13/01/19 - Holmes Chapel Bottle Bank

Distance - 4.5 Miles
Geocaches - 24
Good Beer Guide Tick - #359


Today's walk could have left me in no position to gain Good Beer Guide Tick #359.   I have a feeling that even after a small amount of rain, this would be a quagmire.  We've had very little recent rainfall and I still feel like I have half of Cheshire stuck on my boots.

Holmes Chapel has a place in my heart.   I spent over a year working at Radbrook Hall for Barclays and even after testing all local hotels, Cranage Hall was the place of choice.   For restaurants and entertainment, we used to head north to Knutsford.  Holmes Chapel itself remained relatively undiscovered but noticing they have an Entry in the GBG, I set it as today's walking base.

A 24 Geocache trail had something to do with this.   I need to get 2019's numbers kicked off, only having found 2 last week. 

The trail is well thought out and the hides are simple enough, with a few variations - inlcuding a great one that involves a dog lead and a tool.   Non caching blog readers - use your imagination :-)

The walk passes a variety of terrain - the boggy hams of the River Dene, dairy fields, some woodland, Jodrell Bank and Twemlow Viaduct.    All Cheshire Gentle.

I managed to find 24 but not all on the trail.   Thanks to Johnboy-A1 for the first round of the year.

Walk is a loop - starting alongside the River Dene

What I am here for

Jodrell Bank from a Dairy Field

Twemlow Viaduct

A quick bang of the boots and I am off to look for refreshment.

The Bottle Bank is a about as unpubby a building that you could hope to find.   In fact, it took me a while on Google Maps Street View to even identify the former Natwest Building as my target.   The Barrels should have given it away.   Divine inspiration provided outside.

Not so lonely

My initial thoughts were "Oh No, another micro pub".   It rubs it in when there's a proper pub building over the road.

Gazing at an Ember from a Micro - How very 2019

But there is more to the bottle shop than meets the eye.   The front room is as expected - a half off licence, half bar but the casks are proper hand pulls, rather than gravity fed barrels and the chalk board identifies 4 cask and around 8 keg.   I had neglected to bring my glasses with me so hastily made a keg decision of a North Brewing Co. Small Stout.

An interesting beer - very fizzy and very cold.

A look around to see what to report on...  plenty of fridges, music (hurrah!  Courtney Barnett taking away the fridge hum), a little table mounted pot to pop in crisp packets and a rack of (expensive) gins that you could purchase on premise and have safely stored in the ex-banks vaults for future consumption.

Gin Palace - £12.50 corkage charge

So this prompted further exploration to find the vaults and low and behold, a whole new and very pubby room around the back.

Safe Keeping

The hand pulled cask, Courtney and pubby back room have left me to declare that this indeed the finest Micro found on my travels.