Friday 22 April 2011

The Town That Never Was Beer Festival

For a couple of years, there appeared on Google Maps and Google Earth a place called Argleton. It was shown as being near Aughton, Lancs, just off the A59. It had a Liverpool postcode (L39), potentially annoying any local residents who might have preferred a Lancashire postcode, except that the only residents were likely to be field mice, rabbits and wild birds: it turns out that Argleton has never existed, and was in the middle of a few fields. It was removed by Google after a couple of years without a convincing explanation as to how it had come to be there in the first place, but if you're curious, some speculation can be found here.

But now Argleton has sprung to life at the Stanley Arms, St. Michael Rd, Aughton, L39 6SA, which is holding the 1st Argleton Beer Festival, beginning on 29th April. It will serve 18 different beers and ciders, with music from the Blue Magnolia Jass Orchestra on Friday and Martin the Piano Devil on Saturday. The festival will support two charities - MINT, which supports neurological care, and Diabetes UK.

What a brilliant excuse!

"Where have you been?"
"The Argleton beer festival."
"But there's no such place as Argleton!"
"Then I can't have been to a beer festival."

2 comments:

  1. Don't mapmakers put in ghost towns, places of interest etc. deliberately. If they spot someone else producing a map with the same 'ghost' they know that there has been a breach of copyright.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, that is a possible expanation. Another is that it was Aughton misspelt. But then, here's a website set up by Argletonians asserting they do exist.

    ReplyDelete

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