April - John Millington
67 Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, SK8 7AA
Opening Times Editor, John Clarke, will explains why the Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA Pub of the Month for April is the John Millington, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle.
The John Millington is one of the newest pubs in Cheadle Hulme, and one of the newer pubs in the Hydes estate having been converted into a pub just w few years ago. It occupies the listed premises of the former Millington Hall and at the time the pub conversion attracted no little opposition from locals who were concerned about yet another licensed premises in the village.
Since then the John Millington has settled in to become a fixture of Cheadle Hulme village life. Far from the rowdy den of iniquity predicted by the local nimbys the pub became known for a solid food offering and a reasonable range of Hydes ale. A food destination but not really a beer destination.
However that started to change in late 2010 when Matthew Abbot arrived as manager. Matthew is a cask ale fan and set about making the pub's beer offer as impressive as its other attractions. And so, as the beer trade has increased so has the number of cask ales on offer. Up to nine cask ales are on sale at weekends and apart from the regular Hydes beers (usually Original, Manchester's Finest and the current craft ale) guests come from a variety of brewers with the likes of Allgates, Marble and Hornbeam being amongst the favourites.
Apart from the beer side, the pub is thriving with events and promotions most nights - notably Mondays where there is 50p off cask ales all day. There are pub quizzes, live bands and even brewery visits. In short what could easily have been something of an anonymous suburban food destination is also making its mark as a proper community local. This is all down to the hard work of Matthew and his management team, including Louise Anderson and Paul Murren
It is appropriate then that this award is being presented during Community Pubs Month on Thursday 26th April from 8pm. To celebrate the award the John Millington is running a month long beer festival so we should be in for a beery treat on the presentation night.
This is quite an easy pub to get to. It's just a short walk from Cheadle Hulme station and buses 313 and 157 will take you there and back.