Some odds and ends need mopping up so I took the train to Newton-le-Willows. I started in Stocks Tavern:
Five years ago it was keg only here so I was startled to see three handpumps on the counter and selected a pale one and sat down. Only three quid. Unfortunately it was very vinegary. I returned to the counter. "Has it gone" the friendly barmaid/landlady asked. "I'll replace it". One of the other pumps produced only froth, the other mud. "Sorry, you're out of luck". She explained she'd been off for a few days. So I had a Madri instead.
I think this pub has been done up since I was last here, it feels different. Very pleasant decor with a dark green theme.
To the landlady's credit by the time I was half way down my lager the clips were off, then there was the clank of casks from the cellar and a lot of pulling through. She was still working when I left - I almost felt I ought to stay for a pint of cask, but I have other fish to fry, I mean pubs to tick.
So, over the road to the Kirkfield Tap:
I noticed the name on the sign is now Kirkfield Tap. This has always been a bit of an unusual place because basically it is a residential hotel, but for some years the hotel bar has welcomed non residents and, more importantly, offered excellent real ales.
As indeed they were today. I had a pale fruity one from a brewery I've never heard of, and it was very good. Actually it was nearly as muddy as the failed beer over the road, but this one was supposed to be and it was delicious.
The drinking space in here is in a number of little rooms, the one I was in had five small tables, of which three were occupied.
I wonder where the gents is in this higgledy-piggledy interior...
Next, it's a mile or so to my next destination, but it isn't open yet so maybe a non-required pub first? The Victoria:
A very large pleasant two sided pub, this. I don't think anything has changed in the two and a half years since I was last here. No real ale, as expected, I had Strongbow for a change.
I think my fondness for factory cider is growing, soon to match factory lager favourite Carling. From a health point of view as a diabetic, I should stick to the lager which has a lot less sugar in.
Only two other customers at three on a Thursday, they were sitting at the counter and chatting with the barmaid.
I was pleased to note that on a chilly November day this room was comfortably warm, as were the previous two pubs. I know from experience that pubs struggling to make ends meet will turn down the heating, always a mistake in my view; people won't come back if it's cold. Mind you, I was in a chilly Wetherspoon yesterday evening, probably incompetence rather than money saving in their case.
Now just a short walk to a pub/restaurant not visited since 2018, the Wargrave Hacienda:
The first time I came here, in 2010, it was a pleasant ordinary boozer called the Wargrave Inn. When I returned in 2018 it had just gone Mexican and was in the process of being refurbished inside. Will it be open? Will it be just a restaurant nowadays?
Happily yes and no. The bar end had a number of regulars, while the restaurant part was deserted, perhaps unsurprisingly at four o'clock on a Thursday.
At a glance there didn't seem to be any Mexican options on tap, so I just had Carling.
In here it is pleasingly warm again, I hope they get some food customers later. This place deserves to do well, I feel.
I need to be mindful of the one train an hour back home, I might walk past a non required pub in order to catch a train home, so the Sunbeam, last visited in 2024, will have to wait until a subsequent visit. Imagine how annoyed I'll be if it closes down!!
Not bad for a Thursday; three required ticks and one more, so I don't need to visit Wargrave for another five years.
Beer of the day: The pale one in the Kirkfield
Miles walked: 2.3
Merseyside pubs visited in the last five years: 1,034
Maybe coming soon: Undecided.
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