The Hesketh Arms, Southport

WARNING... ...SERIOUS RANT APROACHING... ...

Were you you were in the right pub?.......

The Hesketh arms....is a "DIOBOLICAL DISCRACE"....

I first started drinking in there 25 years ago.......

Not much had changed in all the years,it faithfully remained a local,peicefull,traditional quintisential English village pub....

They used to have a MASSIVE open Calvery on Sundays...and it was ALWAYS full of diners....

It was dimly lit,which created a soft and cozzy,warm atmosphere....

There was always laughter and banter amongest the customers,regulars and staff....so much so that regular lockins were a weekly ocourence......

Basicaly the "H" was a good old local comunity pub....

Wednesday evenings were Jazz night...or somtimes "Fag Ash Lil"..or "Blues Box" would be on and the place would be heaving,there were coach trips from far a feild,as it was that good an evening.....

Live jazz music started at The Hesketh Arms in Churchtown, Southport circa 1985-6.
The final jazz session at The Hesketh was on Wednesday 18th. December 2002. It was a very sad occasion because there were so many supporters to whom Wednesdays at The Hesketh became and has become an integral part of life.

Then the bad news came,the pub was to be �upgraded and modernised� with more of an accent on the supply of meals, and so the whole character was be lost forever.

At this time the pub was acuired by Mitchells & Butlers,the UK's leading operators of managed pubs and pub restaurants....

When the Hesketh closed for its re-fit......The place was ripped apart thus destroyed the sole of the pub.......

Ok...we.the locals..agreed it needed a spruse up...but not to the extent of what theve done .....

It now just looks like one of there many other pubs....in the same way a"Yates" or "Weitherspoons" look the same in any town....

But the Hesketh is not in a town...its in a quiet village...and it now just dosent fit in to its surroundings......

"ALL" the locals are DISCUSTED with whats happened to the place,and they all go over the road now......

Ive been in a few times and its diobolical compared to how it used to be....the only time its bussy is in the summer months due to the torisum....in winter when the passing trade dies off the place is dead......traditionaly ,its the locals and regulars that the pub relys upon to keep it going at this time...but there going elsewhere.......

This is a comdemnation of how the re-fit and managed running of the Hesketh Arms by Mitchels and Buttlers has killed it...

I supose to the tourists and passing trade,it can seam modern but traditional....but then they go back home....

Its us locals and regulars that have to live with this travesty....

2 Sep 2006 12:28