It was a damp chilly morning as the Bury Pork sausages sizzled on the grill and the port and King’s Ginger filled the air of the fire lit bar of the Church Inn. With tweeds and jodhpurs on show as the Hunts riders kept warm by the fire with nibbles and tipples!

The Hounds meanwhile arrived with wagging tails and hot breath!! As the Hunt Master kept them at ease within the pubs cycle park. The team came out to see them off as they ‘clip-clopped’ down Church Lane towards the Bulls Head as a rainbow appeared in the threatening February sky.

There is nothing quite like the spectacle of horse and hound in village life even on a cold winters day….. Click on an image to view lightbox gallery..

THIS CHESHIRE FARMERS 'DRAG' HUNT IS TO EXERCISE THE HOUNDS

THE HUNT MASTERS AND THE HOUNDS TAKEOVER THE CYCLE PARK!!

MARY AND SIMON POP OUT TO HAVE A LOOK AT THE HORSES AND HOUNDS

FOLLOWED SWIFTLY BY THE ENTIRE TEAM

YES YOU CAN TEXT A MESSAGE FROM A HORSE TOO!!

AT LEAST IT STOPPED RAINING

THE BENEFITS OF RAIN ARE THE ODD RAINBOW ACROSS THE FIELDS FROM THE CHURCH INN

Our Head Chef Lloyd and his team of chefs have once again worked exceptionally hard to develop some lovely new dishes for our ‘winter in to spring’ menu….

New starters include…

• The Church ‘sharing’ Seafood Plate of Scottish smoked salmon and pickled cucumber, crayfish Marie Rose, Whitby scampi with fresh tartare sauce, warm Cornish crab and leek tart, salt and pepper whitebait, potted Devon crab with granary toast easily enough for two or three to share as a starter.
• Or we have Grilled Pear and Cumbrian air dried ham salad with soured cream, truffle honey and radicchio leaves
• or a Salad of wild rocket, spinach and toasted pinenuts, with crumbled Anglesey feta and rye bread thins.
• Duck Liver and Cognac Pâté, roasted Bramley apple compote and hot toasts
• Cumbrian Pig Cheek slow cooked in Welsh Ty Gwyn cider, served with braised barley, a fresh herb salad and brown butter vinaigrette

On the new mains we have..

New Tavern Favourites

• Chunky Lamb Shepherd’s Pie topped with Winchester Cheese mashed potato and served with pickled red cabbage
• Ty Gwyn Cider battered Market Fish and Chips with Yorkshire garden peas and homemade tartare sauce

Other main meals include

• Pot Roast Shoulder of Lamb, cooked with red wine, glazed with pomegranate molasses and thyme, served with root vegetable mash.
• Roast Breast of Goosnargh Duck with cherry and red wine sauce, chicory and shallot tart, wilted kale and creamed celeriac
• Grilled Hake with a herb crust, tarragon and white wine sauce, sautéed new potatoes and creamed Yorkshire peas
• Roast Breast of Cumbrian Chicken with celeriac dauphinoise, wild mushroom sauce, braised shallots and buttered kale
• Ricotta, basil, lemon and chilli stuffed flat cap mushroom, sautéed new potatoes, saffron and white wine cream sauce

and for new homemade puddings we have…….

• Classic Spotted Dick and custard
• Sticky Date Bread and Butter Pudding with rum and raisin ice cream
• Baked Egg Custard, finished with fresh nutmeg and poached vanilla rhubarb
• Sticky Date Bread and Butter Pudding with rum and raisin ice cream
• Warm Bollington Chocolate and Pear Cake, with Dunham Massey Vanilla ice cream

To look through the full menu click here and the Sunday menu please click here…

The Mobberley Chefs have put together a new Monday –Saturday menu as well as a new Sunday version and new Light Lunches through the week for everyone to enjoy!!

Please click on the links to see each of the menus and we look forward to seeing you soon!!

Main Menu

Sunday Menu

Light Lunches

What a great time over Christmas our teams have had. It is tiring work but there are plenty of smiles and fun around the place!! The Bulls Head in Mobberley held its annual Christmas Jumper competition and the judges moved around the pub secretly assessing the best. Pete had won it last year with his ‘snow man number’ so was a favourite again this year.

There were a number of good efforts but I am pleased to say Pete held on to his crown with an ‘elf jumper’ with matching hat!! Well done Pete! There must be someone out there who can out do Pete in 2014??!

The teams as you can see had a good go with our personal favourite being Tom at the Church Inn with his Christmas pudding version!! Thanks to all our teams for making the effort. At the Cholmondeley Arms the ‘Snow Ball’ Drink was re-incarnated by the team and you can see Miya sampling some for the camera behind the Cholmondeley Bar!!!

Thank you to all our customers who have added to the atmosphere at all our pubs. There have been Christmas Carol singers at Cholmondeley and Brass bands at The three Greyhounds Inn at Allostock and The Church Inn in Mobberley as we managed to squeeze them in our newly decorated Church Inn ‘boot room’.

On Christmas eve as the Carol service finished at St. Wilfs church opposite the Church Inn in Mobberley we were on hand to serve the masses (get it!!) with mulled wine on the terrace with warm chimineas burning away. There were festive nibbles and roasted chestnuts and a lot of good cheer! A very happy Christmas to all!!

Thanks to all our teams for working so hard!!

ADAM AT THE CHOLMONDELEY ARMS

ANYONE FOR A SNOW BALL!!

BABY CHAM IS BACK AT THE CHUM!!

MORE FESTIVE SWEATERS AT THE THREE GREYHOUNDS WITH SHAUNAGH AND CHRIS!!

MULLED WINE AT THE CHURCH INN WITH SOPH IN THAT HAT!!

OUR BRASS BAND MANAGED TO FIT IN THE CHURCH INN BOOT ROOM.

SECOND YEAR RUNNING!! PETE DOES IT AGAIN!!

TOM AT THE CHURCH INN WITH MARK

As temperatures rise and we actually have the summer we deserve (at long last!!) it is important that we let new potential customers know the wonderful outside space we have here at the Church Inn. To the side we have our terrace opposite St Wilfrid’s Church which gets shade as well as sun. When the Church bells ring you could be in a little square in Italy with a cool Aperol Spritz!!#

To the rear of the pub we have our ‘Wisteria Garden’ which is a sun trap and gets the sun late in to the evening, moving down the step from here is the shady beer garden as the path meanders down to our beautiful bowling green. The views from the rear of the pub across the Cheshire fields are breath-taking. Whether you want sun or shade, atmosphere or views the Church Inn has a little of everything.

We do some great yesteryear cool drinks like the Dubonnet Spritzer as well as the now famous Aperol Spritz. Long and cool in the summer sunshine….there’s nothing better!!

A little shade on the terrace

A perfect view of the Church

Oak Benches on the terrace

Our beautiful bowling green

The Shade of the small beer garden

Wisteria Garden to the rear

Yes it is true…the boys from Tatton Micro-brewery drink lager too!!! The ‘Tatton Two’ as they will be known, rocked up to the new Church Inn having dropped off one of our new house ales which is to be called Ale’Alujah (see badge).

Their curiosity got the better of them and they slipped in to the pub to have a good look around, then low and behold next minute they were caught on camera sipping our new English ‘craft’ lager called ‘Freedom Four’.

Now these are ale enthusiasts at their best but they were on the fizzy stuff for sure!!! When caught in the act they declared it was because it was English and crafted!! Fair enough but we couldn’t resist getting a shot of them, glasses in hand.

We also celebrate the emergence of English craft beers with our Titanic Stout which is a really good 4.5% porter in keg format. The other house cask ale we offer is in honour of Mobberly’ite Climber George Mallory…know as Mallory’s Mobberley Best a lovely 3.9% session ale from Dunham Massey Brewery.

So take a leaf out of the ‘Tatton Two’s Book and come and have a pint!!!

There’s something English for everyone!!