Sowerby Bridge – Hollins Mill

After visiting the Hogs Head in Sowerby Bridge, I came to this former joinery premises which is run by the same company and is also listed in the Good Beer Guide. I would have visited the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms by the railway station as well, which is the only other Good Beer Guide listed pub in the town but it was shut and so I didn’t……

The lighting proved challenging to take a photo, but this is the interior of the pub. They usually have a board behind the bar with the cask and keg options, but they were rewriting it when I visited so taking a photo would have been a little awkward. The environment felt a little sparse and it was more like being in a museum’s cafe than in a pub, but everything was clean and tidy. There’s an outside area as well which seemed popular, other than there were two dogs fighting which I didn’t think was ideal. Actually, it was very off-putting and I’m not sure whether I’d take children here.

The Hop, Skip and Juice from the nearby Vocation Brewery, a perfectly acceptable pale ale, along with some really excellent beefy crisps from Seabrooks. Like the Hogs Head, this pub also doesn’t serve food beyond basic snacks, so this must be a challenge to shift enough beer to make money.

Anyway, a perfectly welcoming pub with helpful staff. It apparently won the ‘CAMRA’s Best Conversion to Pub Use’ in 2006, but I don’t like the design personally, it all felt a bit open plan to me and I’m not sure that the acoustics worked very well. Anyway, I’m not an interior designer and I’m not even sure why I’m going down that line…..