Most Burnley supporters will be unaware that Stockport is an excellent drinking town. Really, it shouldn't be a surprise. It's the home of Robinson's brewery, which makes great beer and has pubs all over town, so how could we expect it to be anything else? But we have seen a different side to the town when we play there. Stockport has not always been a welcoming place for a matchday Claret. For some reason, Stockport got a bee in their bonnet about Burnley a while ago. Not that we could ever understand why. Where would be the fun in falling out with a club from all the way across Manchester? But it never stopped them from trying, and the atmosphere on past visits has been hostile.
Things reached their peak - or should that be nadir? - when our promotion-clinching win over Stockport at Wembley was quickly followed by relegation, and almost instantly by a trip to Edgy Park. It was an interesting day, at least from a sociological perspective. Parents encouraged small children to shout abuse at us. Fingers were raised from the comfort of cars. One particularly perceptive comment I can recall to this day was 'lucky you had a goalie'. Well indeed, yes, or when you think about it, no. Hostility wasn't confined to such rapier wit. A quaint custom developed in our trips to Stockport of the locals throwing things at Burnley personnel. How the supporters of this so-called friendly club chortled as they hurled coins and sweets at Ted McMinn! And wasn't there that time when Jimmy Mullen received the unsolicited gift of some kind fellow's pie in the face? Generous to a fault, to be sure. It's also not unheard of for one of the home fans to demonstrate their athleticism with a quick sprint on the pitch, perhaps in response to a goal. I seem to recall one particularly ambitious but ultimately failed attempt to catch John Francis. Ah, happy days.
The practical upshot of this, for the purposes of this guide, is that it is not always terribly easy to get a drink with comfort. So it has been in the past. I recollect one pub close to the ground (the Grapes) proving reasonably non-confrontational before the match but very unwelcoming afterwards. Similarly, on one visit to several town centre Robinson's pubs, we observed the strange phenomenon that they all 'closed' the moment we set foot over threshold. Lest you think we were ingenues seeking drink in the wrong places, our guide that day was a locally based Claret who knew these pubs.
So, best advice if you want to ensure you take on the level of alcohol required for watching Burnley away is to drink in Manchester if you're coming from the north or Macclesfield if you're coming from the south. Manchester, despite recent gentrification, remains a city full of fine pubs, particularly in the Northern Quarter, and Stockport is mere minutes away, while Macclesfield deserves a special mention. There are only about half a dozen brilliant pubs in the Waters Green area - right outside the railway station. Nevertheless, you may insist, with some justification, on drinking in the town in which we're playing, or you may have cause to visit the town when we are not playing, in which case you will find it very friendly. Therefore, with the usual disclaimers that these may be closed or unhelpful, I can recall the following pubs from past visits.
There are two good Robinson's pubs close to the station on Wellington Road South. These are the Manchester Arms and the Unity. Come out of the station and through some grim multiplex / bowling alley type leisure park and you're there. The Manchester Arms is a basic and grubby pub, and used to have a fantastic early 80s jukebox - how often do you get a whole Joy Division album to choose from? - but that'll have gone now. The Unity resembles a public toilet, albeit a scrupulously well kept one, and with fine beer at that. There are also a couple of takeaways on this street.
Yet more Robinson's is available in the town centre. A personal favourite on past visits was the Arden Arms, a large, rambling, once glorious, then utterly ramshackle pub. You could get a feeling of what a grand place this must have been in its pomp, but when I last called in it was very run down, and quite evocative. You'll find it on Millgate, just off Market Place.
In Market Place itself is the Baker's Vaults, a comfortable shed, busy on a Saturday. It had an emphasis on selling food, but I'm told, mysteriously, that it doesn't any more. I liked this place, which was friendly when we visited on the way to somewhere else. Don't be fooled by the lack of handpumps, incidentally. As in quite a few Robinson's pubs, beer is sold through electric pumps, but it's the real stuff alright.
By the Merseyway shopping centre on Prince's Street, the Swan With Two Necks was a smart, woody, 1930s pub.
Memory's not what it was, and I haven't been to Stockport since 1998, so this is just a fraction, really. Chuck a brick in the centre - not that I would - and you'll find a Robinson's pub.
A personal favourite (non Robinson's) pub is the Railway. Ah, you may think, must be handy for the station. No. It's miles away. A cab ride may be in order, to Avenue Street off the A560. If it's so much trouble, why bother? But this pub is owned by the Porter brewery of Haslingden. That means bare boards and no fruit machines, jukeboxes or other extraneous entertainment. The beer is the only entertainment you need. Cheap compared to most, the range should include mild, bitter and the ridiculously good Porter Porter. It's all brilliant beer, but you've got to get a pint of the Porter.
For pubs nearer the ground, Castle Street is often suggested, this being the main shopping street of Edgeley, but they've always struck me as a bit of a mixed bag round here, and it's never seemed a particularly smart place for a Claret to go drinking. Yet another Robinson's pub, the Armoury on Greek Street, Shaw Heath, just off the A6, might be worth trying. The Florist is another pub on Shaw Heath, and it sells… guess what? I've been in these at some stage, but I concede a research visit is overdue. There are many more pubs than the ones I've mentioned. Indeed, you could say that the trouble with Stockport is that there are too many good pubs.
One of my regular correspondents writes to recommend the Queen's Head (AKA Turner's Vaults) on Little Underbank. Apparently it's a nice old pub that sells Sam Smith's, and it does food on Saturdays too. Directions as follows: "Go down either Station Road or Railway Road (heading away from the ground! - i.e. north of the railway station), until you hit the A6. Cross over and head north (left) and then right into St Petersgate or Chestergate. (If you hit the M60 you've gone too far!) Little Underbank's about four to six streets up, in an old part of the town (now pedestrianised, if beer-ruined memory serves). Beware - there's a Great Underbank as well, but they lead into each other. It has the advantage of being on the way to the Porter's pub on Avenue Street..."
He also points me in the way of the excellent on-line Stockport Pub Guide [http://petered.dreamwater.com/pubs/index.html]. This is the work of a true devotee who has spent 15 years going to as many Stockport pubs as he can. It's the sort of thing I always hope to find, but rarely do. There are lots of great pubs listed on its pages, that go far beyond anything I have listed above. Essential reading, I'd have thought.
There's also a basic website for the local CAMRA branch [http://mywebpage.netscape.com/ssmcamra], which includes their very useful newsletter, Opening Times.
Another of my regular researchers who often drinks in and around Manchester particularly recommends the Navigation on Lancashire Hill in Heaton Norris. This isn't on the way to the ground - in fact it too is north from the station, just past the motorway, while Edgeley Park is south - but against that it is a Beartown Brewery pub, and it isn't often you can say that.
While in this neck of the woods, if you're busy heading away from the ground, you could also take in the Nursery on Green Lane, off Wellington Road North. This Hyde's pub has recently won CAMRA's National Pub of the Year award for 2002, and what further recommendation do you need?
Someone else writes to recommend drinking in nearby Cheadle. He says, "If you go down the road that goes towards the ground from the station and continue for about two miles, you end up in Cheadle. Great pubs, good beer and far more friendly, as you're in the antiseptic Man Utd enclaves of Manchester. If you are driving it's the junction before Stockport on the M60, and it's much quicker cutting through this way anyway."
The Robinson's brewery aside, Stockport is known for its splendid Victoria railway viaduct and a bizarre glass pyramid. Really. The ground is walkable from the railway station, and you go past it on the way in from London. Enjoy yourself, if you can, and if it's a dull game, you can always spot planes.
