WHEN brewer Chris Bee was making deliveries to bars in vibrant areas of Manchester he thought ‘Shipley could do with something like this.’
“I used to go to bars in cosmopolitan suburbs like Chorlton and I envisaged something similar in Shipley, where I live,” he says.
He held on to the idea and when he spotted an empty building in the town he snapped it up.
“The building had had various uses over the years including a curry house, a dress shop and a furniture store,” he says.
He and his wife Carole, a structural engineer, designed the interior to create space and add character. The renovation took six months.
“It’s fitted out in the style of a Continental café bar but with the feel of a traditional British pub,” says Chris. “We have beer signs and pictures of old Shipley on the walls.”
Chris, who was previously a partner in Salamander Brewing Company - now Stubbee Brewery - installed a brewery in the building’s cellar to allow him to create his own brews.
The Fox - our Telegraph & Argus Pub of the Week - opened on September 23, 2013, named after the former Fox & Hounds in Commercial Street, Shipley, that was demolished for road widening.
Ten years on, The Fox is a popular haunt for locals and people from further afield. The on-site brewery, called Beespoke, produces ales that customers love.
Popular beers include the permanent ale Plan Bee “a light coloured, hoppy session beer”, a German/Belgian fusion beer Fox Wit and Shipley Stout, along with a range of fruit beers and cloudy IPAs.
Chris is particularly fond of Shipley Stout. “It’s a really nice beer - we sell a lot, both in summer and winter.”
The bar - which has a quirky mural featuring a fox and bee by local artists Pete Barker - also sells beers from other Yorkshire breweries including Mallinson’s in Huddersfield, Wensleydale Brewery and Abbeydale in Sheffield.
“We have six different beers on the bar at all times and a good selection of rums and whiskies too,” says Chris.
The bar, which has six staff, attracts many regulars who have been coming since it opened.
“We get a lot of passing trade too, as we are close to Shipley railway station. Customers come to us for a drink and get something to eat at one of the nearby restaurants or take-aways.”
At the back of the pub there’s a pretty beer garden. “We grow a lot of climbing plants out there and even grow our own hops which are used in the brewing process. It’s south-facing and gets the sun all day.”
Live bands perform at The Fox on alternative Saturdays and there’s an open mic’ on Wednesdays.
To mark the pub’s tenth anniversary a singer Gerry Soulful will be performing on Saturday September 23, and there will be jazz the following day.
*The Fox, 41 Briggate, Shipley BD17 7BP
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