A beery wander around the Queen of the Moorlands
A spare Saturday and rest of family busy I decided to take a late summer trip to Leek on the bus making use of the continued £2 max fare. Leek, Queen of the Moorlands is a bit of hidden gem, a proper market town retaining its cattle market, Butter market and trestle market. A high vibrant high street and Saturday market and a wealth of fascinating architecture from medieval churches to silk mills who and a wealth of pubs - not quite the 150 it once boasted, Beer in the Evening lists 32 pubs in the town itself which is bad for a town of just 20,000 souls and not served by railway or any dual carriage way. Living just down the road I’ve been a regular visitor to Leek and enjoyed the odd couple of pints mainly around the market square and almost exclusively in two local brewery pubs Titanic’s Roebuck and Joules Cock inn which are handily across the high street from each other.
But the beer drums have been beating about the Leek beer science and a recent vlog by a couple who spend most visiting an inordinate number of pubs critiquing each visit - who recently posted a visit to Leek and a review of 11 pubs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwMZVLP0M3w. Armed with a little date Real Ale trail of leek I picked up a few years ago I decided it was time to out of the comfort zone to visit some of the great pubs that I keep reading about
Leek bound on the Number 16
Getting off the bus to a warm Saturday lunchtime and a busy town centre first foray was off past the dominant Nicholson Memorial, skipping Marston’s Cattle Market and for now The Fountain Inn, a flash of Leeks many fine architecture on the right – the firmer Nicholson & Hall’s Big Mill on Cross Street, a Grade 2 listed Silk Mill built around 1850 – looking a bit tired at the edges a couple of business run out of the mill but looks like it is ripe for further development – though there are a lot of similar buildings in Leek.
An interesting article on http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/ reports that Leek was pre-eminent in the county for both silk-weaving and silk-dyeing. This was encouraged in the mid-eighteenth century, by improved communications from the newly turnpiked roads, and, at the end of the century by the building of a new branch of the Cauldon Canal. This gave easy access to the quantities of fuel from the Potteries to drive new, steam-powered silk mills.
Carrying on up through the terraced streets and Old Silk Mills seeking a bit of a Leek legend with a unique name; The Blue Mugge.
The unique name? Created in July 1976 when Geoff Harrison bought what was the Queens Arms. He found a blue mug in an upstairs room and in 1979 it was rebranded The Blue Mugge. Today is son Paul Harrison and grandson Dan Harrison run the pub he was determined to invent a 360 degree bar where punters could be served from any angle, and drips and spillages would be kept to a minimum.
A classic corner pub in a terraced row with a good reputation for beer and food. Entering the side door faced with a brace of inner doors - this pub has another unique feature a circular bar serving the four rooms - initially a like confused as not hand pulls in sight but a beer board laid out their wares and as my eyes got more accustomed to the slightly dark interior spied the pumps in pairs on the back wall of the bar. A little disappointed to see the ubiquitous Doom – perhaps I do need to-give a try – it was a great beer and one a supped a few gallons of on family holidays in Padstow and Rock. I settled for a Burton Bridge Bitter at a very reasonable £3:40. The Bass looked on good form and despite empty streets outside every table inside was full or reserved at 12:30 on a Saturday lunchtime and I had to settle for a little anti room between the two bars – this was full of spare chairs and the back of the coffee machine – felt a little bit of a wasted space on what could be a real little nook – though there was some interesting reading on the walls and was left to myself – I do quite enjoy a solitary reflective pint ever now and then.
Decided one pint was enough in the Mugge I headed out and back down towards the town centre passing under an interesting feature – a bridge linking the two sides of another former mill – this time Worthington mills
Worthington’s were silk manufacturers starting in leek in the early 1830’s, the name lives on in an Industrial products company that still trade in Leek, though a lot of this Mill site is now a residential housing development – a quick a left turn by the impressive looking St Luke’s Church to be met with welcome site of the Fountain Inn, this was once one of Leek based brewery Walkers House – the brewery was bought out by Marstons in 1922 (the brewery was based where Tool station (was Halford and before that Hintons Garage) used to be on Broad Street – though I ca’t seem to see any remaining brewery type buildings)
The Fountain’s What Pub description sums up very well my first impression on entering this beery mecca;
On entering the front door you are confronted with a magnificent bank of 10 hand-pulls with 8 serving real ales.
This is a cracking pub and wish I had made the effort to find it on previous visits to Leek. Again the pub was pleasantly ticking over on an early Saturday afternoon, though it did get a table to myself by the Book shelf with a fine array of CAMRA guide this pub is in virtually all of them and has been both a regional and national finalist for Pub of the year.
The Fountain’s book corner – they are in all those GBGs
Choosing one from 8 was a challenge – I stumped for one of my fave beers Butty Back – in it did look good in its Wye brewery glass and it was on fine form as did all the other beers being poured.
Leaving the Fountain it was back down the hill towards the town and swinging at right as I arrived back at the memorial in search of the next GBG listing Benks – again something of another Leek Legend with yet another long service landlady/family. The pubs setting is a little less salubrious as it sits on the main Buxton road though the architecture down this street is of a very grand scale – the FE college take sup much of the north side of the street – however my mission was to be dashed as Benks was very firmly closed – checking opening times disappointing to see 3pm on a Saturday which felt like a step back in time to the good old days of limited opening times.
Walking past Leek’s very impressive library – he Nicholson building and a quick detour rough on oh favourite leek bidding the butter rake hall, and wit I being Saturday a table top maker – picked up an interesting Bokk on Peak District pubs, reading the local paper, the Butter market is facing a bit of an uncertain future the Town Council want to refurbish but it means closing the market down for some time and many of the resident stall holders are worried about how they survive with the shut down.
Table Top market in the Butter market Hall
As I walk back into the Market square the need for some substance came my next mission, Leek is blessed with a rather splendid Spoons and one of the few, locally, that sits in a building that has been. A pub for a far much of its past. The Green Dragon retains a pub feel after hen the usual Spoons open plan barn layout, with numerous rooms and lots of nooks and crannies.
Reputedly leeks oldest, a pub with the same name was on this site back in 1693, I went through a number of name changes, The Angel, The Swan and then the Swan with 2 Necks and for while included an Assembly Room that was home to the Leek Philharmonic Society in the 1830’s. The building fell in disrepair but was recused by Wetherspoons who made a significant investment opening in 2013 – would appear to have been a very sound assessment as it always been busy whenever I have visited – its does a roaring trade in breakfasts.
Normally a good range of beers on offer – though often mingled amongst the Doom Bar and Green King fare – unfortunately my initial check the Durdle Door had just gone off so I settled for a Grain Store Rutland Beast which was OK, quite like the change of policy Spoons have had e the free drink with a meal – it use to be a limited offer and my brother being a Yorkshire connoisseur of best value had schooled me in always going for a bottle of Elvis Juice, as the most expensive and strongest of the free drinks offered – however now you have free range of the entire range including the ever increasing craft short pack range spoons now stock. I quite like testing this normally about 50% of what’s on the website appears to be stocked – I was in luck today and opted for a HopLab Pale a new tick for me. As mentioned above this was a busy pub, with every one of the 60 indoor tables occupied so it was a table out the back in what is quite a nice yard with a couple of covered areas – 2 pints and a chicken burger later it was time to move on and step back in time.
About 6 doors down from the Green Dragon is another Leek beer legend that I had not se foot in – The Wilkes head – a spit without the sawdust type of pub which was n contrast to Spoons vey quiet with it me and 2 other regulars supping bottles of Duval.
A choice of three Harrington Brewery beers on hand pump - opted for the IPA – my Untapped report – Very light head which died fairly quickly though was poured with out much sparkle – satisfactory. A pub that has certainly seen better days with crumbling walls and a strange array of hoovers etc randomly laid around, however not with out a bit of atmosphere and cokes of loa papers ad a free Cheese board to entice the punters. 
The final call was to Leek’s long established Belgian bar Des Engel. A real light and airy place with a central bar serving three separate rooms and another nice yard. As well as an impress range of real continental beers (I.e. not brewed in Tadcaster or Burton) in draught and bottles they always have a couple of cask ales on.
Another busy spot I met up with family members who were my lift home – normally try and get a spot in the front bar with large on street windows but all these were taken so we took up a central table in the pleasant back room – must mention the lady running the bar solo who was ace and non stop but still had time for a bit of natter and some craic – a real nice mix of punters including families and successfully introduced son and nephew to fruit beers (they are normally cider/cocktails guys -don’t ask!)I tried both of the cask on offer Burnt Mill’s Pintle Pale and Dancing Duck Duck both on good form and the in prep for Oktoberfest duties in the band finished the day off with a Paulaner Oktoberfest.
All in all, a great few hours, there are at least another 4 or 5 cracking looking in pubs in Leek so a return trip needs planning. Leek does now have a well positioned Premier Inn in the town centre and just down from the Fountain so would make a great weekend trip.
