It’s not every day you stumble upon pubs that hold a Guinness World Record, so it’s pretty weird that in Stalybridge you can see two of them at once.
And these two record-breaking pubs have earned their place in the history books for two completely different reasons.
Standing almost side-by-side, you’ll find The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, and The Q.
In case you hadn’t yet guessed it, one holds the record for the longest pub name, while the other has the shortest.
The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn – or, as it’s more commonly known locally, The Rifleman was added to the Guinness World Record books in 1995.
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It was also given a blue plaque the same year.
It’s a name so long, it takes up the entire length of the building, and doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue after you’ve had a few pints inside.
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The pub reopened in 2019 with new owners, who decided to keep the incredibly long name (even though they were charged by the letter for the new sign outside).
The Rifleman is also a pretty affordable watering hole, with cask ales starting from just £2.80.
And its remarkable name is made all the more remarkable by its neighbour, The Q, which has the shortest pub name in Great Britain.
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The Q Inn has been a Stalybridge staple for decades, and also made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1995.
The cosy pub sprawls across two levels and has an enormous beer garden out the back.
It’s also home a pack of beautiful resident beagles, who’ll dutifully potter up to welcome every guest who enters the pub.
People are flocking to the ‘best sunset spot’ with beautiful views of Manchester
Daisy Jackson
As much as we love escaping the hustle of Manchester for some fresh air, we don’t like to stray TOO far.
So finding a patch of green on the outskirts of the region that happens to have sweeping views of home is absolutely ideal.
And what makes it even better is a gorgeous sunset.
Recently, people have started falling back in love with the views from one particular sunset hotspot in Greater Manchester, which handily has a great pub too.
We are of course talking about Werneth Low in Tameside, a country park where you can soak in views of the entire Manchester city centre skyline.
From way up here you can see the familiar shapes of Deansgate Square, Beetham Tower, the Manchester Town Hall, the Arndale and the Etihad Stadium.
As Werneth Low is west-facing, you get perfect views of the sunset over Manchester.
In fact it’s so beautiful, a few people in the comments of this video thought it was LA…
Werneth Low itself officially became a country park in 1980 – but prior to that it had been protected as a lasting tribute to the 710 men from the local area who died in World War One.
There are miles of footpaths to explore in this pretty country park, but if you want to find the view that will take your breath away, you need to head across to Werneth Low Road.
Here you’ll also find The Hare & Hounds pub, a handsome old building that dates back to 1728.
The rustic pub calls itself a gateway to the Peak District and sits right alongside the well-trodden Trans Pennine Trail.
From the inside, it’s all exposed beams, low ceilings and open fires, but outside is where the real treat is – those panoramic views.
As you look out across Manchester, you’ll be able to see FIVE different counties, and even the dark silhouette of the Welsh mountains on very clear days.
So Werneth Low (and its views of Manchester) has clearly always been popular with Tameside locals, walkers, families, and Mancs in the know, but lately it’s found a new fame through social media.
Platforms like TikTok are suddenly peppered with young people discovering this beautiful spot.
I thought I’d been to plenty of ‘proper’ rock gigs – then I went to see Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols
Danny Jones
Listen, we here at The Manc and Audio North have been to a fair few gigs in our day, and heavy ones at that – we’re fortunate to have a fair few happy headbangers in our office – but we’re not sure many things encapsulate a proper rock show like seeing Frank Carter and the actual Sex Pistols.
You know, as you do…
When we first heard that the legendary punk band were not only back on tour over 16 years after their last handful of festival sets (and nearly in their 70s, by the way) but bringing the ex-Gallows and current Rattlesnakes frontman along for the ride, it felt like we’d be asked one of those dream lineup questions.
As the literal godfathers of the genre and entire movement that changed the face of music here in the UK and all over the world, there are very few people who could even attempt to fill the shoes of Johnny Rotten, but at times it genuinely felt like there’d never been anyone else other than Frank f***ing Carter.
Lots of legs wheeling into the air, lots of circle pits, lots of sweat. (Credit: The Manc Group)
Limited-run shows like these are obviously always going to be special and watching the last remaining Sex Pistols members play their iconic Never Mind The Bollocks album in full to what we can only describe as one of the most mixed crowds you’ll ever come across.
Now, we’re fully aware that the Pistols pre-date us by some way and, of course, there were A LOT of dads and old punk-rockers with multi-coloured mohawks to be seen, but much like we’re hoping with those upcoming Oasis reunion gigs, there were a lot of young fans filling out the front rows.
But no matter what age group they belonged to, the Manchester crowd did us proud as it always does and even at some of the rowdiest metal gigs we’ve been to in the past, we have never seen so much crowd-surfing, circle pits and all-round chaos.
It was nothing short of utterly delightful and, we have to say, a lot of the thanks has to go ‘Franky Boy’, as he was affectionately referred to throughout the show.
Once again, I don’t think we can overstate how hard it is to follow in the footsteps of arguably one of the greatest albeit controversial frontmen of all time, but somehow the 40-year-old made it look effortless.
Frank Carter is born to play the Rotten role and the Sex Pistols are better for it. (Credit: Audio North)
Actually, that’s a lie: if you’ve ever seen Frank Carter live you’ll know how much energy goes into those sets and we think of ‘blood, sweat and tears’ performances, he’s pretty much the epitome of it.
Nevertheless, what we’re trying to say is that these now-legendary one-offs/revival/comeback shows, whatever you want to call them, simply couldn’t have happened without him – certainly not at this level, anyway. In fact, we’d go so far as to say he was born to play this role.
You could tell the boys know it too; not only have they put their faith in him but you can tell they’ve already struck a lifelong friendship, as they beckoned their lead singer back from the mosh multiple times by simply saying, “Frankie baby, we miss you.”
The man himself has made no secret of how much of a dream come true being chosen for this tour. He recently wrote to his followers: “In case anyone was wondering what it’s like to share the stage with these three legends… Pure joy.”
He went on to add, “It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to be up here and I cherish every moment of it… Every single show feels special and I am having the time of my f***ing life” – and so were we. Frank actually spent what felt like half of the gig in the crowd and you just don’t get over moments like that.
He can scream in our faces any day.Unreal energy from start to finish.We’re not sure where Manchester ranks on the current tour for Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols, but it’s bloody high on our best of 2024.
It has to be said too that Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock don’t seem like they’ve missed one single beat even after all this time.
In terms of the tunes that went the hardest, we’re still not over the pure surrealness of hearing those opening notes of ‘Holidays in the Sun’, ‘No Feelings’ and ‘God Save the Queen’ were obvious favourites but it will surprise absolutely no one to hear that ‘Anarchy in the UK’ was the perfect closer.
We limped out of Manchester Academy with a couple of bruises to show for it and probably smelling like a bin fire, but if you’re asking us whether nearly losing a tooth whilst hugging a dozen random blokes in leather and/or denim was worth it, yes, it absolutely was.
In fact, rather than pretend this is much of an actual muso review (that doesn’t feel very Sex Pistols or particularly punk) we’ll go one further and declare that as possibly the most raucous gig we’ve ever been to – and it’s all Frank Carter’s wonderful f***ing fault.