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The Pub With The Longest Name In The Country Reopens

The Pub With The Longest Name In The Country Reopens

It is across the road from the boozer with the shortest name

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

There is an art to finding the best name for a pub. Generally, the most important thing is that it is succinct.

I mean, it needs to be short enough for you to remember when you're falling out of it drunk at midnight trying to call a taxi to pick you up.

One boozer where this certainly isn't the case, however, is The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, which boasts the longest name in the country.

The famous pub - known as, simply, The Rifleman to its regulars, first etched itself into the record books in 1995 before shutting up shop three years ago.

The famous boozer is across the road from the pub with the shortest name in the country.
SWNS

But it has now reopened just across the road from the pub with the shortest name in the country, The Q Inn.

When the iconic pub closed in 2016, locals thought it was gone forever, but new landlord Sarah Farrer-Baxter, 38, has opened it alongside husband Nigel Baxter.

She said: "The Rifleman is such an important part of this town's history so everyone was gutted when it closed down.

"The old owners were two of my friends and when they told me I could take the name I was delighted.

Sarah reopened the pub last month.
SWNS

"I was going to call it something else but I couldn't pass up such a good opportunity.

"Now the name can live on, which I think is something all the locals can be proud of.

"If it weren't for this then the name could have been lost forever, which would have been such a shame.

She now wants to get it reinstated in the Guinness Book of World Records.
SWNS

"It might seem like quite a small thing but The Rifleman really puts Stalybridge on the map."

She added: "The fact we're so close to the Q Inn is such an amazing coincidence.

"That the two pubs with the longest and shortest names would end up as neighbours is unbelievable."

The Rifleman has undergone a transformation since it closed in 2016.
SWNS

Sarah says she now plans to contact the Guinness World Records to have her pub's name reinstated as the longest in the land.

The Q Inn was opened in Stalybridge in the late 1980s, according to current manager Paul Armstrong, and he says it's great that The Rifleman has opened its doors once again.

He said: "Lots of people who come in talk about us having the shortest name.

"It's amazing that the Rifleman, which has the longest name, has reopened so close by.

"It's a nice coincidence."

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

Topics: Food, UK News, Interesting, Manchester, Pub, Food, UK News, Interesting, Manchester, Pub

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