Over in Bury, there’s a charming East Lancashire Railway pub that’s just won a huge award for its collection of real ales and ciders.
Called The Trackside, you’ll find it at the heritage railway’s Bury Bolton Street Station serving up a huge selection of special beers and ales from local breweries, like Brightside’s Odin Blonde – brewed just down the road in Radcliffe.
Recently voted the area’s Pub of the Year by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the award-winning booze is also a former CAMRA Cider Pub of the Year winner -boasting five different ciders, all dispensed from its cellar.
Image: The Trackside Pub
The pub combines some really excellent cask and keg ales with the nostalgia of the East Lancashire Railway, with a whopping 11 different hand pumps all permanently in use – one permanently pours the pub’s house ale, whilst the rest fluctuate with a variety of regularly-changing guests beers.
It also offers canopy seating on the station platform itself for those wanting to make the most of the full train station experience, a spot that’s a veritable sun trap when the Gods are blessing us (and with ample wall heaters that can be switched on the rest of the time).
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Inside, arches and alcoves are covered with old beer pump labels, whilst old globe chandeliers hang from the ceiling throwing a warm light across happy punters swigging their pints of local beer.
Image: The Trackside Pub
It’s easy to see why the Rochdale, Oldham and Bury branch of CAMRA named The Trackside its Pub of the Year for 2022.
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Voting was carried out by members of the local CAMRA branch, who looked at a number of elements including the selection of real ales and ciders available at the pub, service, welcome, inclusiveness, comfort and community feeling.
Tim Stronach, Supervisor at The Trackside, said: “After the difficult last few years we’ve come back stronger than ever, the entire Trackside team especially Thomas Jackson who runs the cellar. I could be here mentioning names all day over who deserves a shout out – the whole team work incredibly hard to deliver an excellent experience for our customers and it’s an honour to have played a part in the pub being named Bury area Pub of the Year.”
Local CAMRA Chairman, Peter Alexander comments: “I am delighted that this excellent pub has been chosen by a vote of our members. These awards are always closely contested and the exacting standards plus a great choice of real ale and cider have clearly been recognised.
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“The whole team at the Trackside is to be congratulated, with a special mention to Tim Stronach for his superb cellar work in ensuring beer and cider is always presented at its best. Congratulations to a very worthy winner.”
ELR Chairman, Mike Kelly, added: “The Trackside at Bury Bolton Street and Buffer Stops at Rawtenstall are an important and integral part of the heritage railway experience. Today we pay tribute to the entire Trackside team past and present, and this award is for them and recognises that they know their beers.”
Tipped for a renovation any day, make sure to get in touch before planning your visit – just in case they’ve started work already.
For information on upcoming events at The Trackside, visit the pub’s Facebook page here.
Food & Drink
Crown and Kettle set to take over another former Northern Quarter bar
Danny Jones
The team behind beloved Ancoats pub The Crown and Kettle have announced that they are set to take over another former bar and restaurant location in nearby Northern Quarter.
We were gutted to see the old place go, but at least we can’t think of many better to take over the unit.
The historic watering hole on the corner of Oldham Road and Great Ancoats Street is said to have stood in that spot since the 18th century, but now the present owners have confirmed they’ll be taking on a third venue, having also opened The Rat and Pigeon back in June 2024.
Many of you may have been to one or multiple of its previous iterations of the site in question over the years, but most recently, it was the Calcio sports bar – and soon it’ll become ‘The Badger’.
Revealing the news online last week, Crown and Kettle wrote: “We’re delighted to announce that our new pub, The Badger, arrives on Dale Street this spring!
“Once home to Calcio, Allotment & Nickelbys, this beautiful old building first served as The Haunch of Venison public house back in the early 1800s. Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work, quietly bringing it back to life & returning it to its roots as a community pub.
“With The Badger, we’ve set out to create the kind of place we love most, warm, welcoming, full of character, with all the charm of a great countryside pub in the heart of the city.
“Expect cosy corners, traditional pub foods, fine ales & the warmest of welcomes. Made for regulars. Open to all. Worth returning to. We can’t wait to welcome you to your new city centre local. GET SET(T)…” Oh, very good indeed.
We visited Calcio many times over the past couple of years, both for work and pleasure in our own free time; it was a great place to watch the footy, enjoy some matchday scran and roll back the years with retro videogames.
As mentioned, though, not only did it used to be one of multiple Allotment vegan and vegetarian eateries in Greater Manchester – thankfully, their presence still remains in multiple buildings – but it has a past long before that which many people bring up on social media.
Insert, “I remember when…’ post.
While we might not know much about what they have in store for this next chapter, knowing how much we love their current city centre favourites, we’re very excited.
As it stands, we’re also yet to hear anything about a more precise opening date, but at least we know it’s coming sometime soon, and we have every faith they’re going to smash it.
Georgina Pellant -
1st April 2022 
