April - Vale Cottage
Vale Cottage
Kirk Street, Gorton, M18 8UE
The Stockport & South Manchester Pub of the Month winner for April is the Vale Cottage in Gorton. John Clarke has visited and tells you all about this excellent pub.
The phrase "a country pub in the heart of town" can be rather over-used, but in the case of the Vale Cottage it is a very appropriate description.
Set back from Hyde Road, well hidden in the Gore Brook conservation area, the pub has a definite rural feel. Standing outside the front of the pub, it seems a million miles from busy Hyde Road. There's a warm, country feel inside, too, with low-beamed ceilings, an open fire and several different drinking areas.
It's a real community local, with plenty going on. On Tuesdays there is a quiz night, on Saturday it's karaoke and on Sundays the pub hosts a folk night. Lunchtime food is available every day except Saturday — it has a good reputation, too.
There's a well-appointed beer garden at the back and this has also been the venue for the pub's annual beer festival. This nicely leads on to the cask beers. This was a Wilsons pub in years gone by, and eventually ended up in the hands of Enterprise Inns. However, for some years now it's been an independently owned free house, with three cask beers available. These generally come from Timothy Taylor (with Landlord making regular appearances) and Moorhouse's. Keen licensee Geoff McCabe ensures the beer quality is invariably high, and the Vale Cottage is a regular in CAMRA's national Good Beer Guide.
Please do join us when we present this well-deserved award on Thursday 28 April, from 8pm. The pub is well served by the numerous buses that travel Hyde Road, and from Stockport the 203 will take you there, with the 53, 150, 171 and 172 connecting to other points of the compass.