What a fantastic Day!!!

The 2013 Rose Queen celebration will be remembered for many a year as one of the best. Why, I hear you shout!!? Well mainly because the sun shone and the village turned up in force. It was simply a beautiful day and a very busy one!!! So much so that we missed photographing the Rose Queen herself Gabriella Marfani. We hope to get a picture of her soon to finish this web page off correctly.

It was a day of sizzling burgers on the barbecue, strawberries and cream, cupcakes, ice cream and lashings of Pimms. The beer tent was a success and all in all a great day was had by many!! The floats were very good again this year as you will see and a lot of time and effort went in to the event.

Big thanks to our team too who worked very hard to ensure everyone had a good time.

Good Luck to Gabriella and thank you for supporting Rose Queen.

JASON, SIMON AND JAMES ENJOY A LAUGH BEFORE THE DAY GETS BUSY

LLOYD AND JAMES GET THE BARBECUE AND PAELLA GOING

Mmmm. CUP CAKES, FRESH STRAWBERRIES, PRAWN COCKTAILS WERE VERY POPULAR ALONG WITH THE PIMMS OF COURSE!!

THE BULLS HEAD SPONSORS IT TOO!!!

THE CRICKET CLUB WERE REPRESENTED

THE PRE-SCHOOL FLOAT IS SPONSORED BY NEW COMPETITION IN THE VILLAGE!!!

THIS WAS WAS ANOTHER FLOAT THIS YEAR WITH AN EXCELLENT ZOO THEME

2013 MOBBERLEY ROSE QUEEN A DAY TO REMEMBER

2013 MOBBERLEY ROSE QUEEN FROM THE ROOF

2013 ROSE QUEEN

FOOD IN THE GARDEN

Rose Queen

Rose Queen

Our former Deputy Manager James who is now Deputy at our sister pub up the road, the Church Inn, needs your help!! James has been with us here at the Bulls Head since we re-opened the pub three years ago.

Recently James’ dad was diagnosed with inter-cranial B-cell Lymphoma. This is a serious condition. James’ dad Frank is a regular here at the Bulls Head and the Church Inn and naturally we wish him well in his fight to get better.

It is to this end that James needs your help and in fact all our help. At times like this one needs to focus on doing something positive, so James is donning the lycra and heading on a circa 60 mile cycle ride this September.

Initially James was going to do the ride in early July but with the new challenge at the Church Inn and the time needed to get to full fitness James has pushed back the ride until the cooler weather of September!!

James will be completing the ride in honour of his dad and of course to raise money for Christies who are treating Frank. James is tackling the ride with our own cycling champ Jonathon who was the first cyclist to complete the ‘Triple’ Pub Challenge!!

If you want to help James by sponsoring him then click on the link below and make a donation to his cause this in turn will reward his efforts to help his dad and the team treating him.

You can cheer James on as he passes the pub and we will update this blog when we have a time that James will pass through.

Click the link below to help James. A big thank you to all that help!

www.virginmoneygiving.com/JamesButterworth84

Well done James we are with you all of the way!! Good luck and stay focussed!!

At last!!! The new Bulls Head’s very own mustards have arrived and are ready to accompany your handcrafted steak and ale pie or one of our great 28 day aged steaks!!

Time has been taken to decide on the flavours of mustard that our loyal customers can enjoy. We have selected three Hot English Mustard, Cider Mustard with horseradish (very good with the roast beef on Sundays) and finally a Wholegrain English mustard (wonderful with the sausage and mash).

So for mustard lovers everywhere this is your pub!!! Always serving beef that ‘cuts the mustard’!!

As we march towards 28th May 2013, the day that marks the birthday of the new Bulls Head in Mobberley, it is a tradition that Tim (our owner and the founder of the 3p – Pub, Porsche and Pint Car Club) and Landlord Ben (Chairman of the  Landlords Goodfellas Car Club) add up the members they have added in the past year to their respective Car Clubs!! £100 is paid by the loser (the one with the least new members) to the winners Charity choice. In year one Tim paid to [former] landlord Shanes Children’s Charity and last year Shane stumped up the £100 for the local Mobberley Church which was Tim’s choice.

It is unbelievable that the new Bulls Head is three years old and of course the car clubs are tied at one each. Who will be the winner this year??

Well it looks as though it could be Ben!!? Why I hear you ask? Well it seems Bens strategy is more ‘Oddfellow’ than ‘Goodfellow’ as when this steam engine named ‘Hogwarts’ rocked up to the pub, Ben quickly recruited them.

Less Potter and more Potty in my book…Hogwarts…get it? Anyway the Gauntlet has been laid. The challenge is on! Tim calls on all Porsches this side of Stuttgart to get down to the Bulls Head and join the 3p club!!

St Wilfs collects our penance!!!

Reverend Ian Blay of St. Wilfrid’s Church of Mobberley arrived in a bright cheery shirt to collect the money raised by our Mobberley Wobbly Ale sales from our landlord Ben, also in an equally striking shirt!! As legend would have it Mobberley Wobbly Ale is believed to be an aphrodisiac and there has certainly been a baby boom since its introduction to Mobberley some 3 years ago!! We knew immediately that we would have to pay a penance to Mobberley Church for our sins and each year Rev. Blay, an ale enthusiast and our ‘man of the froth’ knocks on the door of the Bulls Head to collect the money raised from the sales of Mobberley Wobbly Ale.

8780 pints have been sold giving a donation to the church of £878.00 this enormous sum is for the last year and a half of sinning. We can point to at least six babies that have been born on the back of this amazing brew this year alone with a couple more on the way. Sam our Chef de Partie and his partner Sophie have just had a baby boy Archie!! Congratulations to them.

Here’s to our Mobberley Wobbly Ale long may it continue to be supped!! Thank you to all our customers who drink the Bulls Heads favourite ale!!

The North West Champions in the 2012 Countryside Alliance Awards (aka the Rural Oscars) have been announced, with top local businesses now going forward to the UK & Ireland final. The Awards are the Countryside Alliance’s annual celebration of rural produce, skills, enterprise and heritage through our small hard-working businesses. These are the eighth annual Awards and they have quickly become the rural business award to win. The hard-working and popular winners now go on to represent the region at the UK & Ireland finals at Parliament in Westminster on 13th March.

The Bulls Head was nominated by customers for its great use of Local Food/Produce. Lloyd our Head Chef and Ben our Landlord underwent vigorous questioning from judge and Countryside Alliance North of England Director Simon Hamlyn. Simon was impressed with our use of local suppliers in our ingredients as well as main menu dishes. Our use of Cheshire Game for our Game week and our Autumn and Christmas menus and our commitment to the village of Mobberley and the community. Our village notice board and our support of the local Church as well as supporting village events was appreciated too. This is the first time the Bulls Head has been recognised for such an award and we and the team are very proud to feature in the final. Once again we achieved second place with a ‘highly commended’ which was a great effort after only two and a half years of being open. Big thanks to all our customers who recommended us and gave us the chance to compete. Next year we will go for an ‘Oscar’!! The winner was actually from Cumbria which I guess makes us ‘champs’ of Cheshire for 2012…we’ll take that!!

The Local Food winner was Hawkshead Relish, Hawkshead, Cumbria www.hawksheadrelish.com This is a family-run business that diversified and grew out of the changes Foot & Mouth Disease brought to the countryside in 2001. Mark Whitehead’s homemade condiments created to enhance his café menu became a popular new business opportunity and Hawkshead Relish was born. From a range of 12 handmade preserves cooked up in small pans, the company gained recognition in the region. By 2003 the cafe was closed to allow the space needed for the ever growing demand, now country wide and housed in the Hawkshead Relish shop (a 16th century building) Hawkshead Relish hand make 122 preserves in small batches in open pans. All the selected ingredients are sourced through local suppliers and no artificial colourings, flavouring or preservatives are used. The range incorporates everything from Chutney to Jam, Mustard to Jellies and everything in-between. Mark Whitehead combines traditional recipes with his own new concepts creating innovative products. This is a true Cumbrian local business with local produce and the community at heart, even though the products are now exported to 24 countries.

Ben and the team have been entertaining the stars with nibbles and refreshments while a ‘pilot’ of a new programme was filmed using the famous Bulls Head as a back drop!!

The programme is called ‘The Home Office’ and it is about a stationary salesman played by Mr Russ Abbot himself (see picture).

The film crew were only at the Bully for one morning. Chris, who is one of the production team felt the Bulls Head made the perfect local Pub for Russ Abbots exploits.

When we have further details of viewing times etc. then we will let you know!!

‘Film star’ can now be added to the Bulls Heads many talents!!!

Can you believe our landlord Ben…he only recruited Russ and his ‘stationary’ VW Beetle as a ‘Goodfella’ Car Club Member while he was acting out a few scenes …how cheeky!!

RUSS ABBOTTS BEETLE

At last we have the famous photo of our very local regular Pete in his rather fetching Christmas Jumper!!!

Pete beat off stiff competition from a number of guests and Bulls Head team members to win first prize at the pub on Christmas day!!

So Pete our very own electrician lit up the pub with this snazzy number!!!

He is reigning now Christmas Jumper Champion 2012/3. Pete wins a rather nice bottle of red wine and a trophy will be working its way to him too.

To the proactive customers who fancy a go this year you have ’til Christmas Day 2013 to get your winning jumper!!!

BEN WITH THE TARTAN SCARF AND ROBBIE BURNS GREAT, GREAT NIECE!!!

Our own Ben Redwood, proud landlord and Robbie Burns’ fan ensured the ‘To a Haggis’ poem by Robbie himself was on the black board ready for our traditional ‘Burns Night’ celebrations.

Alongside ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ and ‘To a Mouse’, ‘To a Haggis’ is one of Robbie Burns most famous and regularly performed poems. Written in 1786 not long after Burns arrived in Edinburgh, this poem has become the centrepiece of Burns’ Suppers.

In Burns day haggis was not an everyday meal, and it could be described as a luxury item. As this was the case it is not beyond possibility that Robbie Burns’ ‘Address’ was ironic in its praise for the dish, and was pointing the finger at those who would revere it.

Anyway a bit of history there!!

As Ben ‘sold in’ the Haggis special, made wonderfully by Lloyd our chef, along with one or two other Scottish dishes and of course whiskies…………. one lady guest declared to Ben…

“Oh, I should have known it was Robbie Burns’ night, I am a distant relative!”

‘Well’, said Ben, ‘here is a photo opportunity if ever I saw one!’

So in the middle of Robbie Burns’ night at the Bulls Head, Ben and one of Robbie Burns distant relatives (on her grandmothers side) toasted a whisky, and recited the ‘address to a Haggis’, written, by none other, than her great, great uncle!!!

And what did Robbie Burns’ great, great niece order, to celebrate Burns night??! …. none other than a very English Fish and Bloomin’ Chips!!!!!!!!!!

Talk about letting the side down!

Sadly there were no kilts for the kilt competition as the snow was thick on the ground and we
Reckon the fellas were frightened of the effects of the cold!!

Let’s hope next year it is a little milder. Thank you to everyone who supported the evening and enjoyed the Haggis and a wee dram!!