A popular Ribble Valley food pub has been shortlisted for an award in the ‘pub Oscars’.

The Coach and Horses, a Grade II listed coaching inn in Bolton-by-Bowland, is up Best Pub for Food category at the Great British Pub Awards.

With 12 diverse categories, including three exciting new categories for this year and a record number of entrants, the 2022 Great British Pub Awards will be one of the biggest celebrations in the industry, with some branding it as the ‘pub Oscars’.

With 100s of pubs entering, judges whittled down entries through two rounds to confirm the shortlist for each category.

The Coach and Horses the only pub in the North West to make it through to the final round in the Best Pub for Food category and will face stiff competition to take home the prize.

General manager James Bishop said: “We’re absolutely over the moon to have been shortlisted for the Great British Pub Awards.

"To sit alongside some truly fantastic pubs in this category is an honour and we’re looking forward to meeting one of the judges at the pub this summer and showing them what we do.

"We’re incredibly passionate about our menus and to make it through to the final six makes all the hard work worthwhile.”

Also been nominated in the awards, in ‘Best Pub for Dogs’ category is the Bellflower in Preston.

Ewan Lawrenson, who works at the White Cross in Lancaster, has been nominated for ‘Best Young Pub Chef’ prize, while the White Cross has also been nominated for the ‘Stonegate Group Pub Partners Pub of the Year’.

The Rose and Crown in Ulnes Walton are also in the running for ‘Marstons Pub of the Year’.

Judges will now undertake on-the-road visits over the summer before announcing the winners at a star-studded awards ceremony in Manchester on October 4.

Great British Pub Awards categories with Lancashire contenders

Best Pub for Food

  • Shibden Mill - Halifax, West Yorkshire
  • The Alice Hawthorn - York, North Yorkshire
  • Coach & Horses - Bolton-by-Bowland, Clitheroe, Lancashire
  • The Tiger Inn - Stowting, Ashford, Kent
  • The Angel at Watlington - Watlington, Norfolk
  • The Kitchen at the Cross Keys - Epperstone, Nottingham

Best Pub for Dogs

  • Greenhead Hotel - Cumbria
  • The Bellflower - Preston, Lancashire
  • The Leicester Arms - Penshurst, Kent
  • The Oak - Coventry, West Midlands
  • The Pheasant - Bassenthwaite, Cumbria
  • The Runner - Swindon, Wiltshire

Best Young Pub Chef

  • Ellie Fitch-Goodwin – The Pitymee Inn, Wadebridge, Cornwall
  • Albert Kingwell – The Kings Arms, Bexleyheath, Kent
  • Eddy Moore – Dylans at the Kings Arms, St Albans, Hertfordshire
  • Tiffany Long – The White Hart Free House, Ashill, Thetford, Norfolk
  • Ewan Lawrenson – The White Cross, Lancaster, Lancashire
  • Jack Cronin-Aldridge – The Old Ram Coaching Inn, Tivetshall St Mary, Long Stratton, Norfolk

Marstons Pub of the Year

  • The Woodyard - Bakewell, East Midlands
  • Royal Oak - Compton, Wolverhampton, West Midlands
  • Romilly - Cardiff, Wales
  • Gun Inn - Findon, West Sussex
  • Railway - Shottle, East Midlands
  • Rose & Crown - Ulnes Walton, Lancashire

 Stonegate Group Pub Partners Pub of the Year

  • Ye Olde Horseshoe - Belbroughton, Worcestershire
  • London Tavern - Poulner, Hampshire
  • Myrtle Tavern - Leeds, West Yorkshire
  • White Horse - Dover, Kent
  • Old Windmill - Coventry, West Midlands
  • White Cross - Lancaster, Lancashire

There were no Lancashire winners in 2021, but there were some in 2020, and these pubs will be hoping to follow in their footsteps later this year.

In 2020, Carole Davis and her pub The Clifton Arms in Blackburn were crowned Admiral Taverns Pub Hero, while The Victoria in Newton-le-Willows, in the historic county of Lancashire but now classed as Merseyside, was named Punch Pubs & Co Pub Hero.