I visited one of the two JD Wetherspoon pubs in Wigan (the Moon Under Water) a couple of months ago, but this one is a little further out at just over a mile away from the centre. Today, I managed to get my rail ticket from Glasgow to Shipley to incorporate a two hour period in Wigan to visit the Brocket Arms.
It’s a sizeable place, large beer garden at the front and it looked welcoming.
Some pub history here, the text reads
“This typical post-war public house was built by the brewers Peter Walker of Warrington. It had seven guest rooms, some with television sets, and was officially opened on 10 October 1957 by the company’s chairman, Lord Brocket. The pub is situated on Mesnes (pronounced ‘Mains’) Road. This is a shortened form of ‘demesne’, meaning land retained by the Lord of the Manor, in this case the Rector of Wigan, for his own use.”
An advert from 1991, some interesting marketing going on there and I note that the food is still about the same price 35 years later.
One of the lower price bands in the chain, although the breakfast muffin deal was actually cheaper than advertised here.
I don’t really know why they push these muffins so much, as they’re not very good at them. But, they are only £1 more than the coffee so a cheap and cheerful little meal. I removed that cheese as it felt excessive to the arrangement, but the sausage and egg were as expected, with the lightly toasted muffin. Try to ignore that I managed to have a little spill with the coffee, although that was for reasons beyond my control relating to the stickiness of the table.
It’s a cavernous building inside, there must be hundreds of seats here. The chain opened it in the mid-1990s and there were numerous complaints from locals that the hotel element was left derelict for some years before work was done to re-open the hotel element.
And as my usual meander through the reviews, which are relatively good for the chain, as it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue:
“Never had any issues here. Went tonight and started off nicely. Service is as normal.. we ordered food and drinks on the app, and our friends ordered x3 times for us, they got us some x2 pints, shots and some ice cream (thanks). There was only 2 of us. Every time they’d bring something over they’d slam it down whilst rolling their eyes. Specifically this young girl, quite tall, brown hair, pony tail. Didn’t catch her name, but I’ve never felt so uncomfortable whilst being served in any establishment ive been too. Then I went to order some more food and drinks on the app (as friends arrived at this point to order stuff) and it no longer allowed us or them. Bit strange.. so I asked the same young girl and she said “it’s been turned off” I said “all together or for this table?” She said “just this table, youre playing a game”, I carried on conversating with her nicely as I am usually to anyone in customer service, and this girl just walks on off away from me, mid sentence. I just wanted to understand. So so rude, after all the eye rolling too… a simple answer would have sufficed, but the attitude just made me want to leave and never come back. Bare in mind, i never continued to order anything since the cut off after only 3 orders and that stonking interaction. It just made me not even want to. If it was such a problem, why not my question and tell me and I will understand and carry on ordering and giving you my money appropriately.. but the stinking attitude from the get go just made me want to run from there. And its such a shame as a local.. I can’t say I’ve ever been anywhere where theres young girls with as much as a stonking attitude as this. Times are really changing.. Cause I’m quite positive and couldn’t be more appreciative of service since being in the same industry, so i understand the service they get on the receiving end. But i gave them no reason, i will always smile at you.. but this has taken me a back. Don’t think I’d feel comfortable going there again. That interaction was just plain ignorant and so uncalled for. Especially with the energy i was giving to them. I wish I caught her name.. Rolling your eyes at me like I’m some drunk whose ruined your cornflakes that same morning. I’m just stunned…. Other than that, we would have stayed longer, drinks were okay until they stopped after only 3 different orders, food okay. Service was absolutely nil. Proper ruined my mood#”
I’m a bit with the pub here. This getting team members to go constantly to the tables to deliver stupid items is sub-optimal from their point of view. If the team members look annoyed, it seems to me best to just stop doing it, not get into an argument about it and write about how they’re ignorant.
“Very poor service this evening from this establishment, arrived with my wife and my friend and ordered some food together and drinks for my friends food to arrive before mine and my wife’s the time had past my 20 mins so I asked a member of staff if he knew where the rest of our food order was as our food was now cold due to waiting for ours, the attitude given back was appalling and told us “it is what it is” you’ll just have to wait. At this point I asked to speak to the manager to then be told “I am the manager” we regularly go to all different weatherspoons and the service here shocked us, would avoid this one!”
I’m with the customer here though, I hate it when my food arrives much later as I have to pretend not to look stressed. I like the “it is what it is” approach though….
“The staff don’t speak to anyone and don’t know what their doing with their job. Asked for a hot chocolate and they gave me a powder sachet and told me to go pout some hot water in. It’s very untidy and food is stale.”
Oddly, the two coffee machines here didn’t have hot chocolate, not sure I’ve seen that lack of option at one of the chain’s pubs for some time. Unless there was another coffee machine tucked away somewhere.
“Staff have Poor attitude, serve 14 year and olds but not 15 year olds disgraceful”
I’m guessing this reviewer was 15.
A lot of the negative reviews (about 85% of them on TripAdvisor) are about parking fines which have been issued, I’m not sure why they’d have a problem with people parking here but it’s clearly something of an issue and there are numerous angry customers. The venue is a hotel as well as a bar, which I imagine makes matters more complex if there’s limited spaces.
It was too early for beer (which is also why I didn’t visit any Good Beer Guide pubs when I was here), but they had Sharp’s Doom Bar, Greene King Abbot, Thornbridge Jaipur, Hawkshead Lakeland Gold and Peerless Langton Spin, all of which were priced at the bargain £1.99 for a pint. Anyway, this is a standard JD Wetherspoon venue, nothing overly exciting of note but it’s cheap and cheerful.
