Blues in Failsworth

[MCFCTrick]

Tommy Lowe was a cracking landlord. I knew him well.
He and Lesley moved in during the late 1960's & really moved the pub up a gear. We had some great craic there & some brilliant pub trips during his tenure, both at home and abroad. It really was a 'proper local'. I moved away from the area in 1987 and I later heard the stories about how the subsequent landlord(s) gave it a personality bypass and ruined the place. Hence it's gradual demise. If anyone had said to me 40 years ago that the Church Inn, Royal Oak and the Crown & Cushion would all outlast the Pack Horse I would have laughed in their face.

He certainly was proper old school landlord ... always a shirt and tie on, Lesley always glammed up too (We called them Basil and Sybil, lol) Saw one of their daughters about a year ago, told me he is still going strong, living near Hollingworth Lake. Sadly Lesley has passed on. He is actually on Facebook, and friends on there with a mate of mine, Steve Brunt, who was a regular in there too.

 

[gazinho]

Wasn’t too far away from you grew up on Farm street. I remember getting my Mexico 86 sticker book from Averill Street News Agents I’m sure there used to be a video shop round there too in the 80s.

Premier video shop, I used mither my mum and dad like mad to take me in there to rent a video, must have worked a grand total of 2 times in about 5 years!!!

Grew up in Failsworth right near the Brookdale, used to go in the vault from being 15, then gradually moved onto Oldham Road when we were 18ish used to try to do 10 pubs every Friday and Saturday night before inevitably ending up in the Railway until 6 the next morning. Couldnt do 10 pubs without using a taxi now

 

[Barcon]

For anyone that knew Tom and Gladys from the black horse and the cotton tree, Rowan McDonald of our eds team is the grandson of Glads brother.

 

[BillCarlisle]

Premier video shop, I used mither my mum and dad like mad to take me in there to rent a video, must have worked a grand total of 2 times in about 5 years!!!

Grew up in Failsworth right near the Brookdale, used to go in the vault from being 15, then gradually moved onto Oldham Road when we were 18ish used to try to do 10 pubs every Friday and Saturday night before inevitably ending up in the Railway until 6 the next morning. Couldnt do 10 pubs without using a taxi now

We occasionally did a pub crawl from the Royal Oak down to Broadway on the LHS of Oldham Road and back via the Brown Cow & The Liberal Club, ending in the Pack Horse before last orders. There were so many pubs along there in those days there was only enough time to have a swift half in each.

 

[MCFCTrick]

For anyone that knew Tom and Gladys from the black horse and the cotton tree, Rowan McDonald of our eds team is the grandson of Glads brother.

 

[Barcon]

: ) Think I might have one or two kicking around here mate.

R.IP Tom.

 

[Baggins.mcfc]

Always been a lager drinker, but Sunday night was a marston's pedigree night. Always regretted it Monday morning in work. Had one mate who drove all the time, so we had plenty of marston's pubs in the failsworth area, to choose from in the late 80,s.

 

[peoffrey]

Drinking habits change. I imagine town is traditionally busy of a weekend (I rarely went out in Manchester itself) but local pubs have to be more savvy to attract drinkers.

The major turn off for me is when the gaffer simply doesn’t understand the punters needs. How difficult has it been to find somewhere selling a decent pint, show the football, keep a good clientele and employ staff who aren’t imbeciles? Very difficult given some places I’ve drank over the years...

 

[greeny 68]

He certainly was proper old school landlord ... always a shirt and tie on, Lesley always glammed up too (We called them Basil and Sybil, lol) Saw one of their daughters about a year ago, told me he is still going strong, living near Hollingworth Lake. Sadly Lesley has passed on. He is actually on Facebook, and friends on there with a mate of mine, Steve Brunt, who was a regular in there too.

Tommy Lowe served me with my first pint in a pub1974 or so. He was a real nice guy ,a gentleman. All the landlords around the Pole at that time were. John Sutton in the Crown, Gordon Calcut in the Oak,Reg Thompson in the Church and Spanish Tony in the Bridge. Failsworth Blues had a big presence on the Kippax at that time we regularly had 20/30 lads home and away. Happy days.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

My Dad would come home from there every saturday night with a new dog that he had "found".

Or as we used to call them, 'barmaids'