You really don’t have to travel far from Manchester to find yourself surrounded by rolling hills and lush fields – it’s one of the best things about living here.
So for July’s instalment of our series A Manc’s Guide, we’re heading over to one of the prettiest spots in the north west, and just in time for summer.
Saddleworth is actually made up of several villages, all linked by twisting country lanes.
You’ll find glassy reservoirs, chocolate box villages, canals teeming with life, sweeping landscapes and bags more character here.
From Uppermill with its trendy high street full of bars and restaurants, to Delph nestled right down in the valley, there’s something to catch your eye.
ADVERTISEMENT
Food and drink
Credit: Albion Farm Shop & Cafe
Albion Farm Shop and Cafe – This charming spot is worth the drive over to Saddleworth on its own. Food miles are pretty much wiped off the plate, with almost everything made on site with ingredients from Saddleworth. Expect seriously hearty farmer’s breakfasts, plus sandwiches on freshly baked farmhouse bread, cakes, and pies.
Grandpa Greene’s – Grandpa Greene’s ice cream is so legendary that during lockdown (when people were restricted to takeaways only), the queues forming outside literally stopped traffic. Their luxury ice cream pops up in restaurants all over the north west, but at its picturesque home on the canal you’ll find the full range of flavours, as well as pancakes, afternoon teas, and sandwiches.
ADVERTISEMENT
Grandpa Greene’s. Credit: Supplied
The Old Bell Inn – Not only is it home to a record-breaking selection of gin, The Old Bell Inn is also a properly decent country pub. We’re talking top-notch Sunday roasts, pies and puddings, steaks, burgers and hand-cut chunky chips.
Weaver and Wilde – Arguably some of the best coffee in the region is being brewed at Weaver and Wilde – it’s roasted down the road then made with milk a dairy herd grazing on Saddleworth grass. You can grab brunch, lunch and cakes here as well as your caffeine fix. They’ve just branched out with a greengrocers, selling fresh fruit and veg as well as other treats, over in Greenfield too.
Brunch at Diggle Lock. Credit: Diggle Lock
Diggle Lock – Diggle Lock is one of the hottest hangouts in the north west, never mind in Saddleworth, turning an old textile mill into a daytime restaurant and pantry store. The team is focused on serving up ‘city centre sophistication’ in the beautiful countryside, with a menu of massive brunches and sandwiches, excellent coffee, and two-for-£12 cocktails. You can even order dog-friendly sides, like peanut butter or black pudding, for your pooch.
ADVERTISEMENT
The White Hart – For a pint with a view, The White Hart at Lydgate is arguably the best in the UK. This brilliant gastropub has earned plenty of critical acclaim for its food, but it still keeps the cosy community spirit of a village pub (complete with real ales, a roaring fire, and a lengthy wine list).
Health Honey – You might not hear ‘Oldham’ and think of cold pressed juices and acai bowls, but along came Health Honey in the village of Greenfield to change all that. This health-conscious cafe serves a brilliant range of breakfasts, lunches and drinks, including poke and buddha bowls, pancakes, and plant-powered full Englishes.
Donkeystone Brewing Co. – The craze for taprooms, where you can drink practically straight from the source and watch beer being brewed in front of you, has stretched over to Saddleworth. Donkeystone’s taproom serves craft beers in a space draped in fairy lights, and street food on the side.
Shopping
The Old Cobblers in Greenfield. Credit: The Old Cobblers
Uppermill in particular is an absolute hive of independent business, from local produce to clothing to gifts.
There’s Authentic, which describes itself as a treasure trove of artisan products; Puddleducks, which sells beautiful children’s clothing; and ‘slow fashion’ boutique Suki’s Wardrobe.
ADVERTISEMENT
You can pick up wines and spirits from Saddleworth Wine Vault or browse the mouth-watering deli selection at Oliviccio.
Then there’s the lovely Towpath Book Shop, sandwiched into a tiny building on the high street.
Credit: Suki’s Wardrobe
The Reclamation Room is a vibrant creative space for the community, and it’s also home to Style&Salvaged, which sources and sells ethical products.
Over in Delph, we’re very excited to see the doors to The Frostery Living’s homeware store open in the coming weeks.
A relative newcomer in Greenfield is The Old Cobblers, which sells natural wine, craft beer, great coffee and a range of gifts.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nightlife and hotels
Credit: Muse Uppermill
If you’re wanting to go out dancing into the wee small hours, you’ll probably need to head a bit further towards Oldham town centre.
Having said that, the pubs here are usually buzzing into the evening, and Muse in Uppermill is open past midnight (with cocktail deals, DJs to go with your Sunday roast, and some occasional celeb spotting).
On the last Sunday of every month, the Off The Rails Comedy Club pulls up at The Royal George in Greenfield.
When it comes to accommodation, you’re spoilt for choice.
Two beautiful Airbnbs in Saddleworth. Credit: Airbnb
You can stay in several of the aforementioned pubs – like the Old Bell Inn and The White Hart – or rest your head in one of many beautiful cottages around Saddleworth.
This converted barn, complete with huge arched window, wooden beams, and loads of outside space, is pretty special too.
Culture
The Trinnacle above Dove Stone Reservoir. Credit: Instagram @peopleofthepeak
In a corner of Greater Manchester as picturesque as this, the great outdoors really is the best place to spend your spare time.
You can take a leisurely stroll or cycle along the many waterways, walk the perimeter of Dovestone Reservoir, or tackle the more challenging beauty spot above it (but be careful on this one, as more than a few walkers have come into trouble on the route).
It’s been cancelled again this year, but the Yanks weekend is usually a staple of Saddleworth’s cultural calendar, transporting the area back to the 1940s complete with entertainment, costume, vehicles and a parade.
You’ll also find a jazz festival, a blues festival, an art week, a traditional Rushcart and loads more things going on throughout the year.
The Weaver’s Factory is a contemporary art gallery that’s well worth a visit, and Uppermill Library is housed in one of the most beautiful buildings in the area.
Property
The outside of Hollins Hill Farm. Credit: Yorkshire’s Finest
Considering how beautiful and green Saddleworth it, there’s still a lot of relatively affordable property to be found (especially when you compare it to leafy suburbs like Altrincham and Didsbury).
According to the Land Registry, the average property price over the last year was £273,523, with the majority of homes sold being terraced houses.
ADVERTISEMENT
On the market currently you’ll find something at all ends of the budget spectrum.
Of all the villages in Saddleworth, Greenfield is the one that’s best-served by public transport.
The Transpennine Express train from Manchester to Huddersfield stops off here fairly regularly.
For the rest of Saddleworth, you’ll be reliant on buses to get around, like the 350 bus which helpfully weaves its way through Greenfield, Uppermill and Delph – and even stops right outside the Albion Farm Shop and Cafe.
Featured image: Unsplash
Feature
The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pasta and dumpling restaurant that just made the Michelin Guide
Georgina Pellant
Over in Manchester’s Green Quarter, there is a charming restaurant serving up some of the best pasta in the city.
Called The Sparrows, last week it was revealed as one of the new additions to the prestigious Michelin Guide – a recognition that’s truly well deserved.
Long beloved by Manchester foodies, it takes its name from its signature dish, spätzle: a thick, irregularly-shaped pasta so named because its dough looks like birds in flight when scraped, wet, from the board straight into a boiling pan of water.
One-half of the couple behind the restaurant, Chef Franco Concli, hails from Trentino in the north of Italy where dishes often share influences with neighbouring Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The other, Kasia Hitchcock, was born in Poland close to the Ukrainian border, where dumplings are a comforting part of the food culture.
It makes sense, then, that on the menu you’ll find plump handmade pierogi and pelimeni dumplings stuffed with the likes of cottage cheese and potato, mushroom and homemade sauerkraut, listed alongside gnocchi, pappardelle, tortelli, and the pasta that started it all, spätzle.
The kase spätzle is a must-order dish at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
The pasta dish from which The Sparrows takes its name. / Image: The Manc Eats
One of the beauties of the menu here, specials aside, is that you pick your own pasta and sauce combination. Sauce options include butter and sage, tomato, guanciale, and bolognese, but the must-order dish, the one I always go back to, is the kase spätzle.
Essentially a grown-up, Germanic version of mac and cheese, think fresh egg noodles enveloped in creamy gruyere and Emmental cheese sauce, with braised onions adding a touch of sweetness. It’s a Swabian specialty but also very popular in Germany, Switzerland, and now Manchester too.
As for the bar, there is an enticing list of low-intervention Germanic and Polish wines, plus a strong sake menu.
Before The Sparrows, Kasia’s sake company supplied Umezushi. Now sadly closed, it was once Manchester’s best sushi restaurant and a key player in helping the couple get their start up here.
Pierogi dumplings at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
Pappardelle with chorizo, cherry tomato, spinach and cream at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
Owners had recently converted the archways opposite into prep kitchens, and it was here in 2019 that it all began, with dumplings and spätzle served in a tiny arch that seated twelve at a push.
Needless to say, after a rave from Jay Rayner in The Guardian the restaurant quickly outgrew Mirabel Street and moved to a new, bigger arch no more than five or ten minutes walk away.
As time has gone on, its settings and service have become undeniably sleeker. Its menu, however, has stayed pretty much the same – including its low prices.
On my first ever visit in the summer of 2019, I think my friend and I spent just over £50 on a three course meal with wine. This time, a plate of spätzle is still only £10.50 shared between two of us.
Given everything that’s going on in the restaurant industry, and the fact that I recently saw a far inferior plate of pasta listed at £16.50 in another Manchester restaurant, it’s a very pleasant surprise.
The daily special, tortelli stuffed with butternut squash with an amaretti biscuit crumb. Image: The Manc Eats
The menu at The Sparrows is still amazingly good value despite its ever-growing prestige. / Image: The Manc Eats
As it ever was, the staples are still there: gnocchi and spätzle, pappardelle and a daily special, available to order with your sauce of choice from just £8 a plate.
We also try one of the specials, starting our meal sweet with tortell stuffed with butternut squash and seasoned with the almond crunch of an amaretti crumb.
Add to that long ribbons of pappardelle with an indulgent mix of chorizo, cherry tomato, spinach and cream, a small plate of fresh and fragrant dill-fermented cucumbers, and an excellent bottle of Teliana Valley orange wine, and suffice to say our table was a very happy one indeed.
The house pierogi still come stuffed with the same choices of potato and cottage cheese, or sauerkraut and mushroom, and popular sides of salted rosemary focaccia and sauerkraut are correct and present, priced from £3.75.
Even better, dumplings can be ‘mixed and matched’ at the chef’s discretion – a good option if you can’t decideon your order and want to try a bit of everything.
Inside The Sparrows on Red Bank. / Image: The Manc Eats
Dill-fermented cucumbers at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
As for the dessert menu, there’s still the sweet spätzle with cinnamon butter and brown sugar, as well as Daz’s wife’s brownie (Daz being their postman), although I regret to report I overindulged so immensely on the savoury portion of the meal I was too far gone to contemplate a pudding.
The restaurant itself is chic and stylish, with statement lighting fixtures and tall glass windows looking into an open kitchen. But the real marvel is what comes out on your plate.
No doubt it will soon be inundated with new fans, as it should be. Run, don’t walk, whilst you can still get a table. This really is some of the best pasta in town.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Feature
I tried the Manchester roast with a dedicated cauliflower cheese menu named the ‘UK’s best’
Georgina Pellant
Right, let’s talk cauliflower cheese for a moment. A non-negotiable on a roast dinner, I like mine steaming hot and encased in cheesy bechamel, slightly charred on top and oozing in the middle.
Truth be told, I’m more attached to cauliflower cheese than Yorkshire puddings (blasphemy up north, I know). Miss a Yorkshire off my roast and – as long as I’ve not ordered beef – we’ll be absolutely fine. But forget the cauliflower cheese? Well, I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive you.
Then at the start of this year, its Sunday roast offering was named the best in the UK. So, in the interests of roast-loving Mancs everywhere, I dutifully trotted down to give it a go. The things I have to do in the name of journalism, honestly.
Macaroni cauliflower cheese at Ducie Street Warehouse. / Image: The Manc Eats
Rosemary roasted leg of lamb roast with the biggest Yorkshire pudding I’ve ever seen at Ducie Street Warehouse. / Image: The Manc Eats
Mentally prepared to eat my body weight in cheese, I’d already familiarised myself with the menu. Ok, technically two menus. Ducie Street Warehouse has a separate one just for its cauliflower cheeses: with eight different styles to choose from.
We’re talking cauliflower cheese with vintage cheddar, freshly shaved black truffle, bacon frazzles, garlic and herb crumble, four kinds of cheese, blue cheese, macaroni, plus a cheezy option for the vegans.
According to the team, it’s ‘the ultimate Sunday side that deserves a place of its own.’ I couldn’t agree more.
As for the rest, its separate ‘Sunday with Sides’ menu also seemingly has it all. Dry-aged local shorthorn beef sirloin, W.H. Frost premium chicken breast, rosemary roasted leg of lamb and a weekly-changing vegan roast ‘with all the trimmings’.
Add to that its promising-sounding ‘Slice Of ‘SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE’ – a carvery-style mixed-meat plate priced at £27.50 – and it does seem like they’ve really thought of it all.
Cauliflower cheese topped with Frazzles and bacon bits at Ducie Street Warehouse. / Image: The Manc Eats
Cauliflower cheese topped with freshly grated black truffle at Ducie Street Warehouse. / Image: The Manc Eats
I opt for a pink leg of lamb, whilst my cheese-eating partner in crime goes for the beef (which also comes out beautifully pink). Both are served with crispy roasties on a mountain of seasonal veg, topped with the biggest singular Yorkshire puddings I think I’ve ever seen.
Gravy is generous, but there’s an extra jug plopped onto our table too – just in case. Being a gravy glutton, I pile it on. It comes out a bit thick for my liking, but still tastes delicious nonetheless.
As for the cauliflower cheese? It’s worth every bit of hype it gets. We try the umami-rich black truffle, blue cheese, macaroni and Frazzles options, filling our tiny table for two with an absolute mountain of cauliflower.
As ever, my eyes are bigger than my belly, but I give it a good go: packing up the rest to take home and eat in bed later.
I won’t beat around the bush. This is a deceptively BIG roast. Granted, we did order four portions of cauliflower cheese on the side, but still. Some roasts look good but lack substance. Not this one. This is the roast that keeps on giving.
Further add-ons include Tuscan pork stuffing, honey-roasted heirloom rainbow carrots, maple roasted parsnips, lemon and garlic broccoli gratin, macaroni cheese, plus extra Yorkshire puddings and gravy, not that we can manage it.
I’d definitely go back with a group, though, and see if we can get through it all. I honestly can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday.
Daisy Jackson -
15th July 2022 
