Trafford & Hulme

Awards of Excellence

Trafford & Hulme CAMRA Old Market Tavern Altrincham Pub of the Season Autumn 2004

Once known as the Unicorn Hotel, this old former mail coach inn has long been a favourite of cask ale drinkers. Today it regularly offers 9 cask ales, more than any other pub in the branch area. In the winter, one of these is generally Robinson's powerful Old Tom, served by gravity from a cask at the back of the bar. The other ales, all on handpump, come from a wide variety of regional and micro brewers, some famous and some less so. It's the most regular local outlet for Bolton's Bank Top beers, for example. For lovers of apples there are also three ciders, usually from Saxon of Batley.

The Old Market Tavern has been a Good Beer Guide regular for a number of years, and we're pleased to say that the 2005 edition of the Guide (just published! price £13.99 at all good booksellers) is no exception. It's missed out at least one year though. In 1999 the future of the pub seemed uncertain when former landlord, Wayne Reece, started developing his new Belgian bar, Le Trappiste. Eventually he decided to concentrate on his new venture and the OMT passed to Anne-Marie Holbourne, who had worked there already for quite some time. She set about sprucing the place up and has brought in a few innovations to get different people to try the pub. Male strippers might not have been everyone's first idea of entertainment, but it did bring a lot of ladies in, and Anne-Marie says many of them gave the cask ales a try - probably for the first time ever!

Internally the pub is very much an alehouse, reminiscent of its previous guise as a Hogshead pub, with much bare wood or stone on the floor and a lot of dark wood round the walls. The long bar is the first thing you notice when you enter, with a proud array of handpumps. The mail coach passengers of two centuries ago probably wouldn't recognise it as it has been opened out and extended into what used to be the Town Hall next door. But it still has several distinct little alcoves for privacy, and it has a separate smoke free room (all day) to the right of the bar. The clientele are very varied, with all ages represented, but it has a particular appeal for young drinkers. For many of them, this is where they first learn to appreciate the diversity and subtlety of cask beer.

The award was resented to Anne-Marie at the Old Market Tavern in October.