Malt 'n' Hops, Chorley

Situated on the wrong side of the railway line from the town centre, first impressions of this ale house were not brilliant. It looked a little dodgy to say the least. However, first impressions were completely wrong on this occasion. This is a proper friendly old boozer with an excellent range of ales and ciders, the sort of ale house which every decent real ale destination has. As such, it was my favourite pub of the day in Chorley. Bank Top Dark Mild is the regular ale here. In addition, there were 8 guest beers. These were Black Edge Hop, Wily Fox Crafty Fox & The Fox Hat, Irwell Works Marshmallow Unicorn, Big Bog Hinkypunk & Talus, Ossett White Rat & Moorhouse's White Witch. The 2 Weston's ciders were Raspberry Roller & Flat Tyre. Friendly service, despite it being quite busy and surprisingly, kids are also allowed in. Every town should have a pub like this.

Well-known alehouse located just on the far side of the railway from the town centre. Proper, old-fashioned interior with a reasonable amount of seating in the L-shaped bar. A few wooden benches are also available outside at the back. With a very good range available from eight handpumps, I went for Crafty Fox from the Wily Fox Brewery (£3.00).

An oasis in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Chorley, and basically a perfect pub in all meaningful ways. No silly dictatorish rules either as it allows TVs, music and mobile phones. It’s a really good pub for the serious ale drinkers and 8 handpumps were on today. Snacks are very cheap and always available. Basically it’s brilliant.

I was quite surprised to discover that this is a shop conversion as it looked like an original pub to me. Inside it's a roughly L shaped carpeted room with a TV screen and Live Music advertised. I was the only one in on a cold January afternoon. The bar is on a corner and had banks of five and four hand pumps. These had Moorhouse White Witch, Banks's Sunbeam, Riverhead Happy Valley Pale, RAT White Rat & Black Rat, Bank Top Mild, Salamander Golden Ale, Elland Chinook and Osset Inception. I went for the White Rat (£2.80) which was excellent. Despite being the only punter I liked this one.