The Ale Station, Chorley

One long room, ale bar with friendly punters and comfortable if unexciting decor. train times are displayed on electronic boards, the bus times would be equally useful since the station is across the road. Ale range was a bit samey but there was a dark beer on this time which did the trick. Worth a look, it’s a decent place to wait around.

A larger micro with various station announcement screens making it a useful waiting point for a train as the station is fairly close. The counter is along the left side and it has nine pulls with a mix of beers from small and mid size brewers. Decorated with old photos including, of course, some railway porn. It also has the smallest gents I’ve ever been in.

You can do quite a crawl of micropubs in Chorley. This was our final one and probably my least favourite of them all, possibly because it didn't quite live up to the high expectations I had set for it, especially after visiting the other micropubs the town had to offer. The interior is reasonably narrow and gets quite dark towards the rear. Seating was also available at the front on the pavement. Apparently, up to 9 real ales can be available. However, on this occasion, there were only 5 - Hawkshead Windermere Pale, Abbeydale Deception & Speculation, Acorn Barnsley Bitter & Settle Main Line Bitter. It would have been nice to have tried a dark beer, but I eventually chose the Speculation. Ciders were Sandford Orchards Devon Red & Lilley's Mango.

Although it looks like it is housed in a railway arch, and despite being very close to the station, it's not. However, at least externally, it still has that kind of appearance, although the semi-modern furniture is slightly at odds with its micro-pub sensibility. With seven of nine handpumps in use, my pint of Dark Mild (from a brewery whose name I forgot to note, £3.00) proved a good choice from the various styles of real ale offered.

Biggest of the four micro pubs visited yesterday, but still just one room with the bar on the left side. Disappointed with the ale selection despite there being six hand pumps - nothing above 4.5% ABV. No doubt this will change.

A very good little micro right next door to the bus station. Like most micros this is a single roomed place. Comfortable enough interior and the bar has 6 handpulls with a good variety of styles catered for. Beers from local breweries. Very handy for either bus or train station.