Pub of the Season

The Trafford and Hulme Winter Pub of the season 2018 is the Church, Flixton.

It is a long established and busy community local.   It stands next to the Norman church of St Michael’s and looks very much like a typical country pub, although it is on the fringe of a large and well developed urban area. Over the years the pub has expanded almost seamlessly into adjacent cottages. Inside it is a friendly and busy pub with a variety of different spaces inside, reflecting the small rooms of the original cottages.

Cask ales have always been important at the Church and the present managers, Joanne and Lance Amison make the most of their ability to pick interesting and unusual beers from small independent breweries. On a recent visit the bar featured Blackedge Brewer’s Gold, RedWillow Stateless and Acorn Yorkshire Pride alongside the more mainstream Sharp’s Doom Bar. The beers tend to be of session strength and from North of England breweries but they are never predictable. Card-carrying CAMRA members can claim a 10% discount on cask beers.

They also host a variety of community activities throughout the week. Tuesday is Poker Night. Wednesday is Open Mike Night. There are quizzes on Thursday and Sunday nights.

Don’t miss the pub’s “mystery object”, the so-called Shell. This is a strange and antique piece of ironmongery, attached to the corner formed by the pub wall and the wall of the churchyard. It’s been there for at least a century and is thought to be a deterrent to anyone tempted to use that semi-sacred corner as a pissoir, to borrow a French term.

On Thursday 26th October Trafford and Hulme CAMRA descended to Andrew and the team at Strange Brew Chorlton to present thm with the  "Pub Of The Season Autumn 2017". Here we see John, the Trafford & Hulme CAMRA chairman present the award:-

And here are some of the team basking in the glory.

The Autumn 2017 Pub of the Season is Strange Brew, Chorlton. A smal and friendly bar opposite Chorlton Bus Station. They have four hand pumps and serve a range of beers typically from "Craft" brewers such as Blackjack, Squawk, Ilkley, Thornbridge, & Siren.

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On  Thursday 27th July we visited  the Morley Cheeks for a double presentation. 

The first is as runner up in last year’s Most Improved Pub awards in recognition of the vastly improved selection and quality of its real ale offering since the current management took over.

It has consolidated this status with a range that almost always consists of four real ales including one dark ale, real cider, a new menu and regular events including comedy nights & live music.

Second, but more important was the Pub of The Season award for Summer 2017. Here we see John the Branch Chairman (left) presenting Darren Tute and Natasha Khoury (Tash) with the awards.

Trafford & Hulme branch is delighted to announce that its Spring Pub of the Season is the Quarry Bank, Bloomsbury Lane, Timperley.

This pub has been in the Hydes estate for over 100 years and is believed to have been built by the family in 1914. The first tenant was James Walker who moved into the pub on 23 October 1914. It then spent the next 78 years being run by a member of the same family, still living on the premises, until the end of 1992* when it came back to the Hydes family to find a new licensee.

Dave Kershaw has only been at the Quarry Bank since the beginning of 2016 but he and his team have made a fantastic job of building up their trade and he runs an excellent cellar which showcases the full Hydes range, which also includes the Beer Studio range, together with ever changing guest ales. There are up to eight different cask beers available at any one time. Dave also features the Hydes “Provenance” line which comprises beers brewed with hops from around the world, the current range using hops from America. He also has the “Occasional” series which is beers brewed for special events either in the UK or worldwide. Let’s hope that at the time of our visit we get a beer for St George’s Day. If you have the opportunity to call in on a Monday or Thursday they have their ‘Cask Club’ which enables you to have a pint of any cask beer for £2.10 per pint all day. The kitchen is always open for food and there is still an extensively used bowling green out the back with a fantastic patio area for you to watch the bowling.