Droylsden, Greater Manchester:
Silly Country Bar & Bottle Shop

Visited on: Sunday 27th January 2019

Bob Thompson

The name of the bar needs some explanation. One upon a time Droylsden was known as the Silly Country because of the habit of several residents who brought pigs to the carnival, sitting on a wall next to them. Actually, if this is true, it is really silly indeed!

This modern bar opened its doors for the first time at the May Day Bank Holiday 2018. The trio behind the venture are Katy Glover, Andrew Unsworth and Philip Unsworth. They used their savings and crowd-funded to make up the remainder.

The bar was successful from the early days onwards. No doubt assisted by the fact that there is tram stop around a hundred metres from the front door, enabling it to be easily reached from further afield.

Linda and I spent longer waiting for traffic signals to change than we spent walking on our way from the tram to the bar. It is actually located in the Droylsden Shopping Centre in what were the first two units with the dividing wall knocked down. The units had been empty for some time. The corner unit had once held a branch of Swinton Insurance.

Inside we found a fairly large room with an L-shaped bar on the far wall. Between it and the large windows looking out to Manchester Road are shelves of bottles and cans destined to be taken away as we were in a bottle shop as well as a bar. The bar counter is fronted with white tiles and has a highly polished top. There are shelves in front of all the windows.

The bar was fairly full on this visit so after collecting our beers we went to a shelf with four stools in front at the back of the pub.

Looking around we could see that there were high tables with similar stools on the Manchester Road side. There were a number of low tables with seats in the area in front of the bar. Between our shelf and the windows looking out to Market Street were two fitted booths with tables.

There were four beers offered: Outstanding Brewery (Salford, Greater Manchester) Red (4.4%), a red ale; Greenfield Brewery (Greenfield, Greater Manchester) Silver Owl (4.0%), a golden ale; Squawk (Ardwick, Greater Manchester) Aix Porter (4.6%) and Howard Town (Glossop, Greater Manchester) Mill Town (3.5%), a mild ale.

They normally have three traditional ciders available, usually from the Thatcher’s (Sandford, Somerset) Stan’s Cider range.

Important Information:

Silly Country Bar & Bottle Shop, 121 Market Street, Droylsden M43 7AR.

Hours: Monday-Thursday: 12.00-22.30; Friday-Saturday: 12.00-23.00; Sunday: 12.00-22.00.

Obviously, the best way to get here is by Metrolink tram. Route E is the line that runs through Droylsden.
It operates from Eccles via Manchester Piccadilly Gardens to Droylsden and on to Ashton-under-Lyne.
From the trams stop, walk in the Manchester direction. You will see the pub. Cross to it by two crossings.
It is also served by two bus routes: 168 and 216.