SOUTH RIBBLE SCENE
T
his time around we start with news of a pub closure in the South Ribble area. The NABS HEAD at Samlesbury Bottoms closed on March 11th and has subsequently been put up for sale on behalf of Thwaites Brewery with an asking price of £450,000. Described on the Thwaites website as a ‘fantastic country pub’, it was the nearest Thwaites house in our branch area to their brewery site at Mellor Brook. This depressing news highlights the reality that as time goes by Thwaites pubs are becoming more and more of a rarity in our branch area. It was revealed in a recent Ale Cry that there is now just one Thwaites pub remaining in Preston, while already this year there have been reports that the Saddle at Lower Bartle is to be demolished, and that the former Grill & Grain at the Boatyard site at Riley Green is to be redeveloped as offices. Some good news from Leyland is that the OLD LEYLAND GATES on Golden Hill Lane will be re-opening early this Summer. There had been suggestions that the pub may have closed for good, with it not having re-opened since closing for the first Covid lockdown in March 2020. After two years of uncertainty Greene King have recently announced that they will be spending £500,000 to refurbish the pub and bring it back into use. Elsewhere in Leyland the DUNKIRK HALL on Dunkirk Lane has recently had a short period of closure while new tenants were being sought. The pub reopened after some refurbishment work had taken place inside and out, and on a recent visit was found
to be selling Greene King Abbot Ale and Ossett Blonde. A recent newspaper article about Star Inns planned investment in Lancashire pubs mentioned this pub as one where significant future investment could be expected. Also in Leyland, in the last Ale Cry I described the internal changes at the GABLES on Hough Lane, which had seen the central bar removed, with the pub opened up to now comprise one large lounge room. The beer range has been drastically reduced since pre-Covid times, and on a recent visit the only handpumped beer available was Wainwright (warning – this will not be the last you will read of Wainwright in this South Ribble Scene). Some people were worried recently when there were reports that the BEER BOX on Station Road in Bamber Bridge was to be sold off by its present owners. However it is anticipated that there will not be any major changes at this Good Beer Guide listed micropub, with CAMRA Central Lancashire having been informed that it will only be sold to a buyer who will continue to run it in a similar way, or even grow it as a business. If such a buyer cannot be found, then the present owners are saying that they will continue to run the micropub themselves. It’s good to see the return of Beer Festivals in the South Ribble area. Already this year there have been events at NEW LONGTON SPORTS & SOCIAL CLUB and at BAMBER BRIDGE FOOTBALL CLUB, while just ahead of this Ale Cry being produced there will have been a first ever Beer Festival at ST MARY’S COMMUNITY CENTRE in Leyland. Looking ahead, I am aware of plans also being in place for Beer Festivals later in the year at PENWORTHAM CRICKET CLUB and at ST GERARD’S PAROCHIAL CENTRE in Lostock Hall. Finally, as in previous South Ribble Scenes I’m looking in a little more detail at a particular area of the borough. This time it is Walton-le-Dale, a locality that has not been featured for quite some time in these pages. It was a Sunday afternoon in April and this is what was found. Approaching from Preston, I started at the YEW TREE on Victoria Road, these days a pub on its own triangular island
surrounded by three busy roads. The Yew Tree is strongly food oriented, and came across as something of a sports bar with several televisions showing live football. There were three handpumps on the bar, but just one was in use, which I understand to be the usual situation. The beer available was Wainwright priced at £4 a pint. I continued along Victoria Road passing the long closed SIR ROBERT PEEL. The pub still sports a hanging pub sign, but as time goes on the picture of Sir Robert Peel is gradually fading away. Crossing the road the second pub to be visited was the WHITE BULL, a former CAMRA Central Lancashire Pub of the Season and a Good Beer Guide entry as recently as 2019. A pub which has recently undergone a refurbishment, and has been under new management since January. As at the Yew Tree there were three handpumps on the bar, with just one beer available, and again this beer was Wainwright. It used to be that Boddingtons was the popular beer in Walton-le-Dale – now the beer of choice appears to be Wainwright. However I have to say that at £3.10 a pint it was considerably cheaper than at the Yew Tree Next, a short walk and we have the TAPS & WINE BAR on Chorley Road, a relatively new establishment housed in the former Walton-le-Dale Conservative Club premises. Quite a contrast to the first two pubs, I was confronted by a bank of six handpumps, and more importantly five of them were in use on the day. I went for a pint of Blackedge Session Pale, while the other beers available were Blackedge Black, Marble Manchester Bitter, Oscars Top Dog, and you guessed it – Wainwright. This being a Sunday, all beers were specially priced at £2.80 a pint – the Wainwright being a whopping £1.20 a pint cheaper than it had been at the Yew Tree. My final destination was to be THE HUNTERS on Hennel Lane in Walton Park. A Thwaites house, and with many Thwaites pubs still selling their former beer, I was prepared for another appearance of the mighty Wainwright. However in quick succession, I was pleasantly surprised and then unpleasantly disappointed. The three handpumps were showing three interesting beers Thwaites Brit Crop, Thwaites IPA, and Thwaites Gold, but they were also showing that these beers had SOLD OUT. Unfortunately I have to assume that this unsatisfactory situation is a regular occurrence, as two weeks later on a Saturday, I turned up again to give them a second chance, only once more to find that the three handpumps were not in use. Pubs closing. Pubs with no real ale. I’m hoping that future South Ribble Scenes will have better things to report about Thwaites Brewery. GORDON SMALL www.centrallancs.camra.org.uk
Ale Cry
9
