The Riverhead Brewery Tap & Dining Room, Marsden
I managed a day out of the office recently, for lunch with a former boss whom I hadn’t seen for 25 years. I went with my business partner. The choice of venue was left to us and as we had seen a good review on The Riverhead, in the Daily Telegraph only the week before and he resides in its general direction it seemed a good choice. Furthermore it was, unlike many other food concerns in the area, open on our chosen day, a Monday.
Marsden, seven miles or so west and uphill from Huddersfield, is a small Yorkshire mill town, set in a deep valley and hemmed in by the Pennines. Lowryesque 19th-century buildings – a decaying woollen mill, long terraces of workers’ cottages and the Mechanics’ Institute – dominate the townscape. Over the past 20 years or so, though, the place has reinvented itself as a cultural and tourist destination.
The Riverhead Brewery Tap has also seen a bit of a reinvention as it was created in 1995, in what had been a grocery store. There are still a couple of old window advertisements; “Coal from the Best Local Pits” and “Coffee Roasted and Ground Daily”, not to mention “Fresh Hay and Straw”.
The tap was opened by local entrepreneur Philip Holdsworth, serving real ales made in a cellar micro-brewery. The restaurant was only added in March 2007 following its purchase by Ossett Brewery. The original Riverhead brews, all named after local reservoirs and still brewed on-site, now sit alongside Ossett beers although in case you want to break free of the West Yorkshire gravitational pull, there are usually a couple of guests, including permanently, Fuller’s London Pride.
It is still best known for its liquid refreshment with the ground floor been entirely focused on cask beer. The bar, built in scuffed pine is small and follows the curvature of the servery, which has a dozen or so hand pumps. At the far end you can peer through a window at the micro-brewery, in the cellar below.
In addition to a good regulars trade the pub and dining room get their fair share of trade from walkers from nearby Marsden Moor, visitors to the Stanedge tunnel museum, boaters from the Huddersfield Canal and boozers from the Real Ale Rail Trail, as well as blow-ins to the towns many festival days.
Apparently at weekends the pub is packed and if the weather is kind, imbibers spill out into the flagged terrace overlooking a pleasant waterscape – the meeting of the River Colne and Wessenden Brook, complete with small weir. The weather was kind to us and the thermometer off the June scale, so we had pre-prandial pints on the terrace and watched the river been navigated by overconfident mallards and moorhens. No pint for me, as I was driving, but I had the first of two halves of Ossett Pale Gold (£2.40 a pint) and it was spot on.
A wooden staircase leads up to the dining room, occupying the whole of the first floor, a space formerly used as a function room. It seats I guess around 50 people, is light and airy, with wooden beams radiating out across the ceiling like the spokes of a cartwheel. Framed drawings of old weaving equipment hark back to the valley’s textile heritage. Monday lunchtime we were the only diners upstairs although a few diners I noted had chosen to eat al fresco and brave the heat and midges.
The menu poses several dilemmas with many familiar combinations given an unexpected twist. There is a selection of unfussy grills, though these too may be enlivened with a home-made sauce, if desired and there are two separate menu choices. One is modestly priced; e.g. “Giant fishcake, salad, chips and home-made ketchup, £7.95” and the other more extravagant; e.g., “Venison loin, pan-fried venison stew, savoy cabbage, potato cake and Madeira sauce £18.95”.
Our starters, a warm duck salad, a soup and a chicken liver pate were all excellent but it is wise to leave space for the mains as all portions are generous. Mains of the giant fishcake x two and a chicken leek and ham pie were good, although the fishcake was thought a tad dry. Only one of us managed a desert, a lemon and lime tarte and that also was said to be excellent.
The price was reasonable, given the quality of the food, with starters on option 1 menu around £6, mains £8/9 and desserts £6.
Our food plus three coffees came to £54.40 and I think any diner who also loves his real ale will find The Riverhead very hard to beat in this neck of the valleys.
The Riverhead Brewery Tap & Dining Room, 2 Peel Street, Marsden, Huddersfield HD7 6BR. (01484 841270).
Tags: Fuller's London Pride, Marsden, Ossett Brewery, Riverhead Brewery Tap & Dining Room