Holy Trinity Church on Blackburn’s Mount Pleasant is famous for its former vicar, Chad Varah, who went on to form the Samaritans. Trinity was an apt name for Chad as he and wife Susan had triplets while he was vicar of this church in Blackburn’s Larkhill area.
Photo courtesy of Jason Walker
This Grade 2 listed building no longer holds weekly church services. Like me in my first job, it was made redundant in the early 1980’s. But these days it hosts various activities and on this St George’s Day weekend, Trinity Church provided us with a beer festival. Jason Walker along with James and Katy Quayle, who run the Drummer’s Arms, were amongst the many good Samaritans who helped put on this festival, along with some of the local breweries and tradesmen who supply their pub.
I was able to get to Saturday’s afternoon session. My first pint of the day actually started off on my way there, in the Postal Order, where it was appropriately St George’s by Acorn Brewery from Barnsley. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow and more good beer was anticipated for me today.
Off to the beer festival next, landing there around quarter to one. Darwen’s Hop Star was my first pint in the church and guess what? I was on their St George’s ale. Blackburn’s Three B’s was next with Bee Proud, which was another ale related to England’s patron saint. My next beer was Blonde Vixen from Wigan’s Wily Fox brewery and was my favourite on the day. Porter from the Big Clock took my attention later. It had filled up at the festival by now, a lot of people were enjoying the sunshine outside as well as those inside.
Today’s entertainment was pretty good but the show was stolen by teenage singer and guitarist, Georgia Farrar from Brighouse. She brought this house down and gave us an excellent performance. St Georgia’s Day would have been a good name for today after listening to her music. Great things look destined for this talent and many people will soon have Georgia on their mind.
I really enjoyed this visit to the Trinity Beer Festival. My only regret was not covering myself up enough with more layers of clothing. Being a church, it felt as far away from the fires of Hell as you could probably get. My jean jacket and Hobgoblin tee shirt left me feeling a bit cold inside this building and it certainly wasn’t Mount Pleasant in my case. But with free entry and all real ales pegged at £2.50 a pint, there was plenty of holy water available and an enjoyable time was had by all. Let’s just hope the next beer festival here is in July or August.
