We were making good time under blue skies on the M6, the only delay encountered being the predictable traffic jam circumnavigating Oxford, some 5-minutes after setting off. The rock playlist was curated by the man behind the wheel, John, who was going into great detail about when Richie Blackmore reached his peak.
🕧12:30 - time to head to the Swan and Railway...
Swan and Railway Hotel (80 Wallgate, Wigan, WN1 1BA)
This is a great-lookin' red brick pub, built in 1898 by W.E.V. Compton. There is a pleasing mosaic floor displaying the hotel name in the doorway, with options of heading right into the narrow bar or straight to a corridor, with serving hatch, Victorian tiles, some great glasswork, staircase, and routes to two other rooms.
There were seven hand pumps on the bar, serving Bank Top 'Dark Mild' (first beer thumbs-up from one of our party), a stout from Brewsmith (I'll be back for that before closing time), pale ales from Pinnacle and Beerworks, a fruity collab between Ossett and Vault City, Black Sheep best bitter, and Bass🔺.
A great choice, but I hadn't had a pint of Bass in 2025, so started the day with two of 'em.
And a pie..
The only problem with the Swan and Railway was the danger that we may never leave. After all, we had a fine selection of beers, a seat by the fire, sport on the TV, a pie menu.
But we're more intrepid than that - and figured we'd be back. As it was, we met some of the team from the pub in the beer festival later and made a couple of revisits, getting chatting to the owners about their dedication to Bass and their recent acquisition of the Woodman in Birmingham. We also got a tip about sleeping with onions in your socks when you're coming down with a rotten cold...not tried and tested yet.
We didn't have far to go to the next destination - under the railway bridge, turn left and into the arch.
Wigan Central (Arch No.1 and 2, Queen Street, Wigan, WN1 4DY)
The station-style signage and giant blue locomotive on the window give a clue that they've embraced the railway theme here. They really have...railway carriage seating to one side, a bar in a bit of rolling stock, signs and historic pictures throughout, and wooden signals on the tables to indicate you're ready for service (didn't see this in action, so it may be a throwback to 20/21).
The Bank Top 'Signal' is the house beer, rebadged Flat Cap, alongside five other cask ales and some craft keg lines that I didn't even look at on this visit (again, we'd be back, drinking murky pale ale as a DJ souped up 80's classics at a thunderous volume in the side room on Saturday evening). On a quieter Thursday afternoon I picked a 4.2% pale called 'Outside the Frame' from the nearby Black Lodge Brewery.
Leaving Wigan Central, we ambled up Wallgate as far as one of the pubs on the local Ale Trail, a one-time Wigan Good Beer Guide Entry.
The Berkeley (27-29 Wallgate, Wigan, WN1 1LD)
Heading straight to the bar we found four hand pumps serving 'Wainwright', 'Cumbria Way', and Moorhouses 'Blonde Witch' and 'White Witch'.
The staff member was efficient and no-nonsense...
"What's the difference between the White Witch and Blonde Witch?"
"They're both popular".
You'd have been bold to ask for a taster.
We took our picks of the Moorhouse beers to a high table in the centre of the pub, asking ourselves 'how is this not a Wetherspoon's? The sprawling size of the place, the carpet, the layout and style of the furniture were all JDW-like, as was the impressive mid-afternoon crowd.
Looking above us at the closed upper floor, we pondered if the balconies and unusual pillars rearranged themselves overnight in a Hogwarts style...I fear we were knocking back the ale too fast and talking nonsense already - and we still had a beer festival to get to.
The clock had ticked past post-pandemic hotel check-in time (it's never going back to 2pm is it?), so we drank up, and got ourselves settled in our lodgings. A thirty minute 'freshening up' break - cup of tea, spot of a daytime TV quiz show, a glance at the local map to see how far it was to the pubs I wanted to visit - then we were back on the move.
A walk up Millgate took us to Winstanley Gardens and the Face of Wigan...
We were heading to the John Bull Chop House, which is situated on a cobbled lane to the side of the gardens. Although I suspect we'd have diverted here had we been headed anywhere else as soon as we heard Master of Puppets playing from the speaker in the doorway.
John Chop Brewhouse (2 Coopers Row, Market Place, Wigan, WN1 1PQ)
This is very much the rock pub to complement our in-car soundtrack on our journey up the motorway. As such, we ended up back here late on both Friday and Saturday nights - wild rumours may suggest that I did a little dance at some point. Cracking music and a great atmosphere when it was busy with customers in the night-time. Here, however, is the early doors photograph...
Timothy Taylor 'Boltmaker', Thwaites 'Gold', or Thwaites 'Brewhouse' were the cask ale choices on our visit. The malty, treacly, 4.3% American brown ale Brewhouse was delicious. A few of these were sunk on our consecutive visits.
We'd come to Wigan because of the beer festival with an enticing list of beers, so figured it was about time we made the effort to get there.
We hopped aboard the vintage bus which had been laid on as a shuttle between the town centre and the Robin Park Leisure Centre.
Situated beside a retail park and Wigan's football stadium, the leisure centre was an odd venue for the festival, with non-beer-quaffing folk doing healthy sporty stuff and posters advertising various medical clinics including, ironically, free liver scans.
The bar was split into light and dark halves - the dark side for me on Thursday evening, with a switch to the paler stuff on Friday. I started with Vocation 'Birthday Cake' milk stout from the wooden cask, complemented Clay Brow's 'The Hooded Monk' as having the best pump clip of the festival, and spent a while trying to decide whether or not I actually liked the draft red wine barrel aged 11% old ale from Romanian brewery Blackout. Yep, this was a festival that really did the craft keg justice.
Top marks for the value pie and peas available on the catering stall which nourished me well for two visits.
This is a great-lookin' red brick pub, built in 1898 by W.E.V. Compton. There is a pleasing mosaic floor displaying the hotel name in the doorway, with options of heading right into the narrow bar or straight to a corridor, with serving hatch, Victorian tiles, some great glasswork, staircase, and routes to two other rooms.
A great choice, but I hadn't had a pint of Bass in 2025, so started the day with two of 'em.
We didn't have far to go to the next destination - under the railway bridge, turn left and into the arch.
The station-style signage and giant blue locomotive on the window give a clue that they've embraced the railway theme here. They really have...railway carriage seating to one side, a bar in a bit of rolling stock, signs and historic pictures throughout, and wooden signals on the tables to indicate you're ready for service (didn't see this in action, so it may be a throwback to 20/21).
Heading straight to the bar we found four hand pumps serving 'Wainwright', 'Cumbria Way', and Moorhouses 'Blonde Witch' and 'White Witch'.
The staff member was efficient and no-nonsense...
"What's the difference between the White Witch and Blonde Witch?"
"They're both popular".
You'd have been bold to ask for a taster.
Looking above us at the closed upper floor, we pondered if the balconies and unusual pillars rearranged themselves overnight in a Hogwarts style...I fear we were knocking back the ale too fast and talking nonsense already - and we still had a beer festival to get to.
A walk up Millgate took us to Winstanley Gardens and the Face of Wigan...
This is very much the rock pub to complement our in-car soundtrack on our journey up the motorway. As such, we ended up back here late on both Friday and Saturday nights - wild rumours may suggest that I did a little dance at some point. Cracking music and a great atmosphere when it was busy with customers in the night-time. Here, however, is the early doors photograph...
We hopped aboard the vintage bus which had been laid on as a shuttle between the town centre and the Robin Park Leisure Centre.
Situated beside a retail park and Wigan's football stadium, the leisure centre was an odd venue for the festival, with non-beer-quaffing folk doing healthy sporty stuff and posters advertising various medical clinics including, ironically, free liver scans.
Top marks for the value pie and peas available on the catering stall which nourished me well for two visits.
Wrapping things up/running out of tokens, we caught a bus back to the centre and popped back into the Swan & Railway for a nightcap that I probably didn't need.
I'll be back in Wigan for the next post as we continued to explore the pubs of the town.
I'll be back in Wigan for the next post as we continued to explore the pubs of the town.
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