News

Wetherspoons to sell off 32 pubs amid rising bills and inflation

The budget pub chain has listed 32 of its UK pubs for sale in what it described as a "commercial decision"

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 27th September 2022

Now is not a great time to be running a hospitality business, that much is clear. At the moment the closure announcements are coming in almost daily – and now it appears that even the UK pub giant Wetherspoons is feeling the bite.

The chain, run by arch Brexiteer Tim Martin, has listed 32 of its English pubs for sale online as it battles against rising bills and record inflation alongside the rest of the UK’s hospitality industry.

Of the pubs that are set to close, ten of them are in the capital whilst the rest are spread out across the country.

Whilst no pubs are closing in Greater Manchester, there are two pubs across the Pennines up for sale in Yorkshire, and another nearby in the Wirral.

Describing the move as a “commercial decision”, the pub group said it understood that staff and customers will be disappointed with the news to close the boozers.

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It added that the pubs would continue to operate as Wetherspoon outlets until they are sold, at which point they will close for good.

The Waterhouse. / Image: Flickr

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “On occasion Wetherspoon does put some of its pubs up for sale.

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“This is a commercial decision. We understand that customers and staff will be disappointed with it. The pubs will continue to operate as Wetherspoon outlets until they are sold.”

CBRE and Savills have been appointed to market the pubs for sale, The Caterer reports.

Toby Hall, senior director at CBRE, said: “The excellent mix of locations in this portfolio is rarely seen in the market.

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Read more: Chorlton neighbourhood favourite The Creameries has permanently closed

“With more than half of the portfolio located in London and the south-east and other strong locations in the south-west, Midlands and [north of England] we believe the pubs represent an excellent opportunity for existing pub operators and new entrants”.

Which JD Wetherspoon pubs are set for closure?

  • Barnsley – Silkstone Inn
  • Beaconsfield – Hope & Champion
  • Bexleyheath – Wrong ‘Un
  • Bournemouth – Christopher Creeke
  • Cheltenham – Bank House
  • Durham – Water House
  • Halifax – Percy Shaw
  • Hanham – Jolly Sailor
  • Harrow – Moon on the Hill
  • Hove – Cliftonville Inn
  • London Battersea – Asparagus
  • London East Ham – Miller’s Well
  • London Eltham – Bankers Draft
  • London Forest Gate – Hudson Bay
  • London Forest Hill – Capitol
  • London Hornsey – Toll Gate
  • London Holborn – Penderel’s Oak
  • London Islington – Angel
  • London Palmers Green – Alfred Herring
  • Loughborough – Moon & Bell
  • Loughton – Last Post
  • Mansfield – Widow Frost
  • Middlesbrough – Resolution
  • Purley – Foxley Hatch
  • Redditch – Rising Sun
  • Sevenoaks – Sennockian
  • Southampton – Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis
  • Stafford – Butler’s Bell
  • Watford – Colombia Press
  • West Bromwich – Billiard Hall
  • Willenhall – Malthouse
  • Wirral – John Masefield

Feature image – Geograph

News

Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data

Danny Jones Danny Jones Yorkshire Tea is Manchester's favourite teabag

The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.

It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.

This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.

At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?

mancunians favourite brand of teabags
According to the stats, Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)

Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.

With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.

The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.

In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:

RankTeaAverage UK monthly searches
1Yorkshire Tea27,100
2PG Tips18,100
3Pukka Tea14,800
4Twinings12,100
5Teapigs8,100
6Whittards Tea6,600
7Tetley4,400
8Clipper Tea4,400
9Lipton Tea3,600
10Barrys Tea3,600
11Thompsons Tea1,300
12Typhoo1,300
13Taylors Tea1,300
14M&S Tea1,300
15Tesco Tea1,000
16Tick Tock Tea880
17Sainsbury’s Tea720
18Lyons Tea720
19Asda Tea590
20Aldi Tea590
21Waitrose Tea590
22Lidl Tea480
23Morrisons Tea320
24Bewleys Tea90
25Cafedirect Tea40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?

While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?

As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.

Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.

“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…

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Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)

News

Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.

This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.

It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.

And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.

Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.

Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.

A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM

“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.

“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”

He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.

As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.

The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.

During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.

The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM

Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.

Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.

“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.

Read more:

“These jawbones provide tantalising evidence that perhaps one day a complete skull or skeleton of one of these giants might be found.”

Featured Image – UoM

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