Manchester

MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE, CASTLEFIELD, SPINNINGFIELDS, SINCLAIR’S OYSTER BAR, NORTHERN QUARTER

Distance: 5 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Dry with sunshine later

Walkers: Alan Hart, George Whaites, George Dearsley, Colin Davison, Mickey Barrett, Tom Cunliffe, Alistair Cairns, John Crellin, Julian Ross, Chris Corps, Nigel Crank, Steve Courtney

Apologies: Lawrie Fairman (hearing aid test), Pete Beal (Cotswolds), Jock Rooney (Belize)

Leader: Cunliffe  Diarist: Dearsley

Starting point: Manchester Piccadilly Station

Starting time: 10am. Finishing time: 4.40pm

A walk with a difference…a tour of Manchester, taking in the canals, the River Irwell, a number of city centre hostelries and a wonderful cheap curry house.

Amazingly, it was a Tom Cunliffe designed walk which did not include any coronary-inducing hills and for which he actually turned up. Top man.

Leaving Piccadilly Station we walked down what was once known as the “Lazy S” and turned right at the lights opposite 111 Piccadilly with Café Nero on the right.

We turned left into Dale Street and then immediately right down some steps onto the canal.

We turned sharp left and found ourselves under a building at lock 85.

Mr Ross pointed out a security camera and described how this was once linked to a Tannoy system (now defunct) which would warn homosexuals engaging  in sexual coupling to clear off.

My picture below shows two individuals smiling at the camera and I’m presuming their faces are now on the digital records of Greater Manchester Police.

Gotcha!

 We emerged from the canalside and walked into Canal Street, part of the Gay Village, of course.

We turned left at Princess Street and returned to the canal, going back on ourselves at lock 97.

We past lock 98 and just after Tib Lock, Mr Ross described how a man who had jumped into the canal and tried to swim across died of hypothermia.

There were insinuations that he, too, had been engaged in lewd acts with another man.

If he wasn’t stiff when he entered the water, he certainly was when they dragged him out.

The Wanderers enter Canal Street….buttocks clenched.

We passed lock 91. Here the Bridgewater Canal becomes the Rochdale Canal.

We entered Catalan Square, passing Barca, the restaurant founded by Mick Hucknall.

We crossed a footbridge and walked down to the canal with Barca now away to our right.

This took us through Castlefield. Here are two “epic” cast iron viaducts, one built in 1877 (to bring London trains into Manchester Central Station) and the other in 1894 (which took goods trains into the Great Northern Railway Company’s warehouse).

Castlefield is named after the Roman fort that once stood here. The railway viaducts chopped up the Roman site. But the Victorian engineers and architects acknowledged the existence of the Roman heritage by embellishing their viaducts with castles.

Canal Treat

We came off the canal at Hulme Hall Road. We crossed a bridge over the Irwell and turned right.

Mr Ross then gave a gory account of the murder of Lee Erdmann in September 2011 at the Wellington pub not far away.

 Lee had been standing at the bar talking to another man. At around 2.50am it is believed he turned to walk away from the bar and was shot. He died almost instantly.

The gunman then walked over to Lee and shot him again in the chest before stamping on his face. He then turned the gun on the remaining twenty or so people in the pub told them all his name and threatened them not to say anything to police.

The killer left the pub and Lee's body was driven to a nearby hospital. The firearm has not been recovered, neither has a hard drive containing the pub's CCTV footage which was removed that very night. Surprising that.

Police believe they know the identity of the murderer but no one will testify.

A villain called Bradley Walsh (who helped beat a pub landlord to death during a botched robbery some years earlier) has been questioned by police in connection with Erdmann’s death but not charged.

We crossed a bridge, went left and left again and walked down to the River Irwell.

Here we turned left.

However, our progress was halted by a workman who said the path was being repaired and a new footbridge built and that we were trespassing. He guided us onto the road and escorted us 50 yards or so on to a walkway which led back to the riverside.

He looked a bit sorry that he couldn’t join us for the rest of our walk.

We headed forward and took a footbridge just before the Mark Addy pub. (11.30am).

This brought us to Spinningfields, with Café Rouge on our left.

We turned right and passed the Crown Court on our left turning right just before the Oast House.

We turned into St Mary’s Street and onto Deansgate turning left, crossing the road near the Cathedral.

At 11.49am we found ourselves at Sinclair’s Oyster Bar. Lager was £2.12, Sam Smith’s bitter £1.84 and Sam Smith’s mild £1.38.

The building (next door) that is now The Old Wellington Inn was built in 1552 next to Manchester's market square.

 In 1554 it was purchased by the Byrom family and became part residence and part drapers shop. The writer John Byrom was born there in 1692. The premises were licensed in 1862 and became the Vintners Arms, then the Kenyon Vaults and later The Old Wellington Inn. The building was extended in the 18th century to house John Shaw's Punch House which, as the name suggests, was licensed for the sale of strong alcoholic punch and became a meeting place for High Tories and possibly Jacobites.

Customers usually assembled around 6 o'clock and, according to rule, called for "sixpennyworth of punch". John Shaw was a stickler for discipline, having formerly been a trooper and fought in the wars of Queen Anne's reign, and the rules of the establishment were strictly enforced.

Eight o'clock was the hour fixed by law for closing and, as soon as the clock struck eight, Shaw would present himself before his guests and proclaim in a loud voice "Eight o'clock gentlemen, eight o'clock!" accompanying the announcement with the suggestive cracking of a horsewhip.

This would normally soon clear the house but, if the cracking of the whip failed his maid, Molly Owen, was ordered to bring in a pail of water to "expedite the movement of the loiterer". Maybe Tom can bring that one back, if he already hasn’t.

Shaw was master of the punch house for 58 years until he died in 1796 at the age of 83. After Shaw's death the punch house became "Sinclair's", until oysters were introduced to the menu in 1845 and it became known as "Sinclair's Oyster Bar", the name it retains to this day.

When the area around these buildings was redeveloped in the 1970s, the Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair’s Oyster Bar were jacked up and secured on a steel and concrete foundation. They became part of a square behind the old Marks and Spencer store.

We set off again at 12.31 pm, passing the Corn Exchange where we met a man dressed up as a rabbit, or maybe your diarist was hallucinating.

We passed the Printworks and headed for Shudehill.

We turned onto High Street and left into Thomas Street.

Sign of the times

Bunny boiler

Chip Advisor

You can’t curry love….no you just have to wait

We turned left into Soap Street and soon found ourselves (at 12.39 pm) at a curry house called This and That.

As one correspondent to Trip Advisor said: “Decent. Just don’t take your bird here”.

Others (on a site called Yelp, for example) make the grandiose claim that the rather scruffy restaurant serves the best Indian food in the UK.

In 2013 the Guardian no less described it thus.

Tucked down a side street in the Northern Quarter, This & That is one of the area's original curry cafes, where you can pick-up a filling "rice 'n' three" (choices of curry) for a few quid. It's a no-frills joint, but the food is fresh, homemade and uses whole spices to give the dishes the kind of wallop of flavour that you wouldn't normally expect at a sub-£5 price. The various lamb curries usually deliver a good savoury gravy and a reasonable amount of tasty meat, but, for me, its the veggie curries – particularly the chana masala, the daals and the spinach curry – that really sing with flavour. The help-yourself curry toppings (coriander, green chillies, raw onion) are a nice touch, and, of the supplementary snacks, the samosas (a shade greasy, perhaps, but packed with beautifully seasoned mince, potato and onion) are recommended.

After enjoying a fine repast (my chicken curry and an onion bhaji side dish came to £5.20) we left the diner at 1.03pm, turning back into Thomas Street, right into High Street and across Market Street into Fountain Street.

We went left into York Street and right into Mosley Street.

We walked through Chinatown turning left into Nicholas Street and right onto Portland Street.

Our next destination was the Old Monkey, which we entered at 1.17pm. Joseph Holt’s bitter was £2.57, Crystal Lager £2.84.

We left the pub at 2pm and headed for the City Inn. Here Tim Taylor’s Golden Best was £3.30.

On the wall was a haunting quotation, which, it turns out had been slightly altered.

It should read:

"From the towns all inns have been driven; from the villages most….change your hearts or you will lose your inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your inns drown your empty selves for you will have lost the last of England."

As every schoolboy knows this comes from the pen of Hilaire Belloc, (27 July 1870 – 16 July 1953) an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902, but kept his French citizenship.  He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, sailor, satirist, man of letters, soldier and political activist.

He is most notable for his Catholic faith, which had a strong impact on his works, and his writing collaboration with G. K. Chesterton. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds, but also widely regarded as a humane and sympathetic man.

His most lasting legacy is probably his verse, which encompasses comic verses for children and religious poetry. Among his best-remembered poems are from his humorous Cautionary Tales for Children, including "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burnt to death".

At this point Mr Davison bailed out (2.25pm) as did Mr Crank, who at least had the excuse that – suitably full of ale - he was going to a job interview. (Good luck with that). Mr Corps went with him to ensure he arrived.

We moved on to the Town Hall Tavern, to be greeted by Tim Taylor’s at £3.40 and the inimitable landlord “Mad George”, a Greek former club owner and bar manager who has been a Manchester legend for at least four decades.

On the wall is a collection of photographs with George meeting many other legends including George Best, Franny Lee and Joe Mercer.

Mad George

Our final stop was the Bull’s Head, on London Road, near Piccadilly Station. Congratulations to the five who completed the course.

Walkers : John Laverick, Terry Jowett, Ken Sparrow, Mike Walton
Non Walking Drinkers : Tony Job
Weather : Fine and dry
Distance : 5.75miles
Diarist and Leader J Laverick

Despite the Diarist being accused of trying to finish off the B Team one by one (according to Wally) the Diarist was allowed to plan and lead a walk around the Poynton area. It has to be said thought that the leader faced a rebellion half way round the route and was forced to take up a shorter route in order to maximise the beer time at the first comfort break.

For the third week running the B Team walk exceeded 5 miles with out the aid of a bus during the walk. The route was chosen to try and incorporate paths not usually walked by the B
Team. It was noticed that one walker felt unhappy with the route because at each turn he was heard to say "we always go the other way".

Leaving the Sports Club at the appointed hour of 10:00 hours we turned right away from Poynton turning right up the Princess incline. Continued up the incline to Towers Road here we turned left. Proceeded along Towers Road until the first footpath sign on the right which runs past the remains of the ice house.

Continue up this path ignoring signs to the right and left. Follow the path up to the track. Through the gate turn left along the track. Follow the track to the end bear left following footpath sign along the path until 2 styles are met. Take the second style turning right to proceed along the fence line. Continue up the field until a style is found, over the style turn left towards the gate, style to the left of the gate.

Over the style following the track past New House Farm until it meets Middlewood Road, turn left proceed along to Pool House Road, turn right. Proceed along through Jackson Brick Works Car
Park picking up the Ladybrook Valley Interest Trail footpath. Turn left at gate past Pool House Farm following the trail up to a bridge over the canal.

Over the bridge follow the track to Middlecale Farm. At the farm turn left up the track until footpath crossroads, turn right along foot path to style. Over style turn right to next style, over turning left following field boundary to next style, over turn right towards Barlow House Farm. Follow signs to next style, over turning right onto drive which leads to bridge over canal.

Cross bridge turn left along canal path to Poynton Marina, through car park, over Middlewood Way to the Boars Head.

Beer was Black Sheep and was very good. It was here that Wally was going to get a bus back to Poynton but the kind Mr Job offered him a lift to the final stop, Farmers Arms.

Suitably refreshed the remaining 3 set off back to the Farmers via the usual route down Anson Road.

Next weeks walk will again leave from the Sports Club at 10:00hours. The walk will be to Bollington via the Middlewood Way. Comfort break at the Dog and Partridge, returning to Poynton via a bus.

Next week’s A walk will start from the Lantern Pike at 9.40am and Tom is threatening to take us all up Kinder again. The half way point will be the Sportsman. Sadly your diarist will be w*rking.