About the Calder Valley Railway Ale Trail
This is an alternative to the Transpennine Real Ale Trail. It is a rough guide, a work in progress, based on the Halifax to Manchester branch of the Calder Valley Railway Line.
The Calder Valley Railway Line was formerly known as the Caldervale Line - which is where the web address calder-vale-ale.uk is taken from).
This page will eventually be a full guide to the pubs serving Real Ale that can be found on the Western end of the Calder Valley Railway Line, on the leg from Halifax to Manchester Victoria. For now, on the Pubs Page, there is a list of each station with the nearest and/or recommended pubs. Each pub has link to a map of how to get to the pub from the Station. Each town has a button to show train times to your next destination on the Trail.
The idea came to a group of colleagues and fellow Real Ale enthusiasts after having had an enjoyable day out on the original and first Transpennine Real Ale Trail made famous by Oz and James. We had a cracking day, but it was busy at times. An additional factor was that another colleague had opened his own bar in Castleton, Rochdale and this is a short walk from the station. We wondered if we could put together a similar railway based Real Ale trail that included our friend's bar. We did a bit of looking at the timetables and arranged a recce on the 25 Feb 2017.
It was only when we came to put this page together that we found several other people had already had the same idea:
- Not an original idea - Neil Turner got here first!
- Then Chris Dyson did a blogspot
- You will need to get hold of a timetable for Northern Rail Route 36, which is the alternate route to Leeds.
Not every train stops at every station. Use TrainTimes links to check and plan your trail.
A list of all the stations on the route follows (on this first outing we started at Sowerby Bridge and travelled towards Manchester, picking a few stops that looked interesting to start with. You can choose your own stops, or you can do this in the opposite direction its up to you!)...
- Halifax
- Sowerby Bridge
- Mytholmroyd
- Hebden Bridge
- Todmorden
- Walsden
- Littleborough
- Smithy Bridge
- Rochdale
- Castleton
- Mills Hill
- Moston
- Manchester Victoria
Eventually each town/station will have its own page with directions and a map to the pubs. Possibly we'll have a little .pdf sheet that you can print out to take with you (just in case you are 'old school' or your mobile runs out of battery or loses signal!)
A Google Map shows the route...
Responsible Drinking
The Calder Vale Railway Ale Trail page does not condone anti-social behaviour by irresponsible drinkers. We hope all Real Ale fans will agree that what we are about is to enjoy a glass of good beer in a friendly convivial atmosphere, which is what all the pubs on this trail strive to provide. We have had one or two reports of anti-social behaviour, particularly in Hebden Bridge on busy summer Saturday evenings. While we don't believe that any of the 3000 approx readers of this webpage would act in this way, please be considerate in your actions. When planning your Ale trail, bear in mind that the more popular destinations (Hebden, Halifax, Manchester) do get busy, so you may wish to visit one of the many alternative Towns and Pubs on the trail who will all welcome your custom.