Haslingden pub's gluten-free menu draws diners from afar

The Woolpack, in Manchester Road, has been owned by Keith Murray and his partner Suzanna, and this week it is our Pub of the Week.

Bar manager Sophie Marsden caught up with us.

Introduce yourself

I am Sophie Marsden. I have been at the pub for 13 years now.

Sophie and the team at the pub (Image: The Woolpack)

Keith Murray and his partner Suzanna have been here for nearly 20 years.

Can you describe the pub?

We're really busy at the moment. It's full of families and children, and we serve food every day. So we're super busy.

We're open late for food, so we stop serving at 8.30pm.

We've got a lot of groups come in, like football groups.

We have a biker group and a sports group and stuff like that that come in.

What’s on the menu?

Yeah, we do homemade pub food. People want that hearty, wholesome food when you go out.

The pub offers a gluten-free options for diners across the region (Image: The Woolpack)

We do have a really big gluten-free menu. We started it a couple of years ago, and then we launched a big menu in March of last year for Celiac Awareness Month.

It's now become pretty much our USP.

I'd say over half of our customers are gluten-free. They travel from all over to come in.

I myself am celiac. I got diagnosed five years ago, so I realised the struggles of eating out, of trying to have just that option. So yeah, now we've done a really big thing on it.

So with all our specials, all of our special menus like our Christmas menu, we do a cuisine night every month that's always gluten-free. 

The pub's Sunday Roast (Image: The Woolpack)

Tell me about the cuisine nights.

Once a month is our cuisine night. So we did Spanish night last month. That sold out in six days. We've got a Greek night on October 17 that sold out in three days.

Then we've got an Italian night on November 21. Yeah, and then it's straight onto the Christmas menu on December 1.

What are the interiors like?

The landlord himself actually did a refurb when we were closed during lockdown.

He did it all himself, and made it a bit more modern. It brought the younger crowd in, which was nice. It's big; it's a huge space.

We've got lots of dining space, plus a pool table and a darts board.

What is the beer garden like?

We have a huge beer garden, probably the biggest one around, which gets the sun late on, so it's a sun trap for all the teachers and stuff like that who want to come in and enjoy it after work.

The pub's beer garden (Image: The Woolpack)

Any plans for the future?

We'd love to expand, obviously, because I think we've done so well now.

We're outgrowing the space, so we've been building extra tables for our cuisine nights to try and fit more people in that want to come.

What is the best thing about working in the pub?

I think you meet so many different people every day.

It's always busy, and I've seen people who have come in, and they've had their first date; they're now married with kids and stuff like that.

And it's nice to have that community where people come, and they grow up with us, as well as us being here for so long as well.