0Νότια Pennines Real Ale Trail

Πρόσφατα, μια ομάδα φίλων και πήγα για το South Pen­nines Real Ale Trail. This is the same Ale Trail that fea­tured on Oz and James Drink to Bri­tain. Πριν υπεισέλθω σε λεπτομέρειες, a quick sum­mary — we all had an excel­lent day, και να απολαμβάνουν μια καλή λίγες μπίρες.

Διαδρομή

Αποφασίσαμε να ξεκινήσει στα τέλη του Leeds της γραμμής και το έργο το δρόμο μας προς Μάντσεστερ. Υπάρχουν 8 στάσεις κατά μήκος του τρόπου, and as we were intend­ing to have at least 1 drink at each we had to care­fully plan our times so we did­n’t miss the last train home. ΕΝΑ South Pen­nines Day Ranger (για £ 19) cov­ers all the jour­ney, και στην περίπτωσή μας, also covered our jour­neys to and from Shef­field. For a handy quick-ref­er­ence to each pub I’d recom­mend print­ing a copy of this ale trail fly­er και google map μου από τις θέσεις των σιδηροδρομικών δρομολογίων και παμπ.

ΧΡΟΝΟΔΙΑΓΡΑΜΜΑ

The ser­vice required for the ale trail is oper­ated by North­ern Trains and is called the Hud­der­sfield Route Υπάρχουν 2 dif­fer­ent train ser­vices required, each cov­ers half the route and both run to Hud­der­sfield. The first is the Leeds — Dews­bury — Mir­field — Hud­der­sfield ser­vice which stops at Cot­tingley, Mor­ley, Bat­ley, Dews­bury, Raven­sthorpe, Mir­field, Deighton and Hud­der­sfield, and the second is the Hud­der­sfield — Ashton-under-Lyne — Manchester Vic­tor­ia ser­vice which stops at Slaithewaite, Marsden, Green­field, Moss­ley, Sta­lybridge, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Vic­tor­ia. Both of these ser­vices run once every 60 minutes. ο Hud­der­sfield Line Timetable cov­ers both these services.

Για να αποθηκεύσετε ένα κομμάτι του χρόνου, we did­n’t fol­low the route in a straight-through fash­ion as we did­n’t want to spend a full hour in each pub. We star­ted by trav­el­ling from Leeds to Dews­bury, before trav­el­ling back towards Leeds to Bat­ley. We then headed back towards Manchester but bypassed Dews­bury (όπου είχαμε ήδη) and went from Bat­ley straight to Mir­field. Αν και αυτό μας έσωσε μόνο 34 λεπτά στο μονοπάτι ale, it allowed us to catch a later train from Shef­field to Leeds (A Cross Coun­try ser­vice which only takes 41 λεπτά σε Λιντς)

οι παμπ

The Ale Trail web­site lists a pub for each stop, but hav­ing done part of the Ale Trail before, Ήξερα ότι υπήρχε περισσότερο από 1 παμπ για να επιλέξουν από σε κάθε στάση. Below I will cov­er all the pubs I am aware of

Λιντς

Weth­er­spoons
Loc­a­tion: 100m from the plat­form in the station.
Τροφή: Ναί, stand­ard Weth­er­spoons menu
Οι σκέψεις μας: We did­n’t vis­it here due to time — plus of course we’ve all been to a Weth­er­spoons before.

Batley

The Cel­lar Bar
Loc­a­tion: 60m from the plat­form on the far side of the sta­tion car park.
Τροφή: Αγνωστος
Οι σκέψεις μας: The Cel­lar Bar looks like it might be rather dis­ap­point­ing from the out­side (δηλ. it looks like a typ­ic­al football+carling bar) αλλά μια φορά στο εσωτερικό του φιλικό προσωπικό, excel­lent beers and res­id­ent cat give a much bet­ter impres­sion. Between our group we had Saltaire Blonde and Cop­per Dragon Golden Pip­pin, δύο από τα οποία ήταν εξαιρετική

Dewsbury

West Rid­ing Refresh­ment Rooms
Loc­a­tion: In the sta­tion with dir­ect access from plat­form 1
Τροφή: Μενού εξαρτάται από την ημέρα. On Sat­urdays there is an Ale Day Break­fast from 10am — 4pm
Οι σκέψεις μας: The West Rid­ing has a great interi­or, and lots of drink­ers mem­or­ab­il­ia. It also has an excel­lent selec­tion of beer, and does a great sound­ing break­fast. Our only com­plaint was how busy it gets. At mid­day it felt more like mid­night, abso­lutely rammed full of people who’d obvi­ously star­ted very early and were already drunk enough to be very loud. It was­n’t unfriendly drunk, every­one was jolly, but when you’re hav­ing your first pint of the day its nice to sit down and have a gentle nat­ter at a nor­mal volume!

Mirfield

The Nav­ig­a­tion Tavern
Loc­a­tion: 300m from the plat­form. Περπατήστε κάτω από το δρόμο από το χώρο στάθμευσης αυτοκινήτων, turn right and go under the rail­way. Πάρτε το πρώτο αριστερά μετά το πέρασμα κάτω από τη σιδηροδρομική.
Τροφή: Οχι
Οι σκέψεις μας: This was one of my favour­ite pubs. The interi­or is dated, but each time I’ve been there has been room to sit and quick ser­vice. There is also an extens­ive selec­tion of ales so what’s not to like! Υπάρχουν αντλίες χέρι-τράβηγμα στη γραμμή, and more handles with labels above the bar — these labels are for the beers that are avail­able on the back bar! Don’t make the mis­take that some of our party made of assum­ing the selec­tion is lim­ited to the pumps on the front bar. If in doubt — ask!

Χάντερσφιλντ

Επικεφαλής του Steam
Loc­a­tion: In the sta­tion with dir­ect access from plat­form 1. Προς το νοτιοδυτικό άκρο του σταθμού.
Τροφή: Ναί. ΕΝΑ very good selec­tion σερβίρεται μέχρι τις 21:00. We ate here and were very impressed with the qual­ity of food and speed of service.
Οι σκέψεις μας: We much pre­ferred the head of steam to the kings head. Το φαγητό, όπως σημειώνεται παραπάνω, Ήταν καλό. There were a couple of neg­at­ives though, τόσο σχετικές με το προσωπικό. The first was when we looked to get a table in the buf­fet room we were told only those people in our party who were eat­ing could sit in there, οπότε στην πραγματικότητα μας είπαν να χωρίσει το κόμμα μας μέχρι. We chose instead to eat in the bar part of the pub which was­n’t a prob­lem. The second issue was with one of the bar staff delib­er­ately ignor­ing one mem­ber of our party when she was at the bar. Δεν υπήρχε κανένας άλλος στο μπαρ κατά τη χρονική στιγμή, and as soon as one of the oth­er mem­bers of our party went to the bar instead they got ser­vice. It is our belief that the reas­on for the ini­tial non-ser­vice was related to eth­nic back­ground. How­ever, I would prefer to think that it was an inno­cent acci­dent. On the pos­it­ive side the beer was excel­lent. I had a Saltaire Rasp­berry Blonde which was by far the best fruit beer I’ve ever had. It had a deli­cious taste of rasp­berry without being sickly and sweet like most fruit beers.

Kings Head (FKA The Sta­tion Tavern)
Loc­a­tion: In the sta­tion in the “East Wing”
Τροφή: Οχι
Οι σκέψεις μας: The Kings Head has a good selec­tion of Ales, but des­pite being grade 1 lis­ted is dis­ap­point­ing in terms of decor and comfort.

Slaithwaite

The Com­mer­cial
Loc­a­tion: 300m from the plat­form. Leave the plat­form into the car park. κάνετε μια 180 τη σειρά και να πάει κάτω από το μικρό δρόμο από το χώρο στάθμευσης αυτοκινήτων. Στο κεντρικό δρόμο λάβει μια σκληρή δεξιά και να πάει κάτω από το λόφο. Fol­low the curve of the road to the left. At the round­about the pub is on the near left corner.
Τροφή: Οχι
Οι σκέψεις μας: We were a bit dis­ap­poin­ted with the com­mer­cial which is billed as an ale pub and wine bar. It was­n’t a good start when our pints of ale were served in skiffs, espe­cially as my bet­ter half’s Lager-Shandy was served in a prop­er glass — Surely the wrong way round! I asked the bar­man to recom­mend a Pale Ale and was presen­ted with what I was told was a loc­ally brewed pale ale. I was­n’t giv­en the name, but I believe it was “Com­mer­ciale”. I would like to recom­mend people avoid it — it was quite eggy and very dis­ap­point­ing, Δεν βοήθησε από την σκίφ καμία αμφιβολία. This is not the sort of exper­i­ence I expect from a “CAMRA pub of the year 2009” so maybe we were just unlucky?

το Swan
Loc­a­tion: 550m from the plat­form. Βορειοανατολικός.
Τροφή: Οχι
Οι σκέψεις μας: The swan is owned by the same people as the Com­mer­cial, and is fur­ther from the sta­tion. As a res­ult we chose not to visit.

Marsden

The River­head Brew­ery Tap & Din­ing Room
Loc­a­tion: 300m from the plat­form. Go past “the rail­way” pub and fol­low the main road to the bot­tom of the hill. Πήγαινε πάνω από τον ποταμό. Η παμπ αντιμετωπίζει το ποτάμι στα δεξιά.
Τροφή: Ναί, λεπτομέρειες άγνωστο
Οι σκέψεις μας: The River­head is owned by Ossett brew­ery, and as expec­ted, προσέφερε μια καλή επιλογή από μπίρες. It has a lovely set­ting right next to the river Col­ne. Whilst sat in the right hand half of the pub you get a great view into the brew­ery room which is always interesting.

The Tun­nel End Inn
Loc­a­tion: 800m from plat­form. Leave the sta­tion, turn right and right again to cross the rail­way. Turn left and fol­low Red­dish­er Road due West. Η παμπ βρίσκεται στη δεξιά πλευρά μετά από 650 μέτρα.
Τροφή: Ναί
Οι σκέψεις μας: Unfor­tu­nately the Tun­nel End Inn is tem­por­ar­ily closed. Hope­fully it will reopen soon as it sounds like one of the best poten­tial pubs on the trail

Greenfield

Rail­way Inn
Loc­a­tion: 50m from plat­form, on oppos­ite side of the road
Τροφή: We did­n’t enquire, αλλά πιστεύω ότι υπάρχουν κρεατόπιτες διαθέσιμη.
Οι σκέψεις μας: The Rail­way Inn had a slightly less extens­ive selec­tion of ales than most of the oth­er pubs. When we vis­ited the only ales avail­able were Deuchars, Cop­per Dragon and Bom­bardier. The lim­ited selec­tion aside this was a decent pub, και ήταν ωραίο να είναι σε θέση να πάρετε ένα τραπέζι αρκετά εύκολα.

Stalybridge

Sta­lybridge BuffetBar
Loc­a­tion: Dir­ect access from plat­form, στο σταθμό
Τροφή: Οχι
Οι σκέψεις μας: Ένα πολύ μακρύ λεπτό παμπ, γεγονός που κατέστησε δύσκολο να μπει σε. Μόλις κάναμε τον τρόπο μας μέσα από τα πλήθη ήμασταν σε θέση να βρείτε ένα τραπέζι στο άλλο άκρο. The selec­tion of beer was good but by this point we’d lost interest in mak­ing many notes. I do remem­ber some inter­est­ing pic­tures on the walls how­ever. I think this would have been one of our favour­ites if it had been less busy, και είχαμε ήταν πιο νηφάλια!

Μάντσεστερ

We did­n’t go as far as Manchester, but there are doub­less pubs near the sta­tion if not in it.