September - Railway (Heaton Norris)
The Railway, Heaton Norris, Stockport
74 - 76 Wellington Road North, Heaton Norris, Stockport SK4 1HF
The Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA Pub of the Month for September 2016 is the Railway on Wellington Road North, Heaton Norris. John Clarke explains why it won.
The Railway has had various owners over the years. Both Wilsons and Greenall Whitley have vanished into history. Punch Taverns may be still with us but has been beset by well-documented difficulties.
One way out of those difficulties was to sell off numerous pubs - and one of those was the Railway which was purchased by Ray and Pam Ford. Since then it's not looked back.
Now a true free house the Railway has Holt's Bitter as its permanent beer and this is accompanied by up to four changing guests. Very often these are new and unusual finds for the area as Ray has developed a talent for sourcing obscure beers from around the country. The pub's place in the national Good Beer Guide testifies to the quality of the beer.
But the Railway has more strings to its bow then just beer (important though that it). There's its enviable reputation for live music for one thing. Live jazz is a speciality but this is supplemented by other live music nights and the rockabilly weekends have seen the pub drunk dry of draught beers and lagers. The bulging trophy shelf also pays tribute to successes of the large number of teams based here. There's a pool team, a quiz team and no fewer than six darts teams (including two in the Super League).
The pub is also undergoing extensive building work, mainly concentrated upstairs where years of neglect under previous owners are being put right. Downstairs there are three well-appointed rooms - at the back is a substantial games room while at the front are two comfortable lounges with that on the right often used for darts and music.
This well deserved award will be presented on Thursday 22nd September and will effectively launch Stockport Beer Week. Come and join CAMRA for what will be a great night out.