Former Sherwood, Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield. (c) Google 2011. View Larger Map.
The student-only pub (maybe one of the better nearby boozers should implement a No Students policy) known today as the Orange Grove, on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Sherwood Street, was previously known as the Sherwood. Knowing student tastes, it's doubtful whether the Orange Grove offers much in the way of a traditional boozer or anything worth drinking, but we'll not get the chance to find out. In the Sherwood 1970s it was a Whitbread house, before that, Threlfalls in 1959. It's also shown in 1976 looking a bit different due to awnings having been added.
I went in last year and I'm not a student, but I think it was summer when I went. So if you really want to find out what it's like now then you will probably get in out of term-time. Your presumption is correct though, it's not great!
ReplyDeleteBeing a student in 1978 meant looking for a traditional pub with something worth drinking! or at least it did to us. At that time it struck me as a local's pub - at any rate the beer was horrid, so it was rarely visited.
ReplyDeleteWell, it has been pulled down, after a period of dereliction, in October 2016. My father bought me a pint on my 21st birthday there when it was the Sherwood, and it was still a locals' pub.
ReplyDeleteI worked in the Sherwood in 1976. It had just been "done up", and controversially it was Lounge bar only prices. with no cheaper public bar. Bitter was 28p a pint. I worked there at lunchtimes and in the evenings I worked in the Southern (by the cemetery in Chorlton). In the Southern bitter was 20½p a pint (10½p for a half) and mild was 18½p a pint (9½p for a half).
ReplyDeleteIn those pre fancy till days you had to memorise the prices in your head and reckon it up as you served the customer.
Sometimes I accidentally charged the other pub's prices by mistake. That wouldn't be commented on in the (dearer) Sherwood but they'd get very angry in the (cheaper) Southern if you charged Sherwood prices.
They had Elton John and Kiki Dee on the Juke Box singing Don't Go Breaking My Heart. I thought they'd managed to get a live version, but then realised the extra noise was due to the vinyl being so scratched!
I always got far more tips in the Southern, which was a working man's pub, than the much posher Sherwood....
In the summer of 1995 The Sherwood was gutted and re-opened as Buchanan's (and I started working there from that opening) which was an experiment Scottish theme pub that Whitbread's ran as their alternative to the Irish bars that were becoming popular at the time. Prior to opening all the staff were given a course in whiskey tasting to help us sell some of the 20-odd single malts that we had on offer. Needless to say it was a flop, if you're leathered and after a whiskey and coke you're not going to pay for anything more than a Bells. At that time it was a really busy pub, especially Friday and Saturday nights, and there was a good mix of students and locals, which only rarely led to trouble. Around 1998 the place was gutted again and reopened as the Orange Grove. This was when bouncers were first put on the doors and it became a student's only pub. They tried putting on DJs but the layout of the place was useless for that sort of thing. I did my last shift there in 2000, it just wasn't the same pub anymore and I barely set foot in the place again. I've got really happy memories of The Sherwood and especially Buchanan's and the long-time, curmudgeonly managers, Dave and Sandra Smith.
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