Welcome to your Bolton CAMRA Branch Update. The Bank Holiday is here and, apparently we’re in for a heatwave. What better excuse to get out the the pub for a pint or two? Many pubs are running special bank holiday events and, if we know about them, we’ll do our best to publicise them on our Facebook page here, particularly if there’s cask ale involved. There’s also the small matter of a certain football match which I’m sure lots of pubs will be showing. Probably, by the time you read this, we will know whether the Wanderers have taken a step back to where a club of this size and history should be.
There’s lots going on in the world of beer and pubs at the moment so here goes.
Branch Meeting
The next Branch Meeting will take place on 4 June 2026 at the Crown, 1 Chorley New Road, Horwich, BL6 7QJ. The meeting will start at 8 p.m. The Crown has just reopened after a major refurbishment and it is good to see Joseph Holt investing in its estate. As always, all are welcome and it will be good to see what’s changed and what remains the same.
Mild Weather
In the late 1930s, mild made up 92% of all the beer sold in Bolton’s pubs, slaking the thirst of the workers from the mills and foundries of the town. Over the following decades as these industries died, mild became seen as a drink of the past and lager took over as the preferred tipple of the masses. Over recent years, mild has been making a comeback with our local breweries regularly brewing it. CAMRA has designated May as its Mild Month and in response, a number of our pubs are stocking a mild. We have put together a trail using the ‘trip’ facility on CAMRA’s website. If you click here it will take you to details of pubs serving mild either for Mild Month or regularly. If you know of other pubs serving mild, please let us know at pubs@bolton.camra.org.uk or use the ‘Spot a Beer’ button on the pub’s entry on the website and we can add them to the trail.
Clubbing It
Over the last couple of months it has been my pleasure to present the awards for Club of the Year. The Ukrainian Social Club was the winner and Daisy Hill Cricket Club and Westhoughton Sports and Social Club joint runners up. These clubs are at the heart of their communities providing a whole range of activities for local people from band practice to pilates and community gardens. Many of these clubs are open to the public although membership will get you a discount on drinks. These clubs are the hidden gems of cask ale, doing their best to promote real ale to their customers and they deserve our support. As summer approaches, what could be better than watching a game of cricket or bowls in the sunshine over a pint?
Pub News
As well as the Crown reopening, the (relatively) nearby Ridgway Arms at Blackrod has reopened and is advertising Wainwright Gold and Bradfield Farmer’s Blonde on the bar. The Rose and Crown in Westhoughton has also reopened but at the moment there is no real ale although they say they are looking into it.
On the down side, you may have read in the media that national brewer Greene King has closed the Red Lion in Over Hulton as part of a wider rationalisation of their estate. This is a real shame as it was a family friendly, food-led pub and given we’re told the Ryder Cup will be coming to a newly constructed golf course on the Hulton Estate, you would have thought it was perfectly placed to cash in.
I have mentioned before that the iconic Marble Arch on Rochdale Road in manchester is under threat from an unsympathetic development around it. The pub has once again asked for CAMRA’s help to fight a planning application for a seventeen storey building to be constructed right next to the pub, completely overwhelming it. You can help by submitting an objection to the application. Click here to find out how.
Socials
There are a number of socials in the pipeline so get the follwing dates in your diary.
Saturday 6th June 2026 – Stalybridge.
Thursday 18th June 2026 – Local social.
Friday 19th June 2026 – Stockport Beer Festival.
Saturday 25th July 2026 – Torrside Brewery trip.
Saturday 29th August 2026 – Torrside Brewery trip.
Friday 27th – Saturday 28th November 2026 – Wolverhampton & Dudley trip.
Details of all our branch soocials are availbale on the Social Events page of the Branch website here.
You may have seen some emails emanating from HQ about changes to the beer scoring system. The new rating system will be launched in early June and I will send out another newsletter with details of the changes and other functions on the national website.
In the meantime, I hope you get to enjoy a pint or two in the sunshine while you can.
Cheers
John Mitchell – Chair