Monday 28th January 2013

Bob Thompson

I first remember visiting this pub around thirty years ago. It was a Tetley's house and I'm sure it had several rooms and I'm not even sure that the bar was not in the same position it is now. Confirmation or dismissal of this would be appreciated. The beers, presumably the standard Mild and Bitter, would have come from the Tetley-Walker brewery in Warrington, Cheshire. Nowadays this is still a traditional pub, albeit with the main two rooms opened into one.

It still keeps to the afternoon closing that was almost universal in those days when I first visited and still retains its active darts teams.

On entering there is a longish bar on the left in a room that continues further up the pub. Fronting the bar is a lovely, smaller room with red-cushioned bench seating around the walls and stools around the varnished wood tables. It has a nice tiled fireplace and Linda and I were warmed by the wood fire that crackled away.

It would have been nice to give some historical background on this pub but that has proved to be completely elusive, which is strange considering the antiquity of its location. Waters Green was small public space in the "lower" town (much poorer than the area above, around the church and Market Place) that witnessed many activities before the railway, and station, arrived on the eastern side. It was the site of a horse market and in the late eighteenth-century John Wesley preached on the Green, and his legacy survives as there are quite a few chapels in the town.

This existing activity, combined the railway's arrival, bequeathed the area with a considerable number of pubs. Nowadays, standing at the top of the steps outside of the station one can still see five that are still operating and there is at least one more in sight that I had previously visited but now, sadly, closed. There are others just out of the line of view.

On the occasion of our visit there was the usual great selection of beers. We had the choice of: Oakham (Peterborough, Cambs) Inferno (4.0%); Merlin (Sandbach, Cheshire) The Wizard (4.2%), Acorn (Barnsley) Barnsley Bitter (3.8%), Allgates (Wigan, Gtr Manchester) Ostara (3.6%) and All Black Mild (3.4%). There was also a traditional cider in the form of Gwynt y Ddraig (Pontypridd, Wales) Haymaker (medium) at 6.5%. There are normally up to two more beers on offer.

They serve tradition pub lunches from Monday to Saturday which are said to be very good and there's a pool table. All in all, I think you'll find this a classic pub for all the right reasons.

Important Information:

The Waters Green Tavern, 96 Waters Green, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 6LH
Tel: 01625 422653

Open: Monday to Friday 12.00-15.00, 17.30-23.00;
Saturday 12.00-15.00, 19.00-23.00; Sunday 12.00-15.00, 19.00-22.30

The pub is a few minutes from the railway station, which has local trains to Manchester.
It is also served by Virgin Trains with two trains per hour from Manchester and Stockport to Stoke-on-Trent and London. It is about five minutes to the Bus Station.