The Abbey, Dentons Green, St. Helens

Suburban pub in an elegant period building. A mixture of dining and boozing in various named areas eg. the crypt, absolutely rammed on a Saturday evening so it’s clearly locally popular. Nice place, miles better than the Gerard for my money, but a bit Joey Holt’s corporate and only the bitter available on cask. Went for the very decent Black on keg instead. I would happily come back at a quieter time.

This fine building and Joseph Holt pub was built in 1802 and has large rooms and high ceilings and friendly bar staff.There were 4 cask beer pumps on the bar on my Tuesday afternoon visit including Spitfire plus a couple of Christmas casks which were being sold off at £1.30p a pint