One of the inherent joys of moving to a brand-new area is continuing to discover new establishments. When we first moved to Manchester in September 2017, we missed on our initial scouting trips the existence of a couple of public houses and adjoining restaurant on Wilmslow Road just after Fletcher Moss Park in East Didsbury. The restaurant around the time, previously the Fat Loaf pub, was a fine Mediterranean tapas called Olive and Vine before closing in 2019 and reopening as Jajoo Indian which has had a chequered history with alleged staff welfare issues.
The boozer directly across from there is the Didsbury which is a former coach house and retains many of its original 18th century features with wooden beams and open fireplaces. It sits on the site of a much older inn, the Ring of Bells which originates back to 1644. The story goes that Bonnie Prince Charlie camped nearby with his army in 1785 recovering after his defeat at Derby (not in a football match!)
It has a very large beer garden at the front, which has recently been refurbished and used to be the location of Didsbury Village Green. The pub is now a Brewers Fayre establishment and serves fine gastro pub fare and was one of the ‘Covid hero’ places for me and thus I hold it in high regard.
I recall us sitting outside in the midst of the lockdown with a couple of friends in our pre booked seats, shivering at 9.30pm in the cold night air but refusing to go home until our time window had expired! One time, I just missed a music act there once as we decided to leave whilst they were still setting up their equipment, but maybe next time!
Literally next door is the Didsbury Ye Olde Cock Inn, and the name provides the very obvious clue to its previous cock fighting history. The building has references back to 1235 and it has had a couple of major refurbishments in bygone times. In the 19th century it had a haunted reputation where the servants refused to sleep on the premises. The owner installed iron gates at the time at the entrance to the adjoining gardens which became locally known as ‘the Gates to Hell’. The pub gained Grade II Listing in 1974 and the current Greene King owned pub has an olde world feel.
The pub though always seems to have an unnecessarily disorganised vibe to it which tarnishes its allure, hence not a place we visit regularly. However, on one of our sporadic attendances on 11/11/17 we saw a decent young local singer called Jessica Kemp, who has some Radio 2 airplay and counts Clint Boon amongst her fanbase.
Further down Wilmslow Road towards Didsbury Village takes you past Didsbury Park. The park being one of the first to be built in the city and was redesigned to include two bowling greens. Reputedly there are rumours of an air raid shelter being located below the football field and it is a pleasant spot on a sunny day.
At the Didsbury Festival alongside competitions for the waggiest tail (dogs!) they utilised the small Didsbury Park Stage, which is arguably more of a park keepers storage area. On this very ‘stage’ were Tinfoils, an enjoyable local three-piece garage punk band. A month later, at another event I saw an act called Peters Sounds play on Didsbury Park Green (the football pitch!).
