There are few obvious reasons to visit Denshaw, a small village without any great attractions a few miles north-east of Oldham and Manchester. For geocachers this cache is a reason, of course. But why is the geocache there?
Actually, it all started with an article in a local Manchester newspaper in January 2010 about the pub 'Junction Inn' in Denshaw that had just been taken over by a new landlady called Jane. The article left no doubt that her decision was risky, and she even featured on the Tonight TV programme on ITV1 for her courage. Curious to see how she fared, Peter visited the pub a few days later on a Saturday evening only to find it pretty empty.
However, what really surprised us was that Denshaw actually had three pubs! First, there's the Junction Inn right in the centre, second, 50 yards away on Huddersfield road there's the Denshaw Oddfellows Club, and third, 100 yards away on Oldham Road there's The Black Horse. How could a small village with about 500 residents ever need three pubs?
In early February we went to Denshaw on our bikes and enjoyed the picturesque countryside up there. After that we went to the Junction Inn to have dinner, and indeed we met Jane and her parents there and spoke to them about the business. Jane seemed full of optimism and ideas how to get the Pub running again. However, at the time the pub was again not very busy.
In May we went again to Denshaw to see how the pub was doing and to install our geocache there. This time there were signs on the pub, saying 'Run this Pub - You're the Boss'. We had a tea inside, only to find it deserted. However, there was a new landlady, full of optimism, with many ideas how to get the pub running again ... History is set to repeat itself, it seems. Not only that, but The Black Horse had closed too a few weeks earlier.
As there was no obvious place for our geocache at the pub, we put it at the stone wall surrounding Denshaw's old Christ Church. It is little bit ironic to put a 'pub' geocache at a church, isn't it?
22/02/2022 - Cache is now a small screw top tube in a new spot, so please take care when finding and returning the cache to it’s hiding place, and please be mindful of muggles at all times.