The Moorcock Inn, Littleborough, Rochdale

Mar 17 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Pub Column never sleeps. Even though Yours Truly was on a welcome holiday break from Castle Greyskull, the spare time was put to good use, boldly going to boozers that other columns cannot reach.

The first expedition as the week dawned was with The Old Man into the oyster bed of pubs in the wilds of West Lancashire.

Up to now, this has always trawled up pearls.

Old favourites such as the Eagle and Child in Bispham Green were there for the taking, but as regulars readers will know, we’d already "had her" to use PC parlance.

We were looking for something new ' but surprisingly this time there was an empty catch.

This was because so many of what looked like hostelries with potential seemed to be closed during the day. It was hard to deduce whether this was due to their relatively isolated location, the time of the week or even the season.

However, later in the week a far more adventurous trip appropriate to holiday time was undertaken ' and this one cut the mustard.

This time the occasional PC companion, Lady Janet of Crockie Park, dusted down her own jalopy to transport Yours Truly for a day out far beyond the boundaries of our own galaxy to a pub in Littleborough, a village just outside Rochdale.

"Rochdale!!!!???" you might roar incredulously like the Scouse kid in the Reds’ shirt used to squawk "Accrington Stanley!!??" in the old TV milk advert.

Well, by car and a journey largely confined to motorway, Rochdale and Littleborough are only a mere hour’s drive away even by milady’s pootering standards.