Oldham Crawl 14 March 1987

This was a pub crawl done with my wife. This crawl was mainly to try and get some Oldham Ales tied houses done before being Boddington-ised. We set off early for the Nottingham to Glasgow and Edinburgh train, which would stop at Manchester Victoria station, then on to a local train up to Oldham.

The first pub of the day was in the town centre.

1: Bank Top Tavern

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A smart looking Lees tied house with a decent drink of  Lees bitter on the bar, a local brewery, so we were well pleased.

2: Abbey Inn
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

This pub still sported Oldham Ales on its signage, but there was now also Boddingtons on it. A smart enough pub and a decent drink of Oldham bitter.

3: Spotted Cow

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A Wilsons tied house with a couple of rooms, we had a decent drink of Wilsons bitter. We were now heading away from the centre of Oldham in search of some more basic locals pubs.

4: Westbourne Hotel

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

This is the sort of pub we came to Oldham for. An Oldham Ales tied house with its original signage still in place, very basic inside with two separate rooms, where we had a very nice drink of Oldham bitter.

5: Westwood Inn

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

An ex-Oldham Ales tied house with new signage outside, but thankfully a decent drink of Oldham bitter on the bar.

6: Commercial Hotel

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

Not sure how we came across this one, a Lees tied house set in the back streets of Oldham, where we had a decent drink of Lees bitter.

7: Unicorn Inn
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

This is the business - a proper looking Oldham Ales tied house with its old signage still in place, and close to Oldham's many mills and factories. The pub was quite basic inside, with two separate rooms, and we had a very nice drink of Oldham bitter.

8: Black Horse
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A Robinsons tied house set on a busy road. Once inside this was a very basic pub, but the Robinsons bitter was really good.

9: The Oxford
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A back street Robinsons tied house with another decent drink of Robinsons bitter.

10: Hare & Hounds

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A Lees tied house that was a bit of a walk to get to. Quite smart inside and a decent drink of Lees bitter.

11: Auld Lang Syne

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A nice old-looking Wilsons tied house with a nice tiled lower front. The inside was basic but we quite liked the pub, and we had a decent drink of Wilsons mild.

12: The Queens
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

A Robinsons tied house on a busy road  heading back to the middle of Oldham. We had a nice drink of Robinsons bitter in here. The wife, who was stood outside, was getting a bit of grief from a local, so I rushed taking my photo to help her out. I have also taken another photo of The Queens at a later date, shown below.

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

13: Rose of Lancaster
 

(c) Photo taken by Alan Winfield.

The last pub of the day and a great looking Oldham Ales tied house with its old signage still in place. This was quite a big pub with a few different rooms. We had a drink in the bar which was fairly basic, but the Oldham bitter was on top form.

This was a good dinner time pub crawl with my wife, who is stood outside most pubs when I took the photos.

Next Pub Crawl will be from 2015 when I did 459 new pubs. There may also be some of my Pub Crawl stats on new blogs in the near future.

How my Pub Crawling Started

My Pub Crawling career started way back in late 1980 and early 1981. Me and my best mate Steve were challenged to do all pubs in Ilkeston, a Derbyshire town with a good stock of pubs and most were local brewery tied to Shipstones, Home Ales and Kimberley. Well we did well over 40 pubs in the town and the seed was set.

We started to get round other local pubs and another mate, Nick, joined in. We became The Pub Club. Our aim was to visit as many different pubs as possible. Our first major pub crawl away from our local Nottingham and Derbyshire area was to York. Five drinking sessions over the weekend and 73 new pubs done - we were all well pleased.

It was now time to start writing all of these pubs down; what we had done over the last year or so. So we all got some sort of note book and listed the different pubs we had done. I got a thick cash book for my pubs, which I still use to this date. From May 1982 all pubs visited were dated, plus pub name and brewery tie. We did this in rough books and then wrote them down neatly in our pub books.

We did more weekends away to Chester and down London to stay with a mate in Blackheath,where two of us slept on the floor. By the end of 1981 I had done 1,044 different pubs.

1983 was to be a great year on all fronts, loads of local pubs done and weekends in London and Lincoln with the pub club, with just under a 1,000 pubs done in the year. I ended 1983 on 2,027 new pubs. I also met my wife to be in November 1983, she would become my new pub crawling partner over the next 10 years or so. 

The Pub club disbanded in late 1984. My pub crawling had now slowed down a bit, by the end of 1984 I had done 2,540 new pubs. I continued doing my pub crawls with my wife, and my brother also drove me to pubs that were not so easy to reach on public transport.

By the end of 2014 I had done 11,235 new pubs. Now almost up to date and I have done just under another 500 new pubs in 2015. I hope 2016 will be has good as 2015 for my pub crawling.

Cheers, Alan Winfield.