Stockport Venues 7 to 8

If you turn left off Shaw Road onto Heaton Moor Road in Stockport, you encounter many differing retail units of shops, restaurants and bars. The first of interest is the Cork of the North wine shop and bar, though I have only thus far graced the doors just the once and not frequented any of their numerous wine tasting events.

The next destination is the Stockport Crown Inn. Now, I don’t know if they were short of available names back in the day, but I can think of five different hostelries with the Crown moniker within a five mile distance of this one. This particular version is a highly traditional bar with one long room and two separate back rooms, one an old fashioned mini snug and a small beer garden with barbecue facilities at the rear.

The Crown Inn. Image Credit beerintheevening.com

It was built in 1820 and initially was set back from neighbouring buildings because of the existence in that spot of three poplar trees. A century later the local lumberjack felled them, and the pub was extended in 1930 by building forwards to line up with the other buildings. The pub was originally under the auspices of Richard Clarke’s Reddish brewery before morphing into a Boddington’s Bitter house in the 1960’s. It has retained many of the original floorboards and wooden effects which only embellishes the allure in my view. Apparently also the tabloids were reporting recently that Ricky Hatton and Claire Sweeney were spotting leaving the said establishment after a night out.

They have a few TV screens showing sporting events but also stage live music every Friday and Saturday in the bay window area by the front entrance. Our first musical visit was there on 20/07/19 with Jo and Paul after grabbing some tea at Valentinos restaurant in nearby Moor Top. The band on stage was a local rock covers band called Rock Doctors who mainly play 1970’s tunes and I recall two or three Bad Company and Free tracks.  

We visited again last month just prior to Christmas and the place was bustling with groups of menfolk imbibing prior to the later showing of Tyson Fury’s latest boxing match. There was a duo called Moor Irish playing which consisted of two lasses, one on acoustic guitar and the other playing a suite of instruments including flute and penny whistle and they were very enjoyable. When I look at the roster board outside there is an act who play there periodically called Reservoir Dads, who I must endeavour to witness one day as (Dad gag incoming alert) they could be ‘bloody’ great!    

Reservoir Dads. Image Credit reservoirdads.co.uk

As you progress down the road you pass (or go in) the Plough on the Moor, a regularly visited homely pub where they produce a rather fine Sunday roast, and we have whiled away many hours in one of their cosy corners.

Further on you reach Casa De Moor, our favourite Tapas restaurant in the region. Beyond the fine evening fare, they also provide huge hearty breakfasts where we have frequented a couple of times on Cheltenham Gold Cup morning before heading home to watch the racing. The last bar on that side is an establishment called the Eden Bar and Eatery which has various different incarnations including being called the Scarlet Door. The road then leads you down to the evocative old fashioned Heaton Chapel train station.

Across the road you will find the Moor Club, a private members club (previously the Conservative Club) which has been in place in that location for over a century. They have five snooker tables within and have professional exhibition matches there. They used to have monthly vinyl nights and have jazz musicians who play every Wednesday and in the summer months you can purchase cold beverages as a non-member and bask on one of the tables outside.

A more extensive beer garden is situated next door at the Stockport Elizabethan, though finding a seat in the warmer months can still be a challenge! Originally built in 1874 the pub started life as Bampton House, a private residence before in the early 1900’s morphing into a private members club but retained the original name. To coincide with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, it changed to its current name and became a public house.    

The Elizabethan. Image Credit searchstockport.co.uk

The hostelry is one of many in the area under the auspices of the local JW Lees brewery, which suits me as I am partial to a drop of their ale. It is a large wood furnished establishment and is generally always busy with many sampling the food on offer.

It had a short blast of fame in 2017 when Liam Gallagher’s brother Paul was turned away at the door for wearing tracksuit bottoms, generating an extensive twitter rant from his kid brother. Apparently, they have form in this regard as many moons ago a young David Beckham was refused entry for wearing trainers. For the record, I have never been denied entry, but this is probably more to do with the fact that I have rarely seen a bouncer in residence than of it being due to my sartorial elegance!    

I thought they were a non-live music pub but on one exception on a sunny August evening I just happened to be ensconced there when a local singer called Serena performed a turn. 

Stockport Venues 5 and 6

In the continuance of my ongoing Stockport story, I am going to initially backtrack to new venues visited in areas that I have already covered. The first one in that regard is the Stockport Dog and Partridge located at the junction of Didsbury Road and Burnage Lane just outside the East Didsbury metro station.

Stockport Dog and Partridge. Image Credit yelp.com

The D&P is a large, detached pub that originally opened in 1959 replacing an older pub a couple of doors down. It was at that stage under the jurisdiction of Boddingtons Brewery and was a sister to the nearby Griffin hostelry owned by the same company. It underwent a significant refurbishment in 2017, shortly before I moved into that area. I initially cited this as a Manchester establishment, but I then subsequently discovered it is in fact about 20 yards over the Stockport border.

There are benches facing the main road at the front of the pub and a more enclosed beer garden at the rear which Gill and I utilised a couple of times during the pandemic. Inside it is brightly lit and caters quite heavily toward live sports and on occasions can be a tad rough and ready.  I had noted that in the last couple of years they began referencing live music on Saturday nights, so a Didsbury Road pub crawl was arranged with Marcus in tow to take advantage of this fact.

We started further up Didsbury Road and visited the Crown, Heatons, the aforementioned Griffin before arriving at the Dog and Partridge about 9.30pm. We grabbed a table in the corner and caught a local singer called Dennis playing.

Progressing then over to Moor Top you would find Stockport Nook. This café bar first opened in 2015, and I visited for the first time three years later where on the outside tables you can nuzzle a coffee during the day or a craft beer in the evening. At that stage they rather bizarrely had the lavatories behind the bar. Since the pandemic they have created a shared space with the chippy on the left and Roost at 113 on the right which encompasses three restaurants with tapas, Mexican and Italian cuisine available under one roof.     

Stockport Nook. Image Credit stockporthub.co.uk

Around this time Nook totally refurbished their establishment with repurposed timber and other artefacts. They also linked up with North Manchester based pizzeria Dough So Good who have now built a pizza shack in the covered beer garden downstairs (previously a car parking space) which is accessed from the back of the building. They also have on their schedule vinyl nights and Open Door Thursdays with music acts performing and on one of those very evenings we saw a chap called Acoustic Al play there.

Martin Stephenson and the Daintees were a folk based band from the Northeast of England who were formed in 1982 after the lead singer and self-taught musician had previously commenced busking at the age of fifteen. They were signed initially to a local independent label called Kitchenware Records alongside other bands such as the Kane Gang and Prefab Sprout. The label also struck gold a couple of decades later by capturing The Editors at an early stage who recorded their platinum selling album ‘The Back Room’ with them.

Martin Stephenson’s combo who also contain his wife Kate took an eight-year hiatus in 1992 but then reformed and have operated continuously since 2000. They released their most acclaimed album Boat to Bolivia in 1986 and like many other bands have undertaken full tours since playing that album in full.  He also collaborated with Billy Connolly in 2018 on a documentary about the comedian’s colourful life.

Martin Stephenson live at Plot 20 Allotment Music Festival. Image Credit youtube.com

In a previous blog I referenced the Blue Cat in Heaton Moor where the band played in 2009. My good pal Mark was there, and he told me the tale of a request then being made of Martin to play at a local allotment. He had a renowned predilection for playing obscure unusual venues, so he readily accepted the challenge.  Thus on 06/09/09, you would find him undertaking a gig with large sunflowers in the background and the set even includes a Postman Pat/Muppet Show medley! Slightly wonky footage of his performance there can be found on You Tube under Plot 20 Allotment Music Festival.