Strawberry Duck, Clayton, Manchester

The Strawberry Duck is a lock side pub on the north bank of the Ashton Canal, which sounds very quaint, but in reality this pub is on the edge of an industrial estate. There is a bell on the front door for access. This is to keep the riff-raff out rather than passers-by, so there was no problem with me popping in for a swift pint. The entrance opens up onto an L-shaped bar counter that supports standard keg and a hand pump that was drawing Holts Bitter. Around to the right is some seating and a dartboard. The main bar area is around to the left where there’s a large open plan area with seating and a vaulted ceiling. A DJ was set up on the rear wall, my visit was on Red v Blue FA Cup final day so there was a party atmosphere. Either the locals really enjoy the dulcet tones of Shabba Ranks or the DJ put his album on before skiving off. Televisions are found throughout, this is very much a football pub, although the match was finished so some gardening program was airing. Out the back is a smoking area to the left and a beer garden with picnic tables is access down some fire escape steps to the right. There was a good atmosphere in here with both City and United supporters enjoying the sunny afternoon. This place is a bit out of the way to warrant a revisit, but I would use it if I lived locally.

The Strawberry Duck is just off the main road and is a much larger pub than what first appears from the outside,with an large room beyond the bar area,which has a stage to the right and film and music miscellaneous items from the 50's era scattered around including a life size Elvis model.There was no real ale on when i visited on a Tuesday lunchtime although there was a pump with Doom Bar clip on but sadly this was off. There is also a pleasant, well positioned beer garden that overlooks the Ashton canal

The Strawberry Duck is situated in a fairly quiet area of clayton and it is next to the canal. From the outside it looked like the pub had an extension added to it or the brickwork had been cleaned up,once inside i went into a smart and comfortable room that was well furnished,there were two real ales on the bar and i had a drink of Holts bitter and as usuall this was a really nice drink the other beer was Boddingtons bitter. I found this to be a friendly pub and i would have happily stayed longer if not on a pub crawl. Pub visited 11/11/1994