Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Manchester Weekend

Manchester Trip : Quarry Bank Mill (Part Two)

I’ll have to upload these photos as a job lot as I can’t really add a great deal of context to them (it might surprise my two loyal blog readers, but my knowledge of industrial equipment isn’t perfect to say the least), but they were what turned the cotton into clothing and other items at the mill.

The volunteers turned a lot of these machines on and they’re not the quietest things. I can only begin to imagine what the noise must have been like when all of the machines were running at full capacity. It’s no surprise that many people working here lost their hearing. Some of the machinery isn’t actually from the mill, but has been brought here to show the sort of industrial equipment that was here.

Some videos of the equipment (and Richard).

An apprentice’s indenture.

A wage cup from the mill, this is how everyone received their pay.

The toilet facilities at the mill for the workers.

The main waterwheel here is enormous, of a quite breathtaking size, but it was hard to get a photo of it to show just how substantial it was. This is the original wheel pit when they had a smaller waterwheel in operation.

I did manage to get a video of the waterwheel though from the side.

Liam likes engineering projects.

In April 1847, the original 1818 shaft was found to be cracked and so it was replaced with this new iron shaft. It was repaired in 1873 and taken out of usage in 1904.

Richard then bought a load of fabrics from the shop, although Liam and I resisted such temptations.

And with that, we all had to think of getting home. Richard went off in one direction, Ross and Liam in another, but not before they dropped me off at Manchester Airport’s free drop-off car park. For the observant, this is where my little series of posts about Berlin started….. Anyway, this was a quite marvellous weekend and excellent company, I’m looking forwards to the 2025 expedition which I think is to Cardiff.

January 6, 2025
Manchester Trip : Quarry Bank Mill (Part One)

On a wet Sunday afternoon in November, we needed something to occupy ourselves for a couple of hours. A National Trust site with one of the largest waterwheels in Europe seemed like just the ticket and it wasn’t far away to drive. Fortunately, I got in free with my National Trust pass, Ross got in on that as well, with Liam having his family membership. Richard came along as well with his own specially purchased ticket and we were ready to walk in the rain for a while.

As a background to this site, it’s at its heart about cotton production during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the centre of the site stands the impressive mill itself, built in 1784 and an important part of the industrial revolution. It was established by Samuel Greg, who used the River Bollin to power the water wheel, and his family kept it going into the twentieth century. The challenges were obvious in the Victorian period with more competition and the site struggled to maintain profitability. By 1939, it was realised that the site wouldn’t be profitable and Alexander Carlton Greg took the decision to donate the site and the surrounding estate to the National Trust.

We had a limited amount of time and so we focused on visiting the mill which is the main part of the site. There was plenty of walking in the parkland and estates, but we didn’t have time and it was pouring with rain anyway, but there is more to see here than we did. Above is the counting house, part of the mill manager’s offices, where the money was handed to workers.

And this is the hatch view that the workers would have had when collecting their money. At its peak, there were 250 people working here, so it was a sizeable operation.

The manager’s office. We decided Richard would like this decadence.

This was more Ross, Liam and me…..

And there’s Liam.

Some cotton and the process was explained, effectively its a matter of harvesting it, then ginning it (separately the cotton fibre from the seeds), then cleaning it (by carding and combing) and then spinning and weaving it.

And a cotton plant. The whole cotton industry was an essential part of the industrial revolution, with the spinning jenny, water frame and power loom being developed as part of the process. There was an enormous demand for cotton products both nationally and internationally, with colonies exploited to secure the raw material and then they were used as markets for the finished material.

The next part of the museum were the working machines, but that will require its own page as I took numerous videos as well as photos. Ooooh, the anticipation…..

January 2, 2025
Manchester Trip : Great Central JD Wetherspoon Pub

Another complete absence of photos here, I really must have been distracted during this weekend. Anyway, we weren’t quite sure where to go for breakfast, so for the 592nd time in a row, we decided to go to a JD Wetherspoon pub and we opted for this one in the Fallowfield area. The breakfast is on the lowest price tier here, so a traditional breakfast and coffee came to under £4.40. Bargain.

The pub name does rather sound like this is a central Manchester pub, but it’s located a couple of miles to the south of the city. The chain gives the reason for the pub name:

“The railway reached Fallowfield in 1891, with its station opening on 1 October. The following May, the Great Central Railway line was extended to Sheffield. Edward Watkin, its general manager, wanted to link Manchester/Sheffield with the expanding continental European markets. The station closed to passengers in July 1958, but the railway line stayed for 30 years, used by freight trains. This pub is on the ground floor of a retail/residential block over the railway lines.”

The pub felt a little generic in terms of the building, it’s not historic and so there’s a limited amount I can imagine they could do. The service was though friendly and we were able to sit near to the coffee machine and also near a power point, so that was a win as far as I was concerned. I don’t get out much….. The breakfast was as expected, I’d like crispier bacon, but I’m not going to complain when the breakfast is £3 and especially when I got a runny egg just as I like it.

The on-line reviews are generally positive and towards the upper end of the scale for a JD Wetherspoon outlet. Talking of breakfast requirements though, they got a 1/5 review stating::

“Raw bacon and sloppy egg, never will I dine here again, kitchen staff are teenagers that don’t care, avoid at all costs”

I can see from the photo that the egg and bacon are cooked as I would expect, so you can never please everyone. On which subject, Richard had his Eggs Benedict to show off his wealth to the staff and I think he was content with it.

“Divert this place. Staff are unfriendly and never smile, people rolling around on the floor which I take are regulars. A drunk pensioner was still getting served after falling over three times”

This is the sort of thing that my friend Julian positively looks out for in a pub as he likes a bit of excitement.

“Fight broke out, no bouncer there to break it up. Went on for about 5 minutes before glasses started to get thrown. Had smashed glass hit he on the back and land in my drink before having to head for an emergency exit. The positioning of the emergency exits is ridiculous there was no way to exit the building without passing uncomfortably close to the fighting. Disgusting that this happened at 8pm there was a baby sat at the table across from us. Never again.”

I think that’s a bit too much drama even for Julian.

“Terrible..the staff were very rude and refused to serve a group of pensioners but would give no reasons only they had drank enough..they only had 2 each. They were there to have a family celebration celebrating there brothers 70th birthday ..absolutely disgusted”

I can imagine numerous reasons why and I can imagine they were justified….

“Put the wrong table number manger very unhelpful would not replace the drinks even though we had spent about a £150 that night”

Don’t put the wrong table number 🙂 I’ve never done it, although I remember when Richard ordered to the wrong pub.

“Nothing more than a glorified old pub”

Seems a positive to me, but it came with a 1/5 star review.

“The atmosphere seemed interesting so I sat there and asked if it was possible to eat there, which was confirmed to me. After 30 minutes of waiting feeling like I was invisible, I ended up going elsewhere. Obviously very disappointing.”

I see these from time to time, this was a French customer (well, the review was in French, so I’m making a logical conclusion here) and they were expecting table service.

“There is no window and the air is too bad”

This is a review in Chinese, and I can confirm that there are windows….

“Visited this bar as we were flying from Manchester airport next day , stood waiting to be served drinks at bar for 20 mins at least only to be told they only serve from the middle …….. The bar staff are ignorant and only serve people first that face fits , we then eventually found a seat as to order food only to be greeted by the none smiling miserable faced barmaid we had earlier , I ordered burgers only to be told there were none left and if I need to go back and ask my girlfriend what other food she would like I would lose my place and have to stand again in line in the middle . I ordered something different and yes it was brought relatively quickly for this reason only I give two stars , my honest opinion is if your 25 and under them yes this is the place for you only because you go to college or university with the staff , me I’m 48 and was made to look like a fool when the barmaid talked down to me , obviously wasn’t brought up with good manners .”

Customer thinks staff are ignorant. Customer is confused why they don’t engage back.

Anyway, I digress. We had a little debate about where to go next and it was unanimously decided by me that we should go to a National Trust property. Everyone seemed very pleased.

January 2, 2025
Manchester Trip : Seven Brothers Taproom in Salford (and Richard’s Uber Score)

Let’s start this post with a little story. I’m not really a taxi person, I think I’ve got a taxi (that I’ve paid for) around ten times in my life as I find them expensive, scary to order and just generally not something I need. However, Richard is very decadent and so uses them a lot. I mentioned in passing that you can see what score Uber drivers have given you as a customer in the app, and my rating is of course 5. Richard rushed to the app to check that his rating was 5, but it transpired to be much lower. I reassured Richard that they were likely just marking him down on his personality and not to take it personally, but I think he did. Anyway, with that bombshell, Richard booked us a taxi to take us all to Salford and tried his best to be extra nice to the taxi driver in an attempt to salvage his ailing rating.

Our hotel was in Salford, so we headed for the Seven Brothers taproom. I’m a fan of their beers, they’ve produced some intriguing and interesting flavoured pales, so I was pleased that we were able to visit here.

Ooooh, this looked appealing and I do sometimes feel like a kid in a candy shop when presented with choices such as this. I’d tried several of these beers before and I’ll note here just how good their honeycomb pale ale is.

This is the cleverly named Currant Affairs from Seven Brothers. It’s a fruity beer, blackcurrant to the fore and suitably sour.

I mentioned the honeycomb pale ale which I’ve had before, but this is the chocolate honeycomb stout. Like a liquid crunchie, the flavour of this was delicious, but for a 5.5% ABV beer I thought it was a little thin, but the aftertaste was decent.

This is yet another very well reviewed bar and our experiences were no different. The team members were friendly and knowledgeable, there was an excellent range of beers and the pricing was reasonable. The brewery name is actually Seven Bro7hers, but it always looks wrong when I type that, so I’ll stick with not adding a number into the middle of the word. There are actually seven brothers who set up the brewery, the McAvoy family, and they explain their reasoning for establishing it:

“The gateway brewery to craft beer. We brew and sell beer to those wanting to leave behind tasteless lagers for craft beer full of flavour, but struggle with confusing branding. We aspire to make your entry into the craft beer world fun and easy by being ‘clear with beer‘.”

Seems reasonable.

And then we walked back to the hotel, another really rather lovely day. Łukasz and Simon went off to do their own thing the following morning as one wanted a lie-in and the other needed to get back to London. But, not to fear, there are a few more posts in this series left, as there were still four of us left on the Sunday…..

January 2, 2025
Manchester Trip : Bardez – Indian Street Food and Grill (Rusholme)

One bus journey from the city centre later, we arrived at Bardez in Rusholme. This is an Indian restaurant that has managed to secure a Google review rating of 4.8, something that’s really quite impressive. Our table was ready for us on arrival, which was handy as I was hungry, and everything looked modern, clean and well presented. I also noticed that the operators are from Goz and have the surname D’Souza, and although I doubt that Liam knew that when booking, perhaps he was naturally drawn to the restaurant.

Back to the food. They didn’t serve poppadoms in the traditional manner, but suggested one bowl of mini versions between six of us. I think we had to up the order to four of them, of which one stayed miraculously close to me for proceedings. Unfortunately, as I was distracted, we have another blog post with an absence of useful photos (although I remembered the food and beer), although I suspect that we’ll all cope with that and my two loyal blog readers will have to use their power of imagination.

I normally go for mango lassi as my drink of choice (craft beer isn’t a huge thing in Indian cuisine, although that situation is getting better, so until then mango lassi is something of a liquid soulmate for me) , but beer seemed to be the order of the day here. I went for the Bardez house beer and this mysterious brew wasn’t listed on Untappd, which, let’s be honest, basically means it doesn’t exist. However, it was crisp and light, so it met its objectives as being a complement to the food. The Chicken Chetinaad curry was rich in taste and the peshwari naan had a pleasant taste. Although they didn’t serve my favourite coconut rice, the basmati rice was light and fluffy. The portion size of the whole arrangement was decent, so I left full which always feels like a desirable state of affairs.

Łukasz, bless his cotton socks, is one of those people who could find a reason to smile during a zombie apocalypse. Seriously, the guy radiates sunshine like he’s swallowed a lightbulb and it can get a bit much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely quality… in small doses. But sometimes, you just want to wallow in your own grumpiness without someone bouncing around like a hyperactive Tigger, but there we go…. Anyway, as per usual, I’ve developed a convenient case of amnesia when it comes to everyone else’s opinions on their meals. My brain is like a sieve when it comes to remembering anything beyond my own immediate needs (mostly food-related, if I’m honest). But there were no complaints from Richard, no hurled plates, and no dramatic walkouts, so I’m going to assume everyone was content so let’s chalk that up as a win.

There is another Bardez in Didsbury and the whole operation felt slick and well managed. The service was timely, personable and the order was entirely accurate which meant that not even Richard had anything to complain about. Definitely recommended as a location and I can see why they’ve secured such positive reviews.

January 2, 2025
Manchester Trip : Port Street Beer House

The next venue on the list that Simon and I thought would be a good idea to visit is the Port Street Beer House. They’ve been open since 2011 and they have 18 keg lines and 7 cask lines, a balance that sounds just about right to me. It’s also no surprise given this heritage that the pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another one for my list.

This was a busy venue, although we found ourselves a place to stand. This is the Sun Goes Down mild from Thornbridge Brewery and this wasn’t as good as I had hoped for, it was too light and had a slight taste of charcoal. However, it’s always positive to see a mild on a menu.

Apologies for the finger in the way of the lens here, but this beer didn’t disappoint. It’s the Double Crumble – Apple, Blueberry and Maple from Pastore Brewing, and this surprised and delighted. Lots of maple, a bit of fruit and a creamy mouthfeel, just as I like a sour to be.

Richard treated himself to a fruited pale, the Specialist in the Field from Farm Yard Brew Co. I’m glad he bought it, it had a bit of a zing to put it mildly, but I didn’t find much depth of flavour in the whole arrangement. By this time we had gone hunting for a table and Łukasz has found one outside which was wet, but obstacles such as this don’t stop him. I don’t think the Polish are known for letting wet benches from getting in the way of their drinking.

This is a popular bar and judging from the positive on-line reviews, it’s a really well run operation. Where they get negative reviews, they’re like this:

“I used to come here regularly, but the last time I was there, they didn’t accept my legal tender (only card payments). This is unacceptable behaviour, and I do hope it’s now corrected. If so, I’ll change this review.”

I can’t imagine the bar shed many tears over this and it’s a reminder that cash isn’t king, but I won’t go down that line. There were some interesting beers available and the whole beer menu felt well curated. I would have preferred it to be quieter so we could get a table, but the reality is that it’s a popular and interesting place which I’m glad is doing well. And of course, it’s a worthy entrant into the Good Beer Guide.

January 1, 2025
Manchester Trip : Hover Force (Additional Video)

Liam has sent this video following my blog post earlier, but more to come to surprise my two loyal blog readers….

December 31, 2024
Manchester Trip : Fierce Bar

After our bravery earlier in the day on hovercrafts and with Łukasz back in tow, I thought that we needed a drink or three. Fierce are a Scottish brewery from Aberdeen, but they have this outpost in Manchester and it was a fiercely busy location when we visited (see what I did there?). Some tempting options were visible on the screen.

That’s the Rhubarb from Fierce Beer, which I thought was a little thin but it wasn’t overly sweet and the flavour was pleasant.

The heavy hitting Very Big Moose 2024 – Two Year Bourbon Edition from Fierce Beer, a boozy bourbon, but not a rich mouthfeel although the flavour was decent. I suspect I pinched this from Richard to try, as I wouldn’t have ordered that much myself.

This is the Very Big Moose 2024 – Maple & Hazelnut Edition from Fierce Beer, another boozy number which was smooth although it wasn’t as rich as I’d like and it didn’t have the depth of flavour. But, as I noted on Untappd, perhaps I like in your face with beers rather than soft and subtle.

This was my favourite beer that they had, the Dirty Sanchez from Fierce Beer which is a chilli stout. A very nice spicy kick here and although I accept that it’s not a beer style for everyone, it works for me.

The Cheery Cola Sour from Fierce Beer, which had a sour and sweet flavour, bang on the money here.

Full on flavour with the Apple Pie from Fierce Beer, lots of apple and toffee flavour, slightly decadent even.

We were fortunate to get a table for our group and we didn’t rush this experience, given the number of interesting beers that were available. Service was efficient, the atmosphere was welcoming and the team members were friendly and knowledgeable. Prices are reasonable for a city centre craft beer bar and we all agreed (well, I did) how brave I’d been all day long.

December 31, 2024
Manchester Trip : The Sedge Lynn – JD Wetherspoon

This is one of the more attractive buildings operated by JD Wetherspoon, the Sedge Lynn located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

I’ll use the JD Wetherspoon history:

“This pub was originally a billiards hall, built in c1907 on a field sandwiched between a house called Sedge Lynn (demolished to make way for a cinema) and Red Gate Farm. Now a grade II listed building, the original billiards hall (and others like this one, in and around Manchester and south London) was erected to remove billiards from its usual setting of the public house and to further the aims of the Temperance Movement. The Chorlton hall was designed by Norman Evans, company architect from 1906 to 1910. It is believed to be the most complete of his designs to survive in the Manchester area.”

The chain has a different carpet in every pub and this is one of the best that I’ve seen with a considerable nod to their billiards past. I’m not entirely sure what the local members of the temperance movement of the time would have thought of their building becoming a pub, but there we go.

In one of the lowest price bands that the chain have, the breakfast was £3.14 and the unlimited coffee was £1.04, this met my financial and food needs nicely. Richard had Eggs Benedict as he’s more decadent and Ross had fruit for reasons unknown, but Liam and I didn’t judge. The egg was runny, a breakfast shouldn’t have a hard yolk. I’d rather that bacon was served crispy in the US style, but for £3.14 I didn’t have any complaints.

The Gaumont is next door to this pub and it’s where the Bee Gees played their debut performance in 1957.

It’s one of the better rated pubs in the chain, but I thought I’d have a little look at the reviews.

“Waitress dropped BBQ sauce on my son in laws lap, went all over his trousers, all over the table, she never appologiesed, didnt wipe the spillage up and didnt replace the sauce. Not good.”

I liked the bit added about how the sauce wasn’t replaced.

“You go to Wetherspoons because it’s the cheapest. If you can, don’t support Tim Martin and his horrible business practices. The staff here all work hard and are great and friendly, though. Tim Martin (the Wetherspoons chain owner) effectively fired all his staff over lockdown rather than pay them a little furlough money! 😡”

No he didn’t.

“Had the kitchen manager come out and swear at me. As I asked him to please move his car.”

I like to think that there was an interesting back story to this one.

“Me and my Sister have been barred over a minor thing yet bar staff allowed her to be abused on friday by a tall drunk man”

Another helpful review, but I liked the detail that the guy was tall.

“I bought 8 pints via the App, at 2 minutes past eleven. The App took my money, the staff refused to serve the drinks and refused to return my money. 1 week later I am still wainting for my money.”

I can’t even begin to imagine why after eight pints they refused to serve any more drinks….

Anyway, I’ve become distracted again…. With this sustenance, we were ready for our main activity for the day. Well, I wasn’t, but there we go.

December 31, 2024
Manchester Trip : Wetherspoons Closed Early but Ibis Budget to the Rescue

Goodness knows what Richard was doing, but the doorman at Wetherspoons said that the manager had decided to close thirty minutes early, so we weren’t getting in there. We suspected that Richard annoyed them, but Liam and me didn’t say anything as we don’t like to cause offence.

Back to the hotel on the tram and Ibis Budget don’t usually give free welcome drinks, although one of my favourite hotels, the Katowice Ibis Budget, gives me a free coffee. However, here, they are going all out with any drink in the fridges available to status holders. Richard does anything for free alcohol, so he grabbed a Prosecco in an attempt to convince them that usually he stays in Sofitel branded hotels. Liam and me had a more relaxed experience, I went for a Hoegaarden wheat bear, a reliable choice. It wasn’t entirely clear that they expected many customers to want to sit in their seating area as it was rather dark, but it did for our late night drink. We had adventure the next morning that required me to be brave and so I needed a good night’s sleep. Well, at least four hours anyway.

December 30, 2024