoon here with union friends from Manchester and Merseyside.  Having extolled the delights of this canalside pub, I found on the day that the banks had burst, so my visitors could only gaze on a deep muddy ditch.

• Thwaites Original.
• Cross Bay Dusk Ruby Bitter.
• Cross Bay Winter Moon. Prospect Venus Gold.
• Moorhouses Pendlewitches Brew.
• Moorhouses Ship Special.

5. The Blue Mallard, Burscough:  a restaurant located at Burscough Wharf, a canalside development in the town centre. I didn't get there on this trip, but I was told it was selling:

• Lancaster Blonde.

This was on when I called in there a few months ago. Price: £2.80 a pint, and £1.65 a half.

6.  The Bridge, Burscough:  another one I didn't visit.  It was selling:

• Moorhouses Pride of Pendle.
• Black Sheep Bitter.

7. Ring O' Bells, Lathom:  this canalside pub has been nicely refurbished after a period of closure. It is also a food pub. An interesting range of beers was available:

• Thwaites Nutty Black.
• Thwaites Original.
• Prospect Panned Out.
• Liverpool Organic 24 Carat Gold.
• George Wright Blonde Moment.

8. Hesketh Arms, Rufford:  a large food-oriented pub on the main road from Ormskirk to Preston (the A59).

• Moorhouses Pride of Pendle.
• Tetley Bitter.
• Jennings Cumberland.
• Lancaster Straw.
• Phoenix Pale Moonlight.

9. Cock & Bottle, Tarleton:  a large ex-GBG pub in the centre of the village, again food-oriented.  Real fire.  The range was from Thwaites, and it was the dearest beer on the trip, with Wainwright at £3.15 a pint.

• Thwaites Original.
• Thwaites Wainwright.
• Thwaites Nutty Black.

10. The Village Inn, Tarleton:  a few minutes' walk from the Cock & Bottle, this pub was serving food and had a real fire.  A pleasant final destination for our tour.

• Wells Bombardier.
• Holts Bitter.
• Marston's Pedigree.

Tour of West Lancs pubs

Southport and District CAMRA covers most of West Lancs as well as Southport and Formby.  The problem is that most of the West Lancs pubs are difficult and, in a couple of cases, impossible to reach by public transport.  So we occasionally take a coach out to visit them, enjoy their beers and - to ensure they are not disadvantaged - score them for the Good Beer Guide.  This is what we did last Sunday.  I didn't try all the beers, for obvious reasons, but I enjoyed all those I did have.  Not a bad pint, or one I disliked, all day.

1.  The Kings Arms, Haskayne:  this pub is close, but not next, to the Leeds-Liverpool canal.  It has some nice woodwork and attractive fireplaces, one with a real fire when we were there.  It is slightly run down but is due to refurbished soon.  At one time this pub sold only Tetley's, but on our visit was serving:

• Black Hole Brewery - Asteroid Ale.
• Beartown - Kodiak Gold.
• Bank Top - Sweeney's.

2.  The Ship Inn is a canal side pub just a short walk away from the King's.  It's a very picturesque, multi-roomed pub with canal side seating (but with no fence by the canal, keep an eye on children and over-merry adults).  It has live music each week:  on Wednesdays the Britannia Bluegrass Band plays and on Thursdays and Fridays there are open mike nights.  It also does food, and a real fire was lit.  The beers were:

• Holts - Bitter.
• Rudgate - Jorvik Blonde.
• Phoenix - Pale Moonlight.

3.  The Royal Oak, Aughton:  an attractive pub on the A59, it serves food and has an open mike night each Tuesday, and, I'm told, live bands on Saturdays.  A real fire was burning while we were there.  The beers were: 

• Tetley - Bitter
• Great Orme Brewery - Cambria.

The Cambria had just gone on and had a slight haze, so they told us it wasn't ready yet; apparently Hobgoblin had only just run out.  With our choice limited to Tetley's, we tried the Cambria and despite the haze it was fine. 

4.  The Dog & Gun, Aughton:  another attractive pub close to Aughton Park railway station with two separate rooms and a real fire.  The beers were from the Marstons stable and included:

• Ringwood - Boondoggle.
• Jennings - Bitter.
• Marstons - Pedigree.
• Banks - Bitter.

The Boondoggle proved most popular in our group.  It's a pity to see the cask mild had disappeared, but I gathered on a previous visit that it wasn't selling enough.

5.  The Stanley Arms, Aughton:  another attractive and very busy pub, the Stanley had the greatest beer range of the pubs we visited.  It was doing excellent business with meals - I had to jump out of the way of busy waitresses running past with plates of food.  The beer range was good too:

• Tetley - Bitter.
• Tetley - Mild.
• Timothy Taylor - Landlord.
• Salopian - Oracle.
• Adnams - Spiced Winter Beer.
• Marstons - Pedigree.

6.  The Derby Arms, Aughton:  this is a popular pub in the middle of fields, and has been the CAMRA branch Pub of the Year in the past.  As well as food, they also have live music: a busy singaround on Wednesdays and some kind of gypsy jazz night on the first Monday of the month.  There was also a real fire burning.  The beers included:

• Haworth Steam Brewing Company - Naughty Blonde.
• Tetley - Bitter.
• Tetley - Mild.
• Redemption - Big Chief.
• Frodsham - Sledgin'.

A few years ago, you wouldn't have got this range of beers in the West Lancs pubs, and it's good to see how the situation has improved.  There are problems with the country pubs, however:  as previously reported, the Blue Bell in Barton (close to the Kings and the Ship) has closed permanently, and I've heard that the Scarisbrick in Downholland is to be closed and converted into a high class restaurant.

If I had to pick one beer, it would probably be the Haworth Steam Brewing Company Naughty Blonde, but all were good.  Anyone thinking of visiting our country pubs has a good selection of pubs and beers to choose from, as well as choices of food and live music.