A warm welcome awaits at pub with community feel and award-winning grub

ALE enthusiast John Clarke reviews a pub worth stopping by at – The Fingerpost, 434 Hempshaw Lane, Offerton, SK1 4QA. THERE’S so much going on at this thriving community pub it’s difficult to know where to start.

The pub itself is an imposing red brick building dominating its road junction site. It must have been a showpiece for the old Bell’s Brewery and it now fulfils a similar role for Robinsons, which gave the pub a very successful makeover recently.

There’s much of the old multi-roomed layout remaining with a busy bar/vault area to the left and to the right a comfortable lounge.

A corridor at the back has another three rooms and at the end the old billiard room has been very successfully converted into a function room. There’s another function room upstairs. At the back there’s a huge amount of land with a beer garden, large car park and lawns.

It’s a lot of pub to fill but landlord Robert Lester, who’s been there five- and- a- half- years, tells me it’s busy all the time with even a decent crowd on Mondays – which can be a very quiet day for many pubs.

A Ukulele Club meets on Mondays – and is so popular it now takes up two rooms – darts teams play on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays and there’s poker on Wednesday days, too.

Th There’s live music mo most Saturdays and on Su Sunday it’s karaoke nig night – the pub takes pa part in the local karaoke lea league.

The large outdoor ar area is host to the an annual Fingerfest music festival which r raises money for the Marie Curie charity – th this year’s event was in Ju June and was a great s success I’m told.

While all this is going on you’ll want to be fed and watered. On the beer front t there are four Robinsons cask ales available – Wizard, Trooper, Unicorn and the current seasonal – and in my experience qual- ity is always high. There’s a major food operation here, too, and you’ll get fed from 12-3pm and 6-9pm Monday to Friday, 12-8pm on Saturdays and 12-4pm on Sundays – the Sunday lunch has won awards. The food ranges from pub staples to daily specials and is all freshly prepared.

It really does seem to have a great community feel – something that’s difficult to put your finger on but you know when it’s there. You couldn’t always say this about the Fingerpost to be honest but Robert and his family are to be congratulated in the way they have turned this pub around and made it real asset to its community.

Opening hours: Noon – midnight every day.