Crazy Golf at The Railway Hotel in Garswood, St Helens

A visit to the Crazy Golf course at The Railway Hotel in Garswood, St Helens.

Last Saturday we visited Garswood in St Helens, Merseyside as Emily had recently spotted what looked like a Crazy Golf course in a pub beer garden. The sighting was correct and The Railway Hotel in the St Helens village did indeed have a course!

Sadly the 9-hole Crazy Golf course was no longer in use. While we didn't get to have a game, we did however enjoy sitting in the sun in the beer garden before moving on to our next location.

A nice spot to spend a while on a sunny Saturday afternoon

We'd love to know more about the history of the pub beer garden Crazy Golf course. It looked like it had been there for quite some time. It's the sort of course a minigolf time machine would be perfect for so we could see what it was like when it was first built.

The course was the 906th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3 - 'Middle Hill', an obstacle found on Eternit Miniature Golf courses

Hole 3

Hole 4 also has a hint of an Eternit course about it

Hole 5

Hole 6

Hole 7

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 9 - we reckon this was a very tricky last hole to play

We've visited a few pubs with minigolf courses. The Railway's course reminded us most of the old concrete course at The Dolphin pub in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.

Related blog posts:
- What a weekend of minigolf!
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Bar Billiards at The Railway pub in Stockport

Finding a Bar Billiards table at The Railway pub in Stockport.

We're big fans of the old pub game of Bar Billiards so were very pleased to find a table at The Railway pub in Stockport on Saturday!

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play it as the pub had problems with its water supply and had to close while the emergency works were completed.

Bar Billiards Rules

We're looking forward to returning for a game or two in the future.

The Railway Pub in Stockport - you can see the table if you look in through this window

In 2017 we played the Bar Billiards table at The Blossoms pub on the A6. Like The Blossoms, the table at The Railway uses the four peg arrangement.

The table looks to be popular!

Coming from down south we're more used to seeing three pegs. We haven't seen too many four-peg tables on our Barmy Bar Billiards Trail. The ones at The Cheshire Cheese pub in London and The Chequers Inn at Knebworth spring to mind.

The nice and 'easy' 50-point holes are guarded by the white mushrooms in the four peg game

Related blog posts:
- Bar Billiards
- Pub Games
- Stockport
- Pubs

100% gluten free at The Compass Inn at Winsor

Finding a 100% gluten free pub restaurant in Winsor, Hampshire.

Our friend Cat recently heard about The Compass Inn at Winsor and by chance we found it was near to where we were staying for a wedding so we had to call in.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I must adhere to a strict gluten free diet. Dining out can be incredibly complicated and stressful and there are very often risks of cross-contamination in food preparation, cooking and serving - even in places with 'gluten free' menus.

I've been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease for eleven years and I now only dine out at places that are 100% gluten free that are suitable for people with diagnosed Coeliac Disease.

Luckily I've found a few new 100% gluten free places, so in the last month I've actually dined out a fair bit. In comparison to recent years this is really lavish.

As it was a Sunday Emily and I both opted for the Roast Dinners. It's been years since I had a Roast Dinner so it was a real treat.

My 100% gluten free roast dinner

While dining out should be a nice, easy and natural thing to do, it can be stressful for people with Coeliac Disease. Especially so when trying somewhere for the first time.

I enjoyed the meal at The Compass Inn and would return. What was really nice about the experience was that it was great to be able to pop in for a meal, be served a tasty plate of food and then be on our where with very little fuss or stress. It felt almost normal!

Check out The Compass Inn website for more info.

Related blog posts:
- 100% gluten free places in the UK
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

Link:
- The Compass Inn

Cheers II Worthing

The pub where everybody probably doesn't know your name.

Cheers II in Worthing

100% gluten free at The Eltisley in Cambridgeshire

A visit to The Eltisley gastropub near St Neots.

It was brilliant to have a meal out yesterday and such a novelty.

There are only a handful of 100% gluten free places in the UK so it was marvellous to visit The Eltisley for lunch.

They do a cracking Banoffee Pie

The menu is 100% gluten free and safe for Coeliacs, you can find out more on The Eltisley's website.

Update (2021): The Eltisley no longer offers a 100% gluten free menu.

Malt Disley!

Malt Disley - a Micro Bar and Bottle Shop in Disley, Cheshire East.

A few months ago we drove through Disley and spotted this brilliant bar/shop name. Yesterday I returned to get a snap of it.

What a play on words

Link:
- Malt Disley

Related blog posts:
- Funny sign
- Bootleg

Visiting two more 'small' pubs

Over the years we've visited quite a few small pubs, each with their own particular claims.

We've had a drink at the Smallest Pub on the Planet (it's in Cleethorpes) and Britain's Smallest Pub (in Southport). While in Blackpool we called in at The Mitre, which is that town's smallest boozer.

Bar Bach - Little Bar - in Caernarfon is the smallest bar in Wales

Recently we popped into Bar Bach in Caernarfon and The Q Inn in Stalybridge.

Bar Bach is the smallest bar in Wales. We've encountered the word 'bach' on our minigolf travels too as we've played a few Golff Bach Cwrs. Bach means 'little'.

Proof

When you get inside you find out that bar is actually split and sits across two addresses!

The second address is for the cafe there.

The Q Inn is the public house with the shortest name in the United Kingdom. As certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 1995. It was a nice pub and worth a look.
 

The Q Inn is quite large

Related blog posts:
- A visit to the Smallest Pub on the Planet
- The Lakeside Inn at Southport, Britain's Smallest Pub
- Blackpool's Smallest Pub - The Mitre
- The Corner Bar in Stockport Market
- Pubs
- Pub

Bar Billiards at The Smithfield Market Tavern in Manchester

Spotting a Bar Billiards table at The Smithfield Market Tavern.

While having a day out in Manchester we were wandering along Swan Street in the Northern Quarter and noticed a sign in a pub that said 'Bar Billiards'! We had to go in for a further look.

The pub has a nice Bar Billiards area

Unfortunately the barman told us the Bar Billiards table was out of order as somebody had poured beer down the 200-points-hole so the mechanism was broken.

Never a good sign

As the game is only getting rarer it's more difficult to find people to repair them, although he did say he hoped it would be fixed soon. We're looking forward to revisiting The Smithfield Market Tavern for a game or two in the future.

Always nice to see The Rules of Bar Billiards on display - it can be a mysterious game to play without them

As well as Bar Billiards The Smithfield Market Tavern also has Table Skittles, Shove Ha'penny and Darts. The darts area also has a brilliant scoring machine!

Shove Ha'penny

Table Skittles

The "Bisset" Automatic Dart Scorer by Kwiz Darts

Check out The Smithfield Market Tavern on Twitter for more info.

You can find The Smithfield Market Tavern at 37 Swan St, Manchester M4 5JZ

Related blog posts:
- Bar Billiards
- Manchester
- Pub

PLONK Golf at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton

There's a new PLONK Golf minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The team at PLONK Golf have created a new minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The course is the only pub beer garden Crazy Golf course in Brighton and features 9-holes. It's open until 10pm daily.

Check out the PLONK Golf and Sidewinder websites for more info.

PLONK Golf also have minigolf courses in London at venues in Battersea, Brixton, Hackney, Dalston and London Fields. They also recently launched PLONK PUZZLE PUTT - a Crazy Golf Escape Room!

The team are also taking a course on tour around the UK in 2018.

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've played the Plonk Golf courses at Efes Snooker Club in Dalston and at the Duke of Edinburgh pub in Brixton.

The Cheshire Line Tavern

A visit to the Cheshire Line Tavern in Cheadle.

As a bit of a train nerd it was marvellous to find out that a nearby disused railway station on our doorstep is now a pub!

The Cheshire Line Tavern in Cheadle

The station opened as Cheadle North in 1866 and at one time was a double track line and saw more than 200 trains pass through a day!

The single track line and former station last November

The station closed to passengers in 1964.

The line itself is still in use for freight, and the occasional luxury charter. Unfortunately we didn't see any pass by while we were in the pub. However, I've seen a handful of trains on the Mid Cheshire Line since we moved to the area last summer.

We didn't see any trains pass by our window seat on our visit last November

Visit the Cheshire Line Tavern's website for more info.

Links:
- Cheshire Line Tavern
- Disused Railway Stations

Related blog posts:
- Train nerdery
- Disused stations
- Cheadle
- Pubs

Blackpool's Smallest Pub - The Mitre

We recently visited another pub with a small claim to fame - that of being Blackpool's Smallest Public House.

A nice spot for a quick drink away from the crush of the illuminations crowd

A BIG claim - but not the smallest pub we've been to recently

It became The Mitre pub in 1902

And was formerly known as 'Ye Old Glue Pot'!

You can find the cosy boozer just off the seafront on West Street.

The had a dartboard at the pub, but even if it hadn't had a Halloween decoration on it we'd have been squeezed for space to chuck some arrers

Related blog posts:
- Pubs
- Blackpool
- The Corner Bar in Stockport Market
- A visit to the Smallest Pub on the Planet
- The Lakeside Inn at Southport, Britain's Smallest Pub