Sweet Green Tavern, Bolton

Sweet Green Tavern was the first pub on a recent crawl of Bolton Town centre. A small bar area is found to the left of the entrance and to the right is a front seating area with banquettes and a rear area with a pool table and dartboard. There’s a jukebox on the wall, but it sat silent due to a lack of funds, which was no bad thing. Standard and premium keg were available and the two hand pumps were drawing Hopstar Brewery’s Lancashire Gold and Off T’ Mill. I plumped for half a Gold, but the governor misheard and pulled me a pint. One of the very friendly locals pointed out that I had ordered a half, to which I said I was fine with a pint, but with a glint in his eye the governor decided to have the pint himself before drawing my half. Something about “no drink gets wasted in here” was uttered with a big smile. The many old clips on the wooden beams indicate that this pub takes its beer seriously, and the well-trodden interior are signs of a well loved old school boozer. Definitely worth a look, especially as this is easily the best option around the Railway Station.

This is still a 3 roomed pub, there's a pool table in one and a dartboard in another, the third is more of a lounge. It's quite nicely decorated with green, leather look banquettes around the main room. Unusually a couple were playing backgammon in the lounge area. In the main room there's a piano and also a jukebox. There's a covered outside area with a free table football and some sofas. 4 handpumps with 3 on, 2 were serving Copper Dragon beers and the other a Lytham ale. The Copper Dragon Eye Of The Dragon was in good nick. Near both the bus and railway stations and a decent place to wait for your train.