On Saturday 13th April 2024, I was among many passengers participating in the Merseyside Transport Trust’s Lancashire Beer And Buses day excursion, with vintage buses circling a route taking in 22 pubs, (including starting and finishing points for feeder services). I was able to get to try 11 ales in 9 of them. (I drank halves to maximize the different opportunities to hand).
There were three routes, of which I completed on and a sizable portion of a second. I got photos of several of the others.
My chosen point of departure was The Guild Ale House, in Preston City Centre, a firm favourite with CAMRA and a superb live entertainment venue where I often get involved with open mic events, being a performance poet.
Here I got my first ale, and the programme of events, transport routes and timetables. Sales of the programme raised to help restore more vintage transport for museums and for events like this.
The first, plus the later buses used for the pub circuit were lovely and way more comfortable than current Preston Bus and Stagecoach stock. The passengers were all in great spirits (no pun intended) and there was a sense of good old fashioned charabanc in the air all day. There was never any sign of trouble.
After a few other pick ups, our first potential alighting point was Tarlatan Village with three pubs close to one another to choose from. I went for The Cock And Bottle where staff were very welcoming and the décor delightfully eclectic.
It was a little confusing at first working out where the bus would stop to collect me and others for the next phase of the journey. I headed on to the Rufford village’s Hesketh Arms, which like other village bars on the route(s) was too isolated to head for on conventional public transport or as part of my pub sign studies. The pub had the finest sign I saw all day, a colourful heraldic presentation, though it looked like its frame was splitting.
As well as drinking in the pubs I was clocking up their histories and inspecting/photographing the inn signs for possible use in my future books on the subject. My first such study is already out, Watch The Signs! Watch The Signs! (available through Shoreline Of Infinity https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/watch-the-signs-watch-the-signs/ or directly from myself). Book two (independent of the first one) comes out on July 15th 2024 and hopefully some of the signs captured on walks like the one described here will make it into future volumes.
From Rufford it was onto Burscough, the town with biggest concentration of signs in one area. Buses from all three routes converged on the Hop Vine which became a central hub for all the optional directions I could take. After capturing photos round the town centre and canal wharf area (which hosts several bars and diners) I started by going out to the far end of Burscough, to the Bull And Dog. At first I thought they had no real ales on, but when I asked the barman apologized for not putting the promotional clip on the one offered, and hurriedly amended that, producing another fine ale in a bar with a huge beer garden.
As well as pubs I captured images of other interesting sights like: A, The Canals
B/. Street art like this swan in Burscough.
From there I went out to the two Scarisbrick bars, starting with The Kicking Donkey. If not for the bus warden who ushered passengers on and off, I might well have missed this delightful pub entirely. Lacking signage, it is set back from the main road and hidden by hedgerows, approachable through a wooden gate. The weather was warming so much here that many of us sat outside in the beer garden. Our trip coincided with the Grand National Horse Race and this pub served a beer called National Hero which would have been cruel not to indulge in. (worth it too).
A few minutes ride up the road we came to Heaton’s Bridge, still is Scarisbrick, with some eccentric artwork on display, fish swimming in a tank and a specially blended in house ale commemorating a 1970’s TV show, On The Buses. This was another must to try seeing as we were indeed very much travelling ‘on the buses’.
With time pressing on, I swung back round on the buses going widdershins and re-entered Burscough, with time to call in three more bars in close proximity to one another. The first was The Bridge, which was a big sports bar by the railway station. The Grand National itself was on live on the TV’s so many punters were engaged in that which made getting served easy.
Over now to the canal-side Thirsty Duck (previously called The Blue Mallard), an excellent tap house with a great range of ales, though no true pub sign. The bar was quite crowded so I went out to the beer garden with my first ale only to find the climate changing severely and a sudden gust of wind swept my barely sipped beer glass to the floor before my eyes.
I went in to reorder and spotted a pump promoting Rivington’s Green Light ale, a chocolate mint porter. I decided to switch to that and stay indoors. A sip of the beer told me it was not only delicious but that its thick syrupy texture screamed strength. I walked to bar to check what I should have read on the beer clip before ordering. The Green Light was 10.2% in strength. I felt relived to have only ordered a half.
My penultimate port of call was the hub bar itself, the Hop Vine which was extremely crammed, largely as many passengers had the same idea as I did and all the last buses would be departing from close proximity to the pub just over thirty minutes onwards. I purposely ordered the lightest ale I could see, at less than 4%, after my 10.2% number at the previous pub.
The return ride went well and everyone was cheering and tipping the bus crew who had worked incredibly hard to look after us and get us safely from bar to bar with great efficiency. We dropped various passengers off at points along the route back to our starting pub, The Guild Ale House where I enjoyed my final ale of the day and headed for an ordinary bus home to my flat from the bus station a few minutes walk from the pub.
Thank you so much to the staff of the Guild Ale House, the passengers who I travelled with, the drivers and bus monitors, the staff and patrons of all the bars frequented and I can already not wait for next year’s trip. Awesome stuff.
All Photos taken by me.
Arthur Chappell
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