Trafford & Hulme Branch News – Page 3 – CAMRA Greater Manchester Branches

Representatives needed for Flixton Neighbourhood Forum

A neighbourhood plan is being prepared for the Flixton area https://www.trafford.gov.uk/planning/strategic-planning/Development-Plan/neighbourhood-planning.aspx This link enables access to information on the boundary of the designated and the rationale for the plan.

A neighbourhood plan is prepared by local people to influence future planning decisions. Once approved, it is taken account by the local planning authority when making decisions on planning applications. The key issue to be addressed in this plan will be the allocation of land for housing development and its impact on the greenbelt. However, a key concern for CAMRA will be any policies that support or detract from the provision of local facilities, including pubs. Certainly any proposals to see pubs and/or pub car parks allocated for housing redevelopment need to be strongly resisted.

Altrincham already has an approved neighbourhood plan for Altrincham town centre. This sets out a future vision for the area, as well as including policies that support the provision of local facilities, including public houses. Tim Field, Trafford & Hulme’s pub protection officer was able to join the forum set up to prepare this plan but will be unable to play a similar role in preparing the Flixton plan as membership is restricted to local residents and/or those working in the designated area (which includes Trafford General Hospital).

If any Trafford & Hulme CAMRA Branch members living or working in the area would be willing to become a representative on the Flixton neighbourhood Forum, Tim would be willing to provide advice and support for you in that role. Please let me know as soon as possible as to whether you would be interested in joining the forum and we can approach its convenor, Paul Ashworth.

Regards

George Elmslie – Branch Chair

enquiries (at) thcamra.org.uk

Source: Trafford & Hulme

COVID-19 Pulling Together

COVID-19 has temporarily robbed us of our pubs and inns but some of our entrepreneurial local pubs and bars are keeping the beer and cider coming by offering low contact take out and delivery services. You can help support your favourite local business during this time of crisis, whilst adhering to the Government advice on social distancing measures. As the odd shape of the Branch Boundries means the nearest outlet may be in a neigbouring branch, I have included a link to the Greater Manchester page which listing all outlets in the Region:-

https://greatermanchester.camra.org.uk/pulling-together/

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Beer Quality Accreditation Scheme – 2019-20

Trafford & Hulme branch is one of several CAMRA branches participating a a trial of a Beer Quality Accreditation Scheme. Recognizing pubs consistently selling well-kept real ales is an important aspect of CAMRA’s campaigning to improve beer quality at the point of dispense and this new accreditation scheme is a means of recognizing quality. Pubs that gain accreditation can publicise the fact, including the display of the attached window sticker. The award is made based on scores entered into the National Beer Scoring Scheme by CAMRA members. CAMRA memberes are encouraged to score all real ale, cider and perry that they drink. For more information on this see the Beer Scoring page.

The following pubs and clubs within the branch have currentlt achieved the requied standard and been awarded this accreditation. The scores will be reviewed on an regular basis, and additional pubs who attain the required standard will be added to the list.

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Beer Buzz issue 4 out now

The new issue of Beer Buzz is now available to download from beerbuzz.beer

Print copies will begin to appear in pubs across Manchester, Salford & Trafford from 25th September but online readers can read it now.

The largest ever issue at 44 pages includes the usual range of news on our local pubs and breweries along with a range of special features and interviews.

We talk to Nicky Kong, landlady of Manchester’s Crown and Kettle and to Oli Turton, head brewer and owner of Squawk Brewing Co.

We celebrate one of Manchester’s historic pubs, The Unicorn, being given grade 2 listed status but also look at how our local councils plans are failing our much loved pubs. There’s also an indepth feature on how just two big city deals could affect over 7000 pubs.

Beer Buzz is produced by Trafford & Hulme CAMRA along with our neighbours in Central Manchester and Salford branches.

beerbuzz.beer/download/

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Greater Manchester Club Of The Year stays in T&H

Trafford and Hulme Branch are really pleased to be able to confirm that The Greater Manchester Club Of The Year 2019 is the our own Club Of The Year – Flixton Conservative Club.

Although this is the fifth consecutive year that the club has won the Greater Manchester title, it is the first under new Stewards Pat and Andrea Doherty who took over in March and have maintained the high standards set by their predecessors Nigel and Sharon Porter.

Flixton Conservative Club Team — *Pat and Andrea (centre) flanked by Flixton Conservative Club cellar team Chas and Tom receiving their Trafford & Hulme Branch Club Of The Year award*

Nigel and Sharon left the club in November 2018 after six years at the helm but left behind a team passionate about serving high quality cask ale. Cellar team Tom, Chas and Hayley kept the beer flowing while the club recruited new stewards.

Pat and Andrea have reinstated the club’s successful “Brewery Nights” (monthly tap takeover and meet the brewer nights which pack out the club’s function room) as well as introducing a range of new events including a fortnightly Open Mic night, curry nights and expanding the live music offering.

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Club Of The Year 2019

Greater Manchester CAMRA is pleased to announce the result of the 2019 Regional Club Of The Year Competition.

The Greater Manchester Club Of The Year 2019 is the Flixton Conservative Club on Flixton Road between Urmston and Flixton in Trafford.

Runner up in the Greater Manchester competition was Dobcross Band Social Club in Dobcross, Saddleworth.

Six of the nine branches of CAMRA in Greater Manchester selected a Club Of The Year each of which were visited by a team of judges from across the region.

The finalists were:

Ukrainian Club (Bolton Branch)
Dobcross Band Club (Rochdale, Oldham and Bury Branch)
Boothstown Royal British Legion (Salford & District Branch)
Moor Club (Stockport and South Manchester Branch)
Flixton Conservative Club (Trafford & Hulme Branch)
Standish Unity Club (Wigan Branch)

Flixton Conservative Club will now go forward into the 2020 National Club of The Year competition, seeking to reclaim the National Club Of The Year title they won in 2018.

Beer Buzz Issue 2 Out Now

The April to June 2019 of Beer Buzz magazine is now going out around pubs and bars across the branch area.

Featuried articles include a tour of Urmston and the genesis of Manchester Union Brewery, alongside loads of pub and brewery news from across Trafford, Manchester & Salford.

If you can’t wait to read it, it can be downloaded from

www.beerbuzz.beer/download

The Beer Buzz EXTRA part of the website also includes extended versions of articles and news which there wasn’t room for in the print edition.

www.beerbuzz.beer/EXTRA

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Beer Buzz Available

Beer Buzz the new quarterly magazine covering the Trafford & Hulme, Central Manchester and Salford and District CAMRA branches is now available for download from the Beer Buzz web site.

https://beerbuzz.beer/

and printed copies will be appearing in the branch Pubs and Clubs shortly.

Source: Trafford & Hulme

East Lancs Micropub Tour – September 2018

In September, a small posse of unlikely lads from Trafford & Hulme CAMRA branch set off from Manchester on the WitchWay bus to explore East Lancashire’s growing offer of micropubs.

Carefully synchronized to avoid the hoards descending upon Turf Moor for the Burnley v Bournemouth match, we arrived in Burnley just after 3pm and headed for New Brew- M. Disaster loomed when the expedition leader found the doors locked to the bar he’d only visited a few weeks previously. However, panic over when it was discovered that New Brew-M had just moved across the road to larger premises. The popular town centre micro is an outlet for the town’s Reedley Hallows brewery and the Pendleside and New Laud Dark were sampled, the former going down particularly well. The bar normally has a guest ale and also on offer was beer from Offilers Brewery in Derby.

Re-joining the excellent and regular X43 (group day-riders come at a value for money £19 for up to 5 people), we headed up to Colne where three micropubs are huddled together in a row.

First up was the Tapsters Promise and a broad range was on offer here with Rammy Craft Trung Viet Coffee Stout possibly the pick of the bunch. Also sampled were Beer Brothers Session IPA and Wishbone Night Star Key Keg, the latter evidencing the trend for micropubs to be open to mixing cask and keg. This aptly provides the name of the third bar in the line Cask n’ Keg, where we had Theakston’s Barista keg stout and another offering from Reedley Hallows – Old Lawns Bitter. Squeezed in between was Boyce’s Bar

where some found the beer slightly off form from a normally high standard. Upham’s Punter and Bosum’s Mocha Stout were tried here.

Following a traditional back street chippy tea, we started our journey back alighting in Haslingden to squeeze into the very popular and crowded Hop. . The group went for a variety of brews here including Half Moon’s F’Hops Sake, Brewsmith Bitter, Deeply Vale Hop Ale and Acorn Wolf IPA. This was followed by a short walk up to the equally popular brewpub Northern Whisper

where there was a generally lukewarm reception from our ranks for Yammerhouse, Soft Mick, Small Talk and Blighty. Our final pitstop was an enjoyable one at Casked

a ‘steamed-up’ micro where the beer was in good form including Irwell Valley’s Breadcrumbs and also Marshmallow Unicorn Milk Stout, and Brewsmiths IPA.

After a scrum to get to Casked’s sole loo, the intrepid crew sailed happily home on the X43 with worries that one of the branch’s stalwarts had hit the canned cider!

Rest assured, it was only a bout of public-spirited litter picking duty.

It was an enjoyable day where we sampled a good range of micropubs proving that not all of the latest beer trends are the preserve of the big cities, nor are the cities the only places to sample good ale. Thank you East Lancs for your hospitality. We shall return.

Tim Field – T&H CAMRA

Source: Trafford & Hulme

Tuesday Tipples goes to Stalybridge

Our November tour was to Stalybridge. We arranged to meet at Piccadilly at midday with the intention of catching the 12:17 to Stalybridge. However, Transpennine had other ideas and we arrived on the concourse to find that our train had been cancelled and the next available being the ‘12:47. So to save wasting time the group decamped to the Piccadilly Tap for a ‘quick half’, after all why not? On returning to the station concourse we found another regular Tippler waiting for us so five became six.

Eventually we caught the 12:47 although that was 8 minutes late and off we went. First port of call, obviously, was the Stalybridge Buffet Bar for food & refreshment where at least two of us sampled one of the new cask ales from Cloudwater, the Brown Ale, and very good it was. On leaving the station we discovered that the weather had turned very inclement i.e. it was pouring with rain, so as quickly as we were able, we made our way down Market Street to the White House on Water Street.

This is an interesting Hydes house in the fact that as well as a good range of Hydes beers there were three other guests, Bradfield Brewery Famers Blonde & Belgian Blue along with Ahopcalypse. All the beers sampled were in fine form and were much enjoyed by our group. We also spent some quality time with the pub dog, Rosie, who was very friendly. Back out into the rain and off down Water Street to the Wharf Tavern, our next stop. Unfortunately, as our timings were awry due to the cancelled train, the pub was closed and we had missed the 12 – 2pm lunchtime opening session. So onward, still in the pouring rain, to the Society Rooms, a Wetherspoons establishment, which as is fairly usual for a Spoons, had a reasonable selection of cask ales available and all of the ones tried by our group were in pretty good condition. We also had a very genial conversation with the Manager who had picked up on social media that our group was on tour.

Our final port of call was Bridge Beers. This is where the organisers navigation and map reading skills went out of the window. We walked for fully 10 minutes, still in the rain, to locate this very fine little bar only to discover, as we reached the door that we were in fact less than 50 yards from our previous hostelry! I guess you’d have to call Bridge Beers a micro bar as the arrival of the six of us along with about eight existing customers just about filled the place. All the beers are stillaged on a purpose-built wooden stillage behind the bar and served by gravity. The stillage has room for eight firkins and on our visit three were available. The beers we tried were in such good form that several of us delayed our departure in order to sample yet another one.

So, finally, it was back to the station to catch yet another delayed train to Piccadilly. All in all, apart from the train delays and the inclement weather we had a very good outing and sampled some very good beer.

For anyone interested, we are holding a Tuesday Tipples in December on the 18th when we will be sampling the delights of Wigan. Full timings and itinerary can be found on the Trafford & Hulme website in the diary section.

Source: Trafford & Hulme