4 August 2010

The end of the world as we know it.  Almost beneath the Welcome to Bury sign (but definitely on the Bolton side) is the Stopes Tavern, a pub rarely visited by the Bolton Camra regulars taking part in the survey, but one which is a pleasant and traditional multi-roomed venue serving a delicious pint of Bank Top Flat Cap.  It provided the perfect start to the Little Lever pub survey, where we were joined by two members from the neighbouring Rochdale, Oldham and Bury branch.
The next stop was a brief one at the Queen Anne, a landmark building which has a cask ale-supporting landlord who does serve Thwaites Original and Wainwright, but sadly not on the Wednesday that we were in!
The next leg on the survey was the longest of the night, passing the cask-free Canary Tavern and Church Inn and the closed Three Crowns, to Henighans.  The modern open plan room seemed rather soulless on a quiet Wednesday night but the Bank Top Flat Cap was again well served.
Around the corner is the New Inn where TV screens are found in every corner, including the one set round the back in the smokers garden.  Probably the best pint of the night for me though in the Moorhouses Pride of Pendle.  The permanent bitter was the seemingly ubiquitous Bank Top Flat Cap, also in decent form. The last stop was the Jolly Carter where there was the widest range of ales on offer.  Unfortunately the Timothy Taylor Landlord wasn’t quite ready, but the Bank Top Bad to the Bone provided a reasonable alternative.  I didn’t sample the Morland Old Speckled Hen, which reports suggested was a little ripe.
All the cask pubs we sampled served LocAle beers of a good standard and, although it would have been nice to try a wider range of styles and some beers from, say, the Bury breweries, all in all it was an enjoyable survey of an area most of us hadn’t been to for many years.

CONTRIBUTOR – Graham Walsh, Bolton CAMRA

Little Lever Pub Survey