No Frills, Handy for the Hills

In which we hop aboard the train from Sheffield and make a couple of stops in the Peak District, with Rock Mills Brewery and it's elusive opening hours our final target.

Mid-morning, grey skies and bitterly cold, our first stop was Bamford.
It's a fair trek from the train station to the village itself.  Bamford, home to around 1,250 folk, has the River Derwent flowing by its southern side and impressive steep hills rising behind it.  Not that we could see them, shrouded in the low cloud.

Anglers Rest (Main Road, Bamford, S33 0DY - web)
The Anglers Rest was purchased by the local community from Admiral Taverns back in 2013.  It's now a diverse local hub with a post office, small shop and cafe alongside the pub.  The bar is to the left side of the door, with Abbeydale, Bradfield and Acorn beers on the pump clips, and a couple of spacious rooms beyond.

But we arrived at 10:45am, 15-minutes before alcohol is served, and instead of waiting, we settled in the cafe and ordered coffees.
But I'm claiming the tick!  No VAR in the Southern Central Counties Pub Ticking League 😉

Coffee shop and PO side of the Anglers Rest

And the pub side

A quick hike back down to the station and we were on our way to Chinley, a 20 minute train ride away, passing Hope and Edale on the way.   

We made the short walk to Chinley's neighbour Whitehough.  Here you'll find two pubs, both owned by the same people: the Paper Mill Inn and the Old Hall Inn.  It was the second of these - a regular Beer Guide entry - which we headed to.

The Old Hall Inn (Whitehough, SK23 6EJ - web)
We sat in the front bar, warming ourselves next to a log burning stove in this charming pub which occupies part of the 16th century Whitehough Hall.
There was a good range of beers, from which I went for the most local option: a Whim Ales 'Hartington Bitter'.

The staff lit the second wood burner at the other end of the room, filling the bar with smoke as they did so.  "It does that", said the young lady (I'm sure it really shouldn't).  She struggled to try and open the window whilst the place filled with thicker and thicker smoke inducing the odd bout of choking.
The chef strode in as though he was going to make the magic adjustments to the stove and save the day, but it turned out he just wanted his lighter back.
So...they tried their best to smoke us out.  Or possibly kill us off.   But still, lovely pub. 

We decided we could walk the 4-miles to New Mills rather than head back for a third leg of the train journey.  This took us along a riverside path, then onto the Peak Forest Canal which we could follow all the way into New Mills.

This was the view I was looking forward to seeing, although I'd kinda been rooting for a blue sky background...

The town sits on higher ground above the Torrs, a 70ft gorge through which the rivers Goyt and Sett flow.  Coal mining was the first industry to reach the area, before cotton mills and print works were constructed in the late 18th century.

At the bottom of the gorge, by the splendid Torr Vale Mill, is the Millennium Walkway.  Cantilevered along the imposing wall of the railway embankment, then supported by pillars in the riverbed as it passes the weir, the walk along this is simply superb. 

Climbing up to town level, we strolled along the main street and made our way to the Masons Arms, which I'd decided looked the best of the town's half-dozen pubs.

Masons Arms (High Street, New Mills, SK22 4BR)
Previously a Robinsons pub, this was closed in 2017 prior to being refurbished and reopened as a free house later the same year.
Four hand pumps on the bar offered an interesting range of beers, but being a skinflint I could see no further than the £2 weekday afternoon special.  On this occasion it was a 'Red Mist', from Storm Brewing of Macclesfield.  And very good it was too.

I took no photo's of the interior of the Mason's Arms, as it had a fair few people in for the early hour, none of whom looked like they would appreciate being in my pictures.
So all you get is the fancy industrial lighting in the window... 

The bonus of being here at the beginning of the week was the chance to visit a Beer Guide entry with pretty restrictive hours.  The Rock Mill Brewery currently only opens from 5-8pm on a Monday and Tuesday.
It's also reasonably tricky to find, as we discovered when Google took us to a derelict barn on a street behind the brewery.  And the trouble with brewery taps is we stood looking at the derelict barn asking ourselves "D'you think that's it?  Dunno, could be".
We found the right place and managed to sneak in early...

Rock Mill Brewery (Unit 1b, Rock Mill Lane, New Mills, SK22 3BN)
"Are you open?"
The chap behind the bar, who turned out to be Rock Mill boss and brewer Ray, ushered us in even though he wasn't really ready for us, apologising that he'd put the 'bar open' sign out early.

This makes a nice change from those shiny modern tap rooms - opened in 2018, it's located in an old garage unit adjacent to the brewery itself, with two tables and a number of makeshift places to perch.
Changes may be afoot, as Ray told us that he has plans to expand into the space next door, and to increase the opening hours in the future.

There were four hand pumps across the bar, from which I tried the 'Back to the Future' 4% English bitter and 'Stars and Stripes' pale ale 3.9%.  Both were served with the care and pride you'd expect from the brewer and we enjoyed our drinks and time at Rock Mill. 

By the time we were drinking up and planning to head to the train station, there were a number of regulars arriving and it wouldn't take much to fill the place up.

The first time I heard of New Mills was a brief appearance in a Half Man Half Biscuit song.  But it turns out it's not just handy for the hills, it's a rewarding destination, with the walk through the Torrs being the highlight of the day.  All in all, we'd had a fine day out, all about to be topped off in Sheffield with a craft beer nightcap in the Crow.

Next up: PropUptheBar heads across to Liverpool and takes too many pictures of the Philharmonic.