Former Manchester United midfielder and Salford City FC’s CEO, Nicky Butt, surprised nearby locals with free ice creams and free holidays this week. Now kicking ourselves that we don’t work in Salford Quays.
Popping up in a little blue ice cream van over in Media City, the Class of ’92 legend and Ammies boss teamed up with the Salford City‘s new sponsor loveholidays to hand out not only free scoops to Mancs in the area but a few free getaways to five lucky sods.
The club have recently signed a new partnership with the UK’s largest online travel agent for the 2023/24 season, with the affordable holiday provider sponsoring matchday highlights and offering exclusive holiday-themed competitions for fans throughout the year. Mint.
All that being said, the company didn’t just wanna be yet another football sponsor and so they roped in Butt and Salford defender Liam Shephard to help hand out the free ice creams and make five fortunate Salfordians‘ day, maybe even year, by surprising them with a free holiday.
He was always known for doing whatever job was asked of him.And you always do what the gaffer says…Nicky Butt gives you an ice cream and a free holiday. Totally normal. (Credit: Ben Stevens)
Parking the loveholidays ice cream truck up in the MediaCityUK precinct to serve up a taste of summer on one of the few sunny days we’ve actually had over the past couple of months, the pair put in a different shift from their every day by doing their best impressions of the Great British ice cream man.
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Speaking on the new sponsorship deal and the fun event, Salford’s Marketing Director Katy Leeson said, “We’re pleased to welcome loveholidays on board for the 2023-24 season, and we are really looking forward to working closely with them.
“As a club, we want to work with the right partners, and as a growing brand looking to offer the lowest-priced holidays for our supporters and the Salford community, this is a great opportunity.”
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As for the brand itself, Chief Marketing Officer Al Murray added: “We’re delighted to be joining Salford City Football Club as its official holiday partner and to celebrate our partnership, we wanted to bring some sunshine to Salford with the help of Nicky and Liam.”
Look at that queue.Nice one, Nicky – hope you saved us one (a holiday we mean).
What a great little campaign, well done, guys. Next time though, instead of the Quays can you do it more central — maybe just outside The Manc office? Nice one, cheers.
10 of the best green spaces around Greater Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Greater Manchester doesn’t have the leafiest of reputations, but if you know where to look there are a LOT of green spaces to be discovered in our region.
As the city expands upwards and outwards and glassy skyscrapers spike up into the skyline, most of us are just wandering the streets yearning to touch some grass.
Over the last couple of months, our team here at The Manc have been heading out of the office in search of the best green spaces around Greater Manchester.
And over that time, we’ve fallen back in love with some local favourites as well as discovering some really underrated spots to unwind and reconnect with nature.
The list below ranges from pockets of green in the city centre all the way out to rolling country parks, along with some super accessible beauty spots.
Here are our top picks.
Sale Water Park, Sale
Sale Water Park is one of the best green spaces in Greater Manchester
Peaceful walks, waterside views and a bit of sunshine (if we’re lucky) – there are plenty of hidden corners to explore at Sale Water Park.
After a long day at work, there’s nothing better than heading down here for a paddleboard, a walk by the water, or just a bit of calm away from the city chaos. You can dive into watersports, bring your own board, or keep it more low-key with a stroll and a coffee from the cafe.
Just a short hop on the tram or an easy drive down the M60, who knew views like this could be so close to Manchester?
Fletcher Moss is a firm favourite with Mancs in all seasons – in summer it’s an explosion of colour and flowers, in winter it’s transformed into a Narnia-esque landscape with eerie mist and twinkling frost.
Woodland walks, peaceful picnics, the river sliding past, flower gardens, coffee huts, boardwalks, and loads more.
Green spaces in Greater Manchester don’t get much better than Fletcher Moss, especially on a spectacularly sunny spring day.
Ancoats Marina gets a bit of stick these days as it’s swallowed up by luxury residential developments that are way out of reach for most of the residents who’ve called it home for generations.
But for those who live in the city centre, the greenery around the marina itself is a godsend and shows how good it is when neighbourhood preserve a bit of outdoor space.
As the years have gone on, the waterside neighbourhood has become home to top local indies like Pollen Bakery, Flawd wine bar, and Cask craft beer bar.
It’s a perfect escape from the concrete and high-rise everywhere else.
Where can you go on a walk where you get streams, lakes, woods, rivers, aqueducts, meadows, flower parks, playing fields, animals, mountain biking, great views of the city, and loads more?
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If you thought we were about to send you all the way into the Peak District, think again…
Drinkwater Park, which also links up with Prestwich Clough, Philips Park and Waterdale Meadow (and all the way to Clifton Country Park if you fancy a big walk) is a really varied spot to go for a big walk, and way underrated compared to Heaton Park across town.
Bramhall Park, Stockport
Bramhall Park, Stockport
There’s a massive Tudor manor that dates back to the Middle Ages just down the road in Stockport – and the park it’s in is a bit of a stunner too.
Bramhall Park is home to all sorts of gorgeous corners to discover, from a community garden with fresh herbs, The Stables Kitchen, open fields, streams and lakes.
As for Bramhall Hall itself, the stunning wattle and daub structure that stands tall on the top of the hill may currently be undergoing restorations, but that’s only so the rich history and culture can be kept intact, so keep an eye out for tours.
After a hectic week of hustle and bustle in the city, there’s nothing better than a nice stroll with views of a very impressive open water space.
Hollingworth Lake is one of Rochdale’s most impressive routes, and even has a cafe perfectly-positioned half way round too, on hand to whip you up an ice cream or two.
There’s plenty of green spaces throughout the region, but this spot is one of Rochdale’s most easily-accessible walking routes and the perfect idea for your next day out.
Heaton Park is no secret to anyone living within Greater Manchester, but sometimes it’s easy to overlook just how fantastic it is.
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This is the largest municipal park in Europe county’s biggest park, home to farm animals like Highland Cows, a boating lake, play areas, loads of fields, the historic tramway, and a magnificent 18th-century country house.
This really is one of the best green spaces in Greater Manchester – just maybe wait for Parklife to get out the way before you visit in June.
Mayfield Park, city centre
The opening of Mayfield Park was major news for Manchester city centre, as the city’s first new park in more than a century.
It’s hard to believe there was space for such a vast amount of greenery within the inner ring road, but here it is – a 6.5 acre public park, home to 142 trees, 120,000 shrubs and plants, a kids’ play yard with six slides, and beautiful meandering paths.
As the park was built, parts of the River Medlock were also uncovered, and the mighty river now slices through this pristine park.
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Castlefield Viaduct, city centre
Castlefield Viaduct
It’s not the greenest of green spaces, but there’s something magical about Castlefield Viaduct and how it marries together an industrial landscape with nature.
The Victorian-era steel viaduct, way above our heads in Castlefield, is slowly being transformed into a green ‘sky garden’ by the National Trust.
It’s free to visit, and from here you can wander along a section of the viaduct admiring plants and staggering views of the city centre, with plenty more still to come in the charity’s plans.
Don’t judge, don’t walk away, just hear us out here – Piccadilly Gardens, justifiably, has a rotten reputation in Manchester. It’s a hotspot for petty (and more serious) crime, plagued by flocks of pigeons, and gets completely flattened into a muddy pit by the Christmas Markets every year.
BUT the improvements that have happened here in the last few years are quite remarkable – pop down there on a sunny day right now and you’ll notice a chunk of the Piccadilly Wall has come down (yep, you can see the sky again), the grass is actually alive, and there are usually hundreds of people sprawled out on their lunch breaks.
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As city centre green spaces go… it’s not the worst.
A historic Stockport pub has officially become a listed building
Danny Jones
The Angel Inn pub in Stockport has officially become the thriving Greater Manchester borough’s latest listed building.
Being granted Grade II-listed status following an extensive visit and survey by Historic England (HE), Stockport Market Place’s Angel Inn may have had a lick of paint amidst the ‘Old Town Revival’ over the last decade or so, but the pub itself was erected back in the 16th century.
Reopened as one of the area’s most beloved boozers back in 2018, whilst still maintaining key fixtures and that feeling of authenticity, it harks back to the town’s Cheshire roots and taps into a deep vein of local culture.
The assessment, which was completed earlier this month, means that Angel Inn has been recognised as having special architectural or historic significance – i.e. the definition of a listed building.
Writing in a post on social media, the government-backed English heritage organisation detailed that while the inn predates the Early Modern/post-medieval period, the Angel‘s frame is comprised of wood from the 15th century.
But it gets even more interesting than that…
As well as being one of a select few surviving, traditional wattle-and-daub structures in the UK – nearby Bramall Hall being another (and a technique that had died out by the 18th century) – a close inspection of the internal floorboards unearthed something truly fascinating.
It just so happens that tests by HE proved that one particular plank of flooring “was cut from a tree alive in 1086, the year the Domesday Book was completed: the oldest government record held in The National Archives, commissioned by William the Conqueror.
How bloody cool is that?
It’s also worth noting that it’s genuinely a brilliant boozer and one of the most popular watering holes you’ll find in the town centre, promising a cosy interior, an intimate little outdoor area out back and serving plenty of regional ales.
You only have to glance at the exterior to clue into its age, let alone what there is to be found inside.Way back when.Credit: Historic England (handout)/Stockport Archives
Although they say it’s likely that the floorboard in question was originally cut for an earlier building situated in the same location, it still goes to show how old this particular North West settlement is.
“The name ‘Angel Inn’ dates from as early as 1769, though the site’s hospitality roots extend further, with references to “Cotterell’s inn” used for sequestrators’ meetings in the 1640s, who met to organise the confiscation of property of supporters of King Charles I during The English Civil War”, HE went on to add.
Angel Inn is one of only a handful of venues like this in Greater Manchester and Cheshire; safe to say a lot of time, effort and money are being put into preserving these links to the past.
Danny Jones -
17th August 2023 
