News & Features

The branch was extremely sorry to hear that landlord Steve Crook has left The City Arms in Kennedy Street.

Earlier in the year, Steve suffered a serious back injury which has seen him unable to work in the cellar since. Unfortunately, his recovery from this injury has taken a lot longer than doctors originally predicted which has ultimately led to his departure from the pub where he has been for eight years, the latter four as manager.

Perhaps it is fitting that one of the final accolades of his tenure was the pub being named Trafford & Hulme Branch Pub of The Year for 2014. In an unfortunate turn of events, shortly after Steve left the pub, Max Sheen who has been covering some of the cellar duties during Steve's incapacitation also departed.   Thankfully continuity is assured as Jenny McHugh remains at the pub.  Jenny has been the linchpin holding the pub together since January.  The new manager of the City Arms is David Pattinson who has previous experience at the Britons Protection and Town Hall Tavern. David has vowed to continue business as usual.

We wish Steve all the best for the future and Dave good luck with his new charge. 

Below is the itinerary for the Sale Stroll 2014, our annual wander round the many hostelries of Sale which offer real ales. This year the Stroll will take place on Saturday 20th September. Everybody is invited to join us - either for the whole day or just pop in and out when you are free.

Sale has a great variety of pubs from major chains to small independent free houses so will make for a varied day out.

While the forthcoming reopening of The Orange Tree is great news, elsewhere in Altrincham things aren't so good with no fewer than three pubs closing in recent months.

First to go was The Victoria on Stamford Street - primarily a restaurant in recent years but one that maintained a handpump on the bar and served a decent enough pint of Old Speckled Hen - it has been up for sale since February but remained open until June since when it has appeared closed. Now change of use application has been submitted by "Small Corporate Financial Planning".

The Victoria was followed by The Conservative Working Men's Club on Greenwood Street (not to be confused with the Conservative Club just on the other side of the market hall) which is closed and marked for sale.

Finally, the King George on Moss Lane near Altrincham FC took to twitter on 10th July to announce "Deeply sorry we have had to close but it was inevitable. Thanks to all #regulars #staff and real folk at #jwlees. I hope we stay in touch"

There was surprise in the twittersphere and beyond at closing time on July 5th when cryptic posts from Manchester's Odder Bar on both twitter & Facebook announced #EndOfAnEra.

As the dust settled over the next day or two, it became apparent that the seemingly popular Oxford Road Bar & club had been sold and closed with just one day's notice leaving a number of event promoters looking for other venues.

Trafford & Hulme CAMRA had been aware that the bar had been on the market for a number of months but the sudden closure came as a surprise. A planning application published shortly after the closure suggested that premises are set to become a Costa Coffee. Some staff have been relocated to the other bars in the Odd Group - Manchester's Odd & The Blue Pig and Chorlton's Oddest.