This used to be an absolutely fantastic pub a dream of a pub.
Just at a convenient place off the picturesque canal, it peeked over trees and shrubs and, from the canal, welcomed you in via a gate into the pub garden. The garden had sunny areas and dappled shade from the trees, birds, both in the trees and bushes, and in very large cages, with rabbits in hutches and a beautifully landscaped garden amidst benches and children's play equipment.
The pub had a warm welcome, a throng of happy, friendly customers, great and well kept beer, really excellent food (Brought out to your table as you liked) and an absolutely wonderful welcome and staff who were glad to make your visit a delight. Access from the canal was via a little gate into the garden and, from there, up the steps into the pub (Or, if you preferred, via a little path, out to the car-park and side entrance). From the road-side, there was a main door and a smaller door from the car-park.
Since then, the new management has chopped down the trees (They were untidy) denuding the area, removed the birds and rabbits, locked up the access to the garden from the canal and access to the pub is only via the main front door, next to the main road.
They may or may not do food. They weren't doing it the last two times I've been there. Whereas there used to be a swarm of really happy folk buying beer and enjoying terrific food, there's now a gloomy atmosphere of a few people drinking beer in the car park. It now has an amplified singer on fridays. I can now only describe the reception as surly to hostile.
This pubs situation is absolutely excellent on the main road between Walsden and Littlebrough, amidst glorious country scenery and next to a very charming stretch of rustic canal. It's in exactly the situation where anyone enjoying the area would hope to find a pub and it has the space for a pub garden worthy of the name.
Why the hell anyone who thinks pubs should be as urban as possible would want to run one like this when there are so many beer-and-telly pubs in city centres, is beyond me.
If you want the kid of pub that the current owners have turned it into, find anywhere in a depressed inner city. It will have the ambience they've worked so hard to create at the Summit. read more
