Ye Olde Man & Scythe, Bolton

Great pub for the tourist - claiming (with rare honesty, i thought) to be the fourth oldest in England. Makes a change to not go for top spot. Certainly played its part in the town history - with a civil war execution taking place out front and the victim having his last sit down on a chair in the pun that is now in a glass cabinet. Flagstone floor - rear room, bar area and a tidy little room (with chair and dated inscription in the wall). Eclectic regulars who soon engage in chat. TT Spring Knowle selected from a number of cask. Only food is rather thinner than their cornish cousin pasties Must visit for the history.

Whether or not Ye Olde Man & Scythe is the 4th oldest pub in the land is debatable, but it certainly feels like it has some age and stories to tell. The entrance opens into the front stone floored bar area where there is a dartboard with an oche that runs across the front lead lined windows. A couple of table lead to a short bar counter that supports five hand pumps that were drawing Marston’s 61 Deep, Bank Top’s Flat Cap, Wye Valley’s HPA, Oakham’s Citra and Thatcher’s Stan’s Trad cider. The barman was a bit lethargic so a couple of locals who’d been in a while decided to summon him from the rear bar to serve me. He wasn’t very impressed, but the HPA was on good form. The stone floor continues into the rear bar area where standard and premium keg is available alongside four more hand pumps that were drawing ciders, this being a famed cider pub. In the right side of the pub are steps up to a couple of wood floored seating areas and at the rear is an area where the advertised live music is held. There is also a very small enclosed outside space which probably gets very smoky when busy. This historic pub is certainly worth a visit, but I would take the 4th oldest pub claim with a pinch of salt.

A fine authentic olde worlde pub and apparently the 4th oldest in Britain. Inside there are a few rooms to sit and low beams to avoid. 4 handpumps on one part of the bar and 4 on the other. Loads of ciders available. For a more exhaustive description Mr Bonsers review will inform more than I'm going to.

On the historic cobbled street of Churchgate in the heart of Bolton is Ye Olde Man and Scythe, an attractive looking black and white Tudor style pub with gables and leaded bay windows. A sandwich board outside tells us that its “officially the 4th oldest pub in Britain”. High up on the frontage, we learn that “ in this ancient hostelry, James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, passed his last few hours of his life previous to his execution on 15 October 1651”. We also learn that the pub dates back to 1251 AD, but was rebuilt in 1636. It is believed that only the vaulted cellar remains from 1251, but that some of the internal timbered beams date back to 1636 Inside, a staple shaped bar counter on the left serves a flagstoned front area, a narrow drinking corridor and a further area at the rear accessed along the corridor. The front area has a dartboard and juke box. At the rear, we see an old ceiling beam which is annotated in old style lettering as being the end wall of the original building 1251. Reminding us that we’re in the north, we’re also told that this is the way “to t’yard “ – a small outside seating area effectively in the middle of the building. On the right hand side of the corridor are two rooms, the front one of which looks out on to the market place. The rear room is much larger and is traditionally furnished with padded seating around the perimeter of the room. There’s a fine decorative ceiling, despite beams which clearly aren’t original, and walls which are decorated with interesting framed prints relating to The Civil War, and, in particular the Bolton battles of 1643 and 1644. We learn that an annual re-enactment takes place outside the pub every 15 October, which, as it just so happened, had been in the week before my visit. The highlight of this room is undoubtedly a glass cabinet which contains the chair on which James Stanley apparently sat whilst awaiting execution on the scaffold outside for his part as a Royalist sympathiser and his involvement in the Bolton battles. Here also is a rather gruesome effigy of his bloodstained severed head after the act had been done. In this room is also a piano and some old Victorian bell pushes. Even to non – historians such as myself, it’s an interesting room, although it does feel rather dark and gloomy and the seating does look rather worn, which, in my view, does lessen the overall experience. Ye Olde Man and Scythe claims to have been “leading Bolton’s music scene for 20 years” and there’s regular jam sessions and live music of the loud rock variety. A loud juke box seems to keep the clientele happy when there’s no live music on, as do several electronic games machines. Cider is clearly the favoured drink here – not without good reason is the pub better known as T’Cider House – and, on my visit, virtually every customer ( a predominantly male clientele) was drinking one of the Thatchers flavoured summer ciders – orange and apricots, blackcurrant and apple, strawberry and pear, passion fruit etc. These are advertised on a sandwich board prominently situated outside on the pavement at the front, as is the fact that these are sold at a price of £ 2.20p per pint between 12 – 4pm on Mondays through to Fridays. We are warned to be careful as the ABV of these drinks is 7.5%, but, on my recent Friday mid-afternoon visit, a good few customers, were already clearly starting to get rather boisterous. This is evidently not a pub for the faint-hearted. 4 real ales were on – Bank Top Flat Cap, Hobgoblin, Robinsons Dizzy Blonde and Moorhouses Pendle Witch. Quality was reasonable and, although this is clearly a cider pub, pleasingly the local CAMRA branch magazine is prominently displayed. This was a memorable visit. Despite a number of reservations, on balance, I would revisit when next in Bolton