Cheshire Cats Pubs & Bars, who own and operate The Cholmondeley Arms on the Cholmondeley estate, The Bulls Head and Church Inn in Mobberley, the Three Greyhounds Inn in Allostock, the Fitzherbert Arms in Swynnerton and the Red Lion in Weymouth, Dorset, has been voted the company with the Best Drinks Act in the UK at the prestigious Publican Awards ceremony in London.

Cheshire Cats Pubs & Bars beat a number of national chains to the title, drawing high praise from the judges for supporting cask ales from local brewers. The company was also awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ title in the Best Food Offer category.

Each pub within the collection specializes in a particular drink with The Cholmondeley Arms boasting more than 300 gins, the Red Lion offering more than 80 rums and the Fitzherbert Arms offering over 30 Ports by the bottle. Whiel the Bulls Head, Three Greyhounds Inn and the Church have enviable collections of Whisky, Brandy and wine respectfully.

Tim Bird, owner of the unique collection of village pubs and country inns, comments: “These awards are equivalent to the drinks industry’s ‘Oscars’ and it is fantastic that our pubs and our teams has been recognized in this way. The award recognises the hard work that the team puts in and how we work with local breweries, suppliers and food producers to bring a memorable and unique experience to our customers everyday.”

Ed Bebbington, of the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, comments: “This is a company that puts a lot of time and thought into getting its drink offer right, from its superb focus on local, great beers, through to an impressive offer of wines and spirits.”

Tim Bird and Mary McLaughlin, owners of Cheshire Cat Pubs & Bars, have already won numerous awards for restoring pubs of great heritage and character and are now focused on the Roebuck Inn, also in Mobberley which after three years of closure is set to open in April.

For further information on Cheshire Cat Pubs and its collection of pubs, please visit www.cheshirecatpubsandbars.co.uk.

Barry from the Bulls Head gives it the big thumbs up

Barry, Simon, Mary and James are delighted with the win

Brian of the Red Lion holds the trophy aloft our little 'Oscar'

Cheshire Cat win the UK's Best Drinks Act for 2016

James from the Three Greyhounds Inn celebrates with a kiss

Jess from the Cholmondeley Arms is very proud to hold the trophy

Leanne from our new pub the Fitzherbert Arms cannot believe our success at the first time of asking

Mary is delighted and proud indeed for all the teams

Mary with the trophy and comedian Michael Mcintyre, Tim and Simon from Coca Cola the sponsors of the award

Simon from the Church Inn seems very happy....

The best Drinks Act win hits the big screen

The Big screens reveal the nominations

The Team celebrate the huge win after the awards presentation

Tim and Mary ...wow what a win!!

Tim is stunned and so proud of the team

THE BULLS HEAD WINNER (LOLA) OF THE CHRISTMAS JUMPER

Yes on Christmas day every year here at the Bulls Head we have a Christmas jumper competition. Sophie and Pete (twice) have won the coveted title of Christmas Jumper of the year!! This year was no different with Christmas Jumper mania really taking off!

But in the end…innovation, point of difference and four legs won the day!! This year’s winner is…yes…a hound!!! The prize? A photo on the website and a handful of dog biscuits!!

See you all in 2016!!

What a great night! Lucy, James and Ed did a fantastic job getting the pub set up for Halloween….there were ghosts, skeletons and lots of treats as well as a large amount of pumpkins and ghoul like creatures! It was a funny old day and we thought the village had forgotten what was happening.. but no….by 8pm we were full…a couple of Draculas chatted at the bar…a mummy ordered a pint of Cheshire Cat, witches were everywhere and there were a number of customers that looked like fatal accidents!! But this is by far the best response to a Halloween Party we have ever had and well done to everyone who took part there were certainly 30 guests who dressed to kill…literally!!

In the end Greg and his posse won the £50 of Bully vouchers…sorry he was simply to frightening to photograph!!

The Bully team got face painted except for owner Tim who simply went with white eyes and Ed who was a proud Ghost buster!

Thank you to all our loyal locals for rocking up and giving it a go and to Dave and Howard our House band duo who entertained everyone wonderfully….look forward to seeing you all next year….

Is that really Lucy....yes it is...

Joker James

Our very own Ghost at the Bully

Owner Tim gives customers the beady eye!!

Pumpkin Head!

Sinister Shane

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.

Lexie McIntosh is wished every success in her reign as the Mobberley Rose Queen 2015 another great day was enjoyed at the Bulls Head!

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.

DIFFERENT BARRELS AWAIT

DINGLE DISTILLERY IS MAKING A NAME FOR ITS GIN AND VODKA WHILE WAITING FOR ALL THAT WHISKEY TO MATURE

THE DINGLE GIN AND CORK GIN FEATURED ON THE BAR AT THE BULLS HEAD

THE ICONIC VIEW FROM THE DISTILLERY ACROSS DINGLE BAY A PICTURE CAPTURED ON THE BOTTLE OF DINGLE GIN

THE POT STILL FOR WHISKEY MAKING

THEY SAY THE BEST ACCOMPANIMENT IS LEMON!

THIS IS A CRAFT DISTILLERY WHICH DOES TOURS AT SET TIMES

TIM POINTS OUT THE NAMES OF THE INVESTORS IN THE DISTILLERY THROUGH A CROWD FUNDING SCHEME WHERE ALL HAVE BOUGHT A BARREL OF WHISKEY!

GINS FOR IRISH WEEK

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