Rural Wirral

I decided to exploit the continuing sunshine, and go a little further afield today, visiting some of the more out of the way pubs in rural Wirral.

After a long bus ride I finally reached Irby, where I started at the Anchor:

Would I get in at 11:15?  The door was unlocked so I headed in to the splendid higgledy-piggledy interior, full of bare brick walls and pillars, with roof beams above.  It's a Mitchells and Butlers place, obviously aiming at up market food sales, but clearly still welcoming drinkers.  (But not this early!)

There were no signs of life at all as I stood at the bar.  Eventually I spotted a waitress cleaning tables in the garden, so I headed out.  "Are you open yet?"  "Only for drinks, I'll go and find him".  She then undertook a tour of the whole pub shouting for Jack, but he was nowhere to be found, so she belatedly offered to serve me.  I decided Jack probably wouldn't have pulled the real ales through yet, so I had a Guinness.  He turned up just as I sat down.

No-one else was in, I can see why a lot of these places open at twelve or later.  Just before I left two more customers came in.

Witty remark of the day:  The waitress's next task was to remove all the melted wax from some giant glass candle holders.  The chef came out and said "Is that job getting on your wick?"  I wish I'd thought of that!

A very pleasant stroll in the sunshine soon got me to the Cottage Loaf, another dining-oriented place, this time with a Greene King brand:

Inside the contemporary decor is very well done, and there were slightly more customers than in the Anchor.  Again, mainly aiming at diners but drinkers are welcome:  The table I sat at had no menus, cutlery, condiments etc.

The most bloggable thing to happen while I drank a fine pint of IPA was the barmaid dropping an icecube over the bar.  Sorry.

This is my 1,250th Merseyside pub (The Anchor was 1,249).

Next, a jolly stroll past fields and along woodland footpaths took me to the Irby Mill:

Not visited since 1998, and to be honest I've no memories of that occasion.  My database refers to a fine very old building, and excellent beer, both of which still apply.  I selected Weetwood Eastgate from the choice of 8 or so ales and it was spot on.

Plenty of customers here, mostly dining but once again, drinkers are welcome and there are some non-dining tables near the counter.

Inside the antique building (1780 I'm told.) is a wonderful multiroom interior.  But I noted the date carved on the wooden mantlepiece is 1980 so it's not all ancient, in fact it's only been a pub since about then.

Finally, back to Irby, where I noted the Anchor's car park was now much busier, and in to the Shippons, a Thwaites house:

This wonderful barn conversion is great inside and out, and was a little busier than the preceding calls.  Annoyingly, the clips were turned round on all of the handpumps I could see, so I had another Guinness.  (I had observed on the way in that the Cask Marque sign expired in 2016.)

The staff were busy clearing the debris from lunch traffic, and it seemed that the majority of the tables inside were aimed at diners.  I headed out to the pleasant beer yard where a seat in the shade was ideal.

As I relaxed and enjoyed my beer the place emptied out, the late-lunchers disappearing.

The beer yard really is wonderfully done with umpteen well looked after pot plants making for a flowery atmosphere.  The pots weren't perfect, though, and when no-one was looking I pulled a weed (I hope) out of the hydrangea next to my seat.  I only know it was a weed because I get loads of them in my garden.  Google tells me it's rosebay willowherb.

A twittering above my head was a swallow/martin/swift sitting on the telephone line.

So, a very enjoyable survey drew to a close.  Inevitably, most of my research is in urban or suburban areas, so I must say it was good, in this glorious weather, to do some pubs in the countryside, enjoying all the sights I don't normally see, including woodland paths, llamas, and Teddy on security duty!