The Last Pub in Stockbridge Village

With, I have to admit, little optimism, I caught the bus to Canny Farm.  Would any of the pubs have survived, or was I on a hiding to nothing?

Locals will already have realised that my use of the names Cantril Farm, Canny Farm or even Cannibal Farm is pure affectation, as the area was renamed Stockbridge Village long before I first came to Liverpool. 

Anyway, I started at the location of the Barley Mow, long closed and now replaced by houses:

As I headed on I must confess to wondering if today was going to be a series of pictures of modern housing on the sites of closed pubs.  Soon, I reached the Village Inn and, lo and behold, it is still operating:

Only the front room was in use, clean but a little worn in places, especially the bench seats round the walls which were full of holes.

About ten customers, all blokes of my age or older were watching footie on the telly, and chatting. 

I looked around as I sank my Carling.  Re-cover the seats and the place would merit a "clean, tidy and well looked after" description because apart from the seats, it is. 

I noticed an indication we are in the 2020s even in this classic from the 1960s:  There was no bitter available whereas last time, in 2018, they offered John Smith's and Worthington's.  There was a tap for John Smith's Golden Ale, which I suppose is close.  If the correct glasses were used I can report that about 80% of the custom was for Carling with the remainder on the Smith's.

Next, the Ploughman:

Long closed, I'm sorry to report, and with some kind of legal notice pinned to the front fence. 

On to the Black Angus which streetview research earlier in the year had revealed was closed, demolished and replaced by housing:

So that's it for Stockbridge Village.  My database lists six pubs, I drank in four of them in 1998, and some again more recently, and now the Village Inn is the only one left.  Isn't that a shame. 

I departed at the North end of the estate, on to Deysbrook Lane.  The Princess has been closed and demolished for a long time, although I did manage to tick it in 1998, but remarkably the frame of the pub sign remains:

I was getting a bit thirsty by now, but it wasn't far to the Deysbrook which I was fairly confident would be open:

Not just open, it is thriving.  Very nicely modernised and beautifully cared for, it retains some of the original two sided layout, although I expect there has been some knocking through over the years. 

The bar side was busy, I had to sit at the corner of someone else's table to put down my Carling - It's hard to write on a tablet standing up with a pint in your hand.  In the other side was a very lively party, I couldn't make out what they were celebrating but there were a lot of happy people and a lot of noise. 

I must say it is pleasing to find a busy pub nowadays, especially as it wasn't too busy for me to find a seat.  It shows "ordinary" boozers can continue to flourish in 2024.  Thank goodness for that. 

The score so far is two required ticks.  It's a long walk to the next one and I'm not sure I can be bothered...  Home it is. 

Pub of the day: Deysbrook
Beer of the day: Carling
Miles walked: 2.1
Maybe coming soon: Kirkdale, Birkenhead

Southport in the Sunshine

On a pleasant sunny day you find me on the train to Southport where I started in the Wellington:

A classic boozer this, one large knocked through room, very nicely decorated in traditional style.  There were plenty of customers at two on a Thursday.

What's this?  A handpump with a Moorhouse's clip, I never expected that.  As the friendly barmaid handed me my pint she said "It's the first one out today, let me know if it doesn't taste right".  One sniff of the vinegary odour was enough for me to reject it.  The second pint smelled (smelt?) better but still tasted off, so I had a Carling.  I did wonder if another few pulls would reach drinkable ale, but on reflection probably not.  While sour ale is always a disappointment, the warning and the cheerful replacement is the proper way to deal with it; full marks to the barmaid and 0/10 for the cellarman.  Of course, they could be one and the same.

Ten minutes later I noticed the clip had been turned round, that's good.  The other handle also had a turned round clip. 

The soundtrack in here?  Cheerful conversations with music in the background.  This is what a pub should sound like. 

On to the Sporting Jester:

Another traditional boozer, with perhaps more modern decor than the Welly, very pleasant and, once again, spotless. 

No trouble with the real ale here, because they don't do it any more, so another Carling for your reporter.  I recall coming in for the first time back in 2011 for a pint of cask when the Volunteer, as it was then known, made a short lived appearance in the Good Beer Guide.

Not quite as busy as the Wellington, but still ticking over nicely at three o'clock.

There were three dartboards at one end of the room along with a pool table, not in use at the moment.  Now I look at it, the pool table is parked over an oche, so some rearrangement would be needed to play three games of darts.

Now, a favourite of mine, the Cheshire Lines:

As you can see, one of the locals spotted me taking the photo.

What a disappointment!  Admittedly it is better than last time I walked this way, when it was surrounded by fencing during COVID, but this time no real ale is on offer and the barmaid advised me that quite a few of the keg ones were unavailable too.  Luckily, Neck Oil was on so I had that. 

Only about three or four other customers in, I suppose it's just too far from the main drag, with no passing trade.

Running out of half of the keg beers is sometimes a sign of the wholesaler refusing to deliver until bills are paid, could this place be going bust?  I hope not, and there are plenty of less doom-laden explanations. 

Are the ancient-looking beams genuine, I wonder?  I suspect not, but the interior is very pleasant anyway.

Two of the other customers had an enormous German Shepherd with them, perfectly well behaved but I was a little worried that if it decided to misbehave it might be stronger than the owner! 

Down on to Lord Street next, and in to what my database says is the Potting Shed, now called the Southport Coaster:

The Potting Shed was some sort of cocktail bar I think but I never visited.  Before that, the Sandgrounder was a Wetherspoon-style place with real ale in 2014.  Even before that, I think it was a Yates' but I never ticked it. The new version is a wonderful boozer with excellent decor packed with inebriated people at half four.

The giant screen behind the counter was showing the cricket but I don't think anyone was watching.  Karaoke was in full swing, loud but not the deafening level one often finds.  (On my regular visits to Blacklers in town, you can hear the music from next door.)

Unusually, this karaoke seemed to feature people who could actually sing!  Okay, she's no Karen Carpenter but that was a fine rendition of I Know I Need To Be In Love, by someone called Sharon.  Apparently the karaoke queue is an hour long, clearly the skilled performers all come here. I hung on for the next act...  A duo who even managed harmonies in I Feel Fine.  Well done!

Not quite time for home yet, how about a new one?  The Auld Dubliner:

A standard shop conversion, a corridor bar with Irish decor very well done.  When I get home I'll check Streetmap to see what it was before, I don't think it was a bar - Ah, Thomas Cook. 

My Guinness was part filled and then left to stand above the taps before being finished, that's how it should be done.  And no shamrock, of course. 

Again, the cricket was on the giant screen behind the counter, and again I don't think anyone was watching.  Except me, briefly - The Aussies seemed to be doing pretty well. 

Another rather fine boozer, plenty of people enjoying the atmosphere with chatter equalling the music in sound level.

Pub of the day: Southport Coaster, a modern classic.
Beer of the day: Neck Oil
Miles walked: 1.5
Maybe coming soon: Canny Farm, Kirkdale

Good Beer Guide 2025

A really impressive thud alerted me to the landing on my doormat of the latest edition of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide.

I can report that in Merseyside twenty-one entries have been removed and twenty added since last year's guide.

As I say every time, if you want to know which pubs they are you'll have to buy the book when it goes on sale on 26 September.

A Bad Start

The morning's torrential rain had eased off as I headed out to Maghull, hoping for a number of overdue ticks plus one new one.

From the station I walked past the Great Mogul, I've already done that one recently, and strolled through suburbia to the Fox:

Google says they open at 12, Facebook 14, so I should be OK at quarter past two?  No! 

Only a short walk from there to my next target, the Old Post Office:

This one was shut too - Not a good beginning to the survey; this is why I've mostly changed to Saturdays when places are more likely to be open in the afternoon.  I've something else to do this Saturday though. 

Some more walking, including passing by the Wetherspoon because I was in there in May this year, brought me to One Central:

More of a cafe than a bar, this one, will it be open and can I get a beer?

Things didn't look good as I entered, every table occupied by gentlefolk drinking coffee or tea, and no fonts on the counter.  But wait, I can see a bloke with a pint in his hand and there are taps on the back wall, and so I was soon served with a pint of San Miguel.

"Anything else" asked the barman as he operated the till.  "Another one" suggested the man standing next to me.  Good idea!

I perched at the corner of an occupied table to relax and enjoy my cerveza.  Chatter and the whooshing of the coffee machine were the main sounds in here.  Is it over the borderline into cafe territory, I wonder.  Oh well, I've drunk in here now, and I imagine the coffee/beer ratio would be very different in the evening. 

The decor involves lots of rough woodwork.  It looks rather good.

Another half a mile of walking took me past the Hare and Hounds, ticked recently, and on to the Meadows:

This Greene King "Flaming Grill" pub is, as all their pubs are, nicely decorated, clean and tidy. 

Four handpumps with three "coming soon" is something of a harbinger of doom (No not Doom Bar) in my experience, but I risked a pint of Yardbird and it was excellent, albeit a little lively resulting in a lot of top-ups before the friendly barmaid handed it to me.  One decent real ale is enough. 

It was fairly quiet in here, just ticking over, but that seems to be the norm for pubs nowadays.  Three or four gentle conversations were the only sound, except for the staff rattling plates, cutlery and glasses. 

I noticed they have the exact same servery software as Wetherspoon do, someone at table 8 has ordered some food.  What I still haven't found out is the reason other tables pop up on the screen in plain grey.  Including mine here. 

I continued to look round:  Hanging behind the bar is a "public access bleed control kit", not noticed one of those before.  Presumably there is a risk of a nasty cut from a broken glass in a pub.  Does one need training to use it?  I don't think I'd fancy applying a tourniquet without some advice on how tight to make it.

Table eight's food counted up to fourteen minutes, it is highlighted in mauve now which means it is ready in the kitchen.  The food appeared just after I wrote that.  I perused the menu of pub standards.  £9.89 for fish chips and peas is fairly cheap in 2024, I think.  Now I feel hungry! 

I wondered about the building.  Twenties or early thirties?  The tall chimneys suggest the earlier part of that period.  I can see it was built with multiple small rooms, now knocked through, so it must pre-date the "improved pub" era. 

Moving on, just a short stroll brings us to Cask Cafe.  In view of my success rate so far I'm a bit worried about a place that advertises opening at four, as it is now about five past:

A sort of secret pub, this, because all the signage refers to its alter ego as a coffee shop.  In fact there's a notice on the door showing that it closes at two.  Luckily I could see someone with a pint in hand through the window, and once I went in I found a lively hubbub of drinkers.  

Four handpumps were in operation, I chose one I'd never heard of from Oakham brewery, now what was it called?  Ah yes, Celeste, it's a very pale rather delicately flavoured hoppy ale, one of their seasonal brews.  Very good.

I sat on a comfortable sofa alone in the back room, while the front room was full of people and conversations.

What a wonderful pub.  I think I might have said this before about other ones, but if a place like this were to open near my home, I might have to abandon the pub guide research and just go there every day.

I was joined at my table by two other people.  What's wrong with the dozen other empty tables I don't know, but the woman did ask if it was alright, and it was, so no complaints. 

Another fairly short walk and a life threatening crossing of the A59 in rush hour (hyperbole) brought me to the Alt Park:

Another chain dining place, this time with Sizzling branding.  This brand belongs to Mitchells and Butlers as do many other well known brands including Harvester, Vintage Inns, All Bar One, Nicholson's, O'Neill's, Ember Inns, Toby Carvery and so on. 

Just like the Meadows, it is pleasantly decorated, clean and tidy. 

No cask, so I had a Guinness. 

Five o'clock by now, and there were a lot more diners in, keeping the staff busy.  Fish chips and peas £8.29 here.

I was interested to note the Christmas Party menu.  Wetherspoon took some flack a few years ago when they stopped offering a "Christmas dinner", replacing it with a Christmas-themed burger.  This pub offers "Christmas Dinner Pie" so clearly spoons were leading the way and the others follow, as usual.  Once again, I ask why my shares aren't going up.

Out of the window I viewed the back garden.  Lots of picnic tables and some, er what's the word, a row of open sided roofed units each with a table and bench seats.  In today's chilly weather no one was out there. 

Time to head towards home, so I walked back to the station for a train in to town.  

Quite a satisfactory survey after a shaky start, or so I thought until I got home and realised I had walked straight past the new-ish Neptune Beerhouse.  So I could have got another brand new tick if I'd been awake.

Pub of the day: Cask Cafe
Beer of the day: Oakham Celeste
Miles walked: 4.1
Maybe coming soon: Southport, Kirkdale, Cantril Farm

Billinge

An opportunity arose when friends visiting me were heading off to Bryn, so would be driving through Billinge.  Normally this is a train ride followed by a bus ride away, so it would be foolish not accept a free lift.  Thanks to Tony and Karyn I was soon dropped off at the Eagle & Child:

Sadly this plain pleasant pub has lost its real ale since I was last here, in 2018.  Even more sadly, there were no other customers at half two on a Saturday, which doesn't bode well for the long term survival of this one that, for reasons I can't put my finger on, I really like.  Is it just the attractive exterior? 

As I sank my Carling one or two other customers appeared, I think there were some in the back garden.

I checked my database; there are five Merseyside pubs called Eagle and Child, it is of course the crest of the Stanley family, Earls of Derby. 

Just across the road is the Stork Inn, sadly (I must stop writing sadly) closed for some years, with redevelopment work proceeding very slowly if at all:

Heading down the hill we reach the Foresters Arms:

Something of a plain down market place, this one, but clean and tidy, friendly and welcoming, and with a lot more customers than the previous call.

Quiet sports commentary, I don't know which sport (Probably rugby?), was mostly overpowered by gentle conversations as I enjoyed a second Carling.

I passed by the Billinge Arms, saved for later, and on down a tiny side road to the lovely Masons Arms:

What a fine pub this is.  Despite being "in the middle of nowhere"  (So much so that CAMRA don't even know which county it is in!) it is much busier than the previous calls.  There can't be any passing trade, so everyone is here because it's a great pub. 

Four handpumps on the counter, I selected Moorhouse's Premier, a rather excellent traditional bitter which I don't think I've tried before. 

Multiple conversations were the main sound in here, I think the rugby might have been audible in the background.  There was some kind of live music going on at the back of the pub, audible when I went to the gents and from the street, but undetectable inside the pub itself. 

Back in the light rain up to Billinge's main street, and in to the aforementioned Billinge Arms:

A hubbub of activity in here with some kind of function going on out the back, but no problem getting served by the efficient busy bar staff, and no problem getting a table inside the main room.

The restaurant at the side has reverted to Italian again, I think, it's called Bellinis.  They also do food in the pub part, I didn't read the menus but the specials board looked very tempting.  I'm not sure if it's part of the same operation?

It is nearly five on a Saturday evening now, and this pub is showing how things should be done, with a continuous stream of customers at the counter keeping the staff busy, plus a regular flow of food coming out of the kitchen. 

I felt a little guilty occupying a whole booth table as the place got busier, but I was here first!

Pub of the day: Masons Arms
Beer of the day: Moorhouse's Premier
Miles walked: 1.7
Maybe coming soon: Cantril Farm, Kirkdale, Southport