POETIC PUB PINT

I’M a poet and writer and I’ve lived in Stockport all my life. I’ve written a very short piece about Hillgate and my first pint in a pub after lockdown,

I hope you enjoy it.

COVID 19 and the pubs of Hillgate

On the first brave Saturday afternoon of August, as the A6 was busy as always, busier now than past months, and getting busier as normality tries to grip back onto civilisation.

I walk up Edward street past the town hall, an old lady passing by pushing a trolley and wearing a mask smiles with her eyes as I say hello.

I carry on walking and I pass the now closed down crucible, where Hillgate and much of Stockport and beyond would play snooker and pool and sit and relax and have a pint.

Hillgate and it’s faces have changed over the years, and most of the iconic Hillgate pubs have now sadly closed down.

The Black Lion, a beautiful poetic building on the corner at the top of the brow of Waterloo road, is still a haunting and eye-demanding building, a building with a mass of character.

I wandered into a pub once again that has a gargantuan amount of character and an historic gem of Hillgate, one of the survivors, the pubs name is the Sun and Castle.

I’m greeted by huge doors and down trodden stone steps, with an old man stood perched on the top step smoking a cigarette. I walk inside to one of the great meeting places and watering holes of Hillgate, once again the faces have changed over the years but the character of the people here will never be lacking.

Covid 19 has changed the way pubs are operating, and the impact this decease has had on society is immeasurable.

So I stand two meters away from the bar, and I order what will be my first pint inside a pub for four months.

The beauty of this pub is astonishing, and the architecture is sublime, the place is a snapshot of history and the Sun and Castle is what a pub should definitely look like, as one of my friends described it the other day as a “proper Peaky Blinders pub”.

I took a seat in the war room, and relaxed and drank my pint. I began unintentionally listening to everything that was going on, voices and laughter buzzing from left and right and centre.

Like everybody else, we pray for more normality to arrive, and a healthier world, but Hillgate and society is forever changing, but the Sun and Castle will always be a jewel in the crown of Stockport. David Doherty Stockport