Paul and his cycling partner arrived in sunshine at the Roebuck Inn having completed the ‘Cheshire Cat Six’. The Cheshire Cat Six is a journey around the six pubs owned by us here at Cheshire Cat Pubs and Inns. Paul had already partnered Clare to achieve the Cheshire Cat Quad a few years ago when we had four pubs but with the addition of the Fitzherbert Arms and the Roebuck Inn, Paul was ready to conquer the new challenge! As you will see Paul started his journey from our Fitzherbert Pub on Lord Stafford’s estate in Swynnerton, Staffordshire. He headed then to another Lord’s estate and our Cholmondeley Arms pub before weaving his way, supported by his co-pilot Steve, to our Three Greyhounds Inn pub in Allostock. They then headed for Mobberley..the easy part! Up the hill to the Church Inn before circling down to the Bulls Head and the Roebuck Inn bot in Mill Lane. 76 miles was recorded and then Tim own owner made sure they we fed and watered and given their bottles of fizz to celebrate their achievement.
Then it was back on the saddle for the return trip to Swynnerton! Well done lads a great effort. Who else wants to take up the Cheshire Cat Challenge??
After landing from a week away golfing with some chums, The Cooktwit needed to be in top form to placate The Flame. Country walks with a decent feed tends to do the trick. In stepped The Bulls Head in Mobberley. Mobberley is a quaint village set in Cheshire between Knutsford and Wilmslow. It tends to be one of the places the big North West football clubs use to house prospective foreign talent.
This year Barry and the team have come up with a special theme for Cask Ale Week! They are celebrating the animals of the world!!
So all the ales on the ‘magnificent seven pumps’ during the week will have ales that are famed for their animal connections!! You can probably start guessing a few now!? At the same time our famous Pie Week, a big favourite for the last six years will be celebrated.
Two quintessentially English pub favourites united for over a week of good times and Autumn cheer!!
See you from Thursday 24th September ’til Sunday 4th October 2015.
Wednesday Evening saw Lord Ted’s quiz final at the Bulls head, with 16 teams battling to win.
Every month the winning quiz teams are awarded points to join the leader board, the season runs from October to April. At the final quiz of the season double points are awarded to the top 5 teams. There were three teams all very close in the leader board last year’s winners ‘The Almighty’s’, ‘Ted’s Tarts’ and ‘Hearding Cats and Co.’
After a very exciting quiz the results were announced… ‘Ted’s Tarts’ were pushed to the top of the leader board after a triumphant win! Each team member won a £20.00 voucher and a Whisky tasting for the whole team. As well as winning the quiz and consequently the leader board one lucky team member also won ‘Stand up sit down bingo.’
A huge congratulations to Ted’s Tarts and we look forward to seeing you at the ‘Ted to Head’ on May 27th at the Three Greyhounds in Allostock…
A trip to Dingle Bay learn more…
A trip to Ireland was had. The homeland of Barry our landlord who has just done a craic’ing job with Irish week at the Bulls Head. Mary, too our proud owner is from the Emerald Isle and she and Tim went off to discover Dingle Bay and a craft distillery therein!
“It was a cool March day but the sun was in the sky and the journey through County Kerry was a picturesque one. Reaching Dingle Bay and visiting the craft distillery was the main objective of the trip but to arrive in Dingle itself was a real pleasure. What a beautiful little town it is. The views, scenery and of course the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality that following were memorable to say the least.
A big bowl of chowder with soda bread was the order of the day before we arrived at the distillery to meet Joe who offered a ‘wee’ tour and of course a gin and tonic at the end!!
The Dingle Distillery is there to produce a fine craft whiskey and to promote this fact Kilbeggan are helping by bottling a Dingle named whiskey . You see whiskey has to mature and while all that maturing is going on there is a lot of money invested. So to help the process barrels of whiskey were sold as investments (like a type of crowd funding) to raise money to ensure the whiskey in those barrels becomes one of the best in Ireland. So what else can be made in a distillery while one waits for the whiskey maturing process to complete?
Gin and vodka is the answer and that’s how we found out about the Dingle Distillery in the first place….Dingle Gin! By now many gin lovers will have had a single Dingle or indeed a double Dingle and tonic under young Barry’s guidance at the Bully. The gin is very good indeed with one or two Irish botanicals as well as the big juniper flavour. They say lime is best with it, but all the signs said lemon so take your pick.
If Vodka is your thing they have distilled one of those too in a very impressive blue bottle….in fact the bottle the gins in is equally impressive with a small plaque on it with Dingle Bay proudly reflected. If you are ever in Ireland make an effort to visit Dingle you will fall in love with it and probably the high spirits that exist there!”
Dingle Gin, Vodka and the first batch of Dingle Whiskey can be enjoyed anytime at the Bulls head just ask for a single Dingle!
MARY AND TIM WITH THE AWARD
We are delighted to announce that our Church Inn pub has won the ‘Chairman’s choice’ Best Dining Pub Award for South Manchester and pipped our very own Bulls Head pub (also in Mobberley)!!
The ‘Eat, Drink, Sleep’ Awards 2015 took place at the Manchester Mercure Piccadilly Hotel and our Bulls Head and Church Inn pubs were up against each other in the same category! Barry our landlord at the Bulls Head was the first to congratulate Simon (our Church Inn landlord) and the team saying “They’ve done a cracking job and I am delighted at least one of us won it!! This will make the Bully team even more determined to beat our ‘little sister pub’ the Church Inn next time round!!”
Simon said “I am really chuffed for the Church team and the customers…it’s been a solid start since opening a year and a half ago…I am very proud and feel a little sorry for Barry but not really!!”
Owners Tim and Mary were there to cheer both their pubs on and what a night for the village of Mobberley with two pubs from the same village up for the award! Tim said “it is always so exciting to be nominated for an award without entering anything and for both our Mobberley pubs to be nominated was a great achievement for all our fantastic people from our pub teams to our loyal and supportive customers and suppliers”
Mary added “we have been in Mobberley now for just over five years with the Bulls Head and have so enjoyed it becoming a proud pub in the village. We took on the Church Inn two years ago when it had closed down and we knew it was going to be hard to create a second special pub in the village… but we are on our way. The teams at both pubs have made this possible with the help of course from our customers. This award is for everyone to celebrate”
Last year we were given a postcard which showed a family sitting in front of Bulls Head Rose Garden in the 1920’s. In celebration of Mobberley’s annual Rose Queen Festival, an event which started in 1922, it was decided that the Rose Garden should be lovingly restored.
In 2014 we revealed the 21st Century version of the garden which was restored by Rick and Paul. During the spring and summer the Rose Garden will continue to bloom and develop. We look forward to seeing many more family pictures in front of our beautiful roses.
Liam Gallagher rocked up to the Bully on Sunday, enjoyed his roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and then met our resident Sunday duo ….the Smoooth old boys!
Curiously none of them had heard of each other!
But they will next time….they didn’t know Wonderwall so Liam slipped away without singing a note!
JAMES WITH HIS FRIEND LIAM AT THE BULLS HEAD
Shane and Barry have been working away on the new Bulls Head Whisky Bible (volume four) and it arrives ready for Christmas and the winter months that follow.
There are new whiskies to celebrate and with 80 whiskies in all there is plenty of choice. The whiskies are now listed with all the prices per 25ml shot and are clearly laid out in order of Country and regions of Scotland.
Celebrating Barry, our landlords Irish roots, we have a number of new Irish Whiskey additions to the bible.
Customers can order whisky boards of their favourites at a rather competitive price too.
So if you want a winter warmer or just a whisky with your cheese board then ask for the Whisky Bible.