I'M GOING TO BURY.......

Don't worry, I'm not going to bury anybody. I'm going to take you to Bury in this post, via a slightly indirect route. Our first stop is a suburb of Oldham, Spring Hill, where two pubs were waiting for us in 1989. The Bull's Head was a Boddington's house, while the Gardener's Arms sold beer from Robinson's of Stockport.

Our next stop is the Marston Tavern in Royton, since closed.

Chadderton is soon reached, where Citibus had a depot.

We're in Lees' Brewery territory and two tied house are situated here, the Horton Arms and the Hunt Lane Tavern.

Onwards to Middleton Junction, where Lees' Brewery is situated.

The beers can be drunk just around the corner at the Gardeners Arms. Here's a link to its WhatPub page.  

Trains no longer serve the town of Middleton, so a bus is required. Most services are run by Firstbus.

Independents have included Bluebird and JP Travel.

Being close to Lees' Brewery, it is hardly surprising that there are several of their tied houses in Middleton. First we have the Crown Inn.

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With claims to be the oldest pub in England, the Olde Boar's Head is worth seeking out. More info on its website.

Now we head north and hit (not literally!) the former L&YR main line from Manchester to Rochdale and beyond at Castleton station.

While we're in Castleton, we might as well have some more Lees at the Blue Pits Inn.

Buses of Greater Manchester Transport and Rossendale are seen to pass through Casteton. (Photos by Richard Huggins).

The Midland at Castleton was once a good free house. Its future looks uncertain at the time of writing.

On to Heywood, where, around 1900, steam trams could be found in the Market Place.

The East Lancs Railway, a heritage line, runs passenger services to Bury and on to Rawtenstall. Preserved 40135 is seen in Heywood station.

.The East Lancs Railway can now take us to Bury (Bolton Street) station, but can't take us back to around 1955, when Ben Brooksbank visited.

By 1976, more modern units were in use.

Electric trains were later diverted to a new station and Bury (Bolton Street) came into the hands of the ELR. 40135 is seen again.

The ELR has done some marvelous work with the signalling at Bury (Bolton Street).

Without leaving the station, we can now retire to the Trackside Bar, where various decent beers await us.

In the next post we'll delve deeper into the secrets of Bury. See the route so far here.

OLDHAM

 Let's start our tour of Oldham by looking at the town around the early 20th Century. This is Henshaw Street.

High Street and Market Place.

Curzon Street and Market Hall.

An Oldham Corporation tram in Yorkshire Street.

Manchester's trams reached Oldham Market Place.

Here's an early Oldham Corporation motor bus, just outside the town centre, at Coppice.

A much later Leyland bus of Oldham Corporation just leaving town.

Oldham Corporation used steam powered vehicles to keep the streets clean.

The 1970s saw Oldham Corporation get taken over by SELNEC, later Greater Manchester Transport. An import from Manchester is seen in Oldham town centre.

This vehicle, No. 5187, had been ordered by Oldham Corporation.

Firstbus eventually took over. 66869 was specially painted in the old Oldham Corporation colours.

Independents in Oldham included Vale of Manchester and Stott's.

An unusual visitor to Oldham town centre was this East Kent AEC Regent V advertising the delights of Folkestone.

Oldham's main railway station was called Mumps. Here's a Cravens DMU.

Pacers later took over the service.

National rail services no longer serve Oldham, as the route is now operated by Metrolink trams, bringing passengers right into the town centre.

Our first beer stop is the Bridge Inn, serving Lee's ales.

The Dog & Partridge has, apparently, recently reopened.

It seems the Crown Inn is now deceased. It certainly won't serve Oldham Brewery beers.

Close to the town centre tram stop is the Wetherspoons, the Up Steps Inn.

Just around the corner is the Ashton Arms. That's a good place to linger, so this post finishes here.

UNDERLYNED

From Stalybridge it's only a short hop to Ashton-under-Lyne. At one time it was possible to use the Great Central Railway and cross the Park Bridge Viaduct.

The present station at Ashton-under-Lyne, served by Northern.

Today, another form of railed transport serves Ashton - the Metrolink.

On its way into Ashton-under-Lyne, the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, now restored, passes beneath an Asda supermarket.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal meets the Peak Forest and Ashton Canals at Portland Basin.

At Ashton-under-Lyne bus station, there's long been a good variety of buses. Greater Manchester Transport's Metropolitans were frequent visitors.

GMT was later split and part became Greater Manchester South.

Greater Manchester North became part of Firstbus.

Greater Manchester South was sold to Stagecoach.

Pennine Blue, a post-deregulation independent, was later purchased by First-PMT.

Other independents included Mayne's, Stott's, Tame Valley and Dennis's.

Our first pub stop is at the Angel Inn, with marvelous Shaw's tilework, though selling John Smiths.

There's a Wetherspoons in Ashton, the Ash Tree, handy for the station.

A bit of a diversion now, back towards Mossley, for the Junction Inn, a Robinson's house.

From there, across the top of Ashton, to Oldham Road and the Marston's owned Dog & Pheasant.

West now to Droylsden, where Mayne's had a depot. One of their AEC Regent V 'deckers is seen outside, during a crew change in 1980.

Directly to the north is Failsworth, once served by Manchester Corporation trams.

Failsworth is still home to the Millgate, a free house. More info here.

Heading towards Oldham, Hollinwood is our next stop, where the station was controlled by this ex L&YR signal box. All gone now, as it's part of Metrolink.

Oldham Corporation's trams once reached Hollinwood.

And so to Oldham, where the local brew could be sampled at the Bath Hotel. Sadly both brewery and pub have long since vanished.

We'll look at Oldham in the next post. Meanwhile, follow progress on this map.