Ashley wasn’t in the Sneyd Arms in 1995, but thanks to him for this photo
I was rushing around the country like a mad thing for work back then. I had arranged a work road trip that required me to be in Cardiff on the Friday and then in Manchester for a couple of days from the Monday.
As it happened, Janie and I had been invited to a party in Knutsford on the Saturday evening; a couple named Ros & Con whom we had met in Sri Lanka a few months earlier. That Sri Lanka tour was the last time Janie and I did a group tour. We weren’t wild about too many of the fellow travellers, but we did get on with Ros & Con.
We also wanted to meet up with Mike Smith & Marianna at Keele – following my January visit, Mike and I had started doing some work together and I thought Janie would get on well with those two…which she did.
By George, I’d Do This Differently Today
So, unusually, we arranged for Janie to travel up and down by train, while I drove around and across the country.
I remember it dawning on me that driving from Cardiff to The Potteries on a Friday afternoon/evening was not one of my better ideas – it took hours. Janie got the 16:00 train from Euston and was cosy in the hotel I’d booked in Burslem, The George, long before I got there.
I vaguely recall The George, Burslem, being a rather charming if slightly tired small town hotel. Writing more than 25 years later, I can report that The George appears to have gone downhill if these Trip Advisor reviews are anything to go by – perhaps the worst collection of reviews I have ever seen. Fortunately the “better days it must have seen” were still reasonably apparent in 1995.
Saturday Lunch In The Sneyd Arms
We had arranged to have lunch with Mike & Marianna in The Sneyd Arms. Mike had wanted us to enjoy their hospitality at the house, but I didn’t want thus to impose on what would be a fleeting visit. Also, I had a crazy craving to see the Sneyd Arms again, for old times’ sake.
I had got to know The Sneyd Arms well during my time at Keele – especially during the 1982/83 academic year during which time I went out with Liza, daughter of the landlord, Geoff O’Connor.
Word had reached me that Geoff had retired before our visit in 1995, so I wasn’t expecting to see him in there…
…but I was wrong. There was Geoff, back visiting the place, sitting in the snug having lunch with his old bunch of muckers. It was like a trip down memory lane seeing that group in there.
Geoff greeted me warmly and gave me news of the family; not only Liza but also his good lady and the sons, Liam and Shaun.
It was also a great opportunity to get to know Mike and Marianna a bit better, so it all felt like a very natural progression in life.
Janie remembers this day very fondly, not only for the warm and friendly lunch in the Sneyd Arms with Mike & Marianna but also the Knutsford party later.
An Evening Garden Party In Knutsford
Ros and Con were quite high falutin’ people in the Knutsford community. Con had been the top banana in a large power company or something of that ilk.
Ros & Con’s summer evening garden party doubled as a bit of a fundraiser for Save The Children. I had (still have) a soft spot for that charity ever since my first ever consultancy assignment; I think that was part of our motivation for the visit.
Anyway, Ros & Con’s house was a lovely place with a lovely garden. Janie is convinced that we have photos from the event, but I certainly don’t have negatives, so they might have been sent to us after the event and reside in a pile of prints, possibly in the attic awaiting sorting. If I do uncover pictures from the event, I’ll add them.
It was a very pleasant evening. Most of the other guests were quite a lot older than us and I sensed that they found our peculiar southern vowels and youthful expressions entertaining.
I had booked in to the Britannia Hotel in Manchester – one night in Janie’s case, a couple of nights in mine. This is another hotel that was probably past its grander days by 1995 but was perfectly acceptable and very convenient for my/our needs back then. It was good enough that we booked it again more than once, as Janie did some weekend courses in Manchester in the mid to late 1990s. I think it started to get more tired and we tired of it after a while. The contemporary reviews (he says writing in February 2021) are pretty bad, but not quite as bad as those of The George in Burslem.
By way of benchmark, btw, here is my story about the very worst place I have ever stayed.
But this June 1995 piece is primarily about a very special, enjoyable and memorable day, with Mike & Marianna at Keele in the afternoon and with Ros & Con in Knutsford in the evening. It was well worth the travels.