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Knight In Amber Armour - Adventures in Stockport, Manchester and Oldham!

 


A slightly bleak blog photo for what will hopefully be an exciting blog of my weekend up north! Once again I received excellent hospitality at the house of Rach and Jo for another Manchester area away day! If you’re wondering if I’m knight in amber armour keep reading!

I travelled up on Friday afternoon and arrived in Stockport at around 17:00. Our first stop was Thread, a Belgium themed bar in the heart of Stockport. Here we met up with Liz and Aaron.

Plastics only because the food festival was on.


I really liked Thread! Lovely building and full of delicious Belgium beers! Since I was post nights (Rach and Jo were too) I decided to play it safe and have a Chouffe session which I really enjoyed! 

Our next stop was Petersgate Tap and old fave of ours and somewhere we could sit down! 

A rose between two thorns?

I missed the memo to wear black

Beautiful 

The Dry Irish Stout from Stockport brewers Runaway was simply divine. 

From here we headed back to Rach and Jo’s for some whiskey, which is always a good idea!

Swedish Whiskey anyone?

On Saturday morning we rose early and enjoyed a walk to get coffee at Yellow Hammer before heading to Rack, which I think produces the best sandwiches ever!

I mean look!

We caught the tram from Piccadilly to Oldham via Victoria and it only took around 40 mins. Oldham was quite the experience…


The above photo is one of the nicer bits. Oldham has the worst litter problem I’ve ever seen. Streets are lined with rubbish and other dumped items, you could literally furnish a house but picking up all of the discarded furniture. It’s a sad sight. 


Whilst taking the above photo an Oldham fan said “I hope you leave Manchester without any good memories” which I thought was a really strange thing to say. I get what they meant but still find it weird. Must be a northerner thing. Thankfully I left Manchester with plenty of good memories! 

Some people thought the owl was a hoot, I thought it was creepy


Oldham fans seemed bullish about facing an in form Cambridge side who quickly brought them down to earth with a classy 3-0 win. In truth Oldham offered absolutely nothing and despite boasting the second tightest defence in the league they were no match for superior Cambridge United. Ben Knight (Knight in amber armour) ran the show, scoring once and assisting head band wearing Louie Appere on his way to a brace. 



A lot of Oldham fans came dressed as blue seats

Get in there!

So true! Speaking of…

North Westward Ho!



My first visit to North Westward Ho, Pomona Island’s pub! It was excellent! I sampled several beers and enjoyed them all. Highlights include All Lies And Jest a WCIPA and Crufftain best bitter. I also bumped into David Morton who I hadn’t seen for years and is a Manchester beer scene expert! 

We then headed for pizza at Forbici which was amazing!

Beer there was good too

White based pizza is best and I will die on that hill

We then headed back to Stockport and started in Runaway Brewery. 

Runaway are really underrated! Their west coast IPA was everything that I wanted and more! 

Cheers 


We finished the night in Fell Brewery’s new taproom:

What an asset to the town! Both the Tinderbox IPA and Eston California bitter were delicious and both served in excellent condition! We then called it a night. 

After a lovely lunch we had time for one more beer before I headed back down south.

I’m pleased with this photo 

The Crown Inn had recently undergone a refurbishment and was simply stunning, I mean look:


A fitting end to a brilliant weekend!

Cambridge game: 590

47/92

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Location: Stockport, UK

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