'Swan with two necks'

I love this old pub. A few years ago it won 'Pub of the season' but that was a while before I started coming to Chorley. So, really, I can't say that I love the pub, which would imply I'd actually had a drink in there, but I do really like the building, nestled at the foot of a hill and at the end of a street. 

I think what I find particularly appealing are the terraced gardens to the front. I can imagine sitting out there with friends on a summer's evening, drinking and chatting. 

There's a scene in Ray Bradbury's 'The Martian Chronicles' where a human meets a Martian one evening, on a road up above a city. The man sees ruins where the Martian sees a vibrant city, full of people walking through the lantern-lit streets, while others ride in gondolas along the canal. Bradbury's description is beautiful and, as I read it, I ached to be there. The implication, of course, is that the two are somehow meeting at a fracture in time, one seeing the present and one seeing the past as they stand there together.

I'm always reminded of the scene when I pass this pub, as I try to picture it in its pomp and prime. Whatever the truth of it, I like to think that when the 'Swan with two necks' won 'Pub of the season' it was a good summer and that people enjoyed themselves there, sat outside with their families, and, just then, at that moment in time, it must have seemed like it would be like that forever.