"Even people who’ve lived in Lancashire all their life don’t know we’re here"

This week's pub has been run by a couple since 2018, in a hidden away area of East Lancashire.

We caught up with one of the managers to discuss the pub.

Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Lucy Nicholson and I’m one of the managers at the Shooters Arms in Southfield, near Colne.

What made you want to take over?

Well, I’ve lived up here all my life, and my farm is just a couple of minutes away.

I breed my own rare breed saddleback pigs, so we thought we may as well put them to good use, so we serve them up on our menu.

How are you finding it?

We’ve been here for six years now.

It’s like farming, it's a lifestyle, not a job. Every day of the year you’re working, it's full-on.

I enjoy it because it’s a small community and is really nice, we've only a pub and a chapel plus a farm yard in the whole place!

But that’s another good thing as we can support our local farmers and use their produce which is really big for us.

What has been the best thing since you started running the pub?

The community, everyone helps each other out, it’s a nice little hub here, it’s the little things that make me proud, we take our elderly customers shopping on a Wednesday, as we’re a bit ‘in the middle of nowhere’ here and you don’t want to lug all that shopping on a bus.

Describe your location

Even people who’ve lived in Lancashire all their lives don’t know we’re here. We’re at the top of Nelson but we’re linked to Burnley. 

The views are absolutely stunning, especially from our beer garden, which is why we’ve spent so much time on it. 

We like having quirky seating options, plus we’ve got a giant round log table, two big tents for when it’s raining, and a fire pit.

What sort of food do you serve?

We do food six days a week, it’s all fresh and local, and we do pub grub classics plus posher gourmet stuff, for starters you can have soup, king prawns, a chilli cheese fondue, garlic mushrooms.

For mains, we’ve got, fish and chips, sausage and mash, seafood linguini, beef stroganoff, cajun chicken.

The one regulars really love though is our pie of the day, especially the cheese and onion, they love it so much that sometimes if it’s not on they’ll walk out!

We have a saver menu as well on certain days with mains for £12, and on a Thursday if two people get two courses they get a free bottle of wine.

What’s your draught line-up?

  • Peroni - most popular among customers
  • Cruzcampo
  • Coors
  • Carling - £4.50 a pint, the cheapest lager served
  • Guinness
  • Aspalls Cyder
  • Berrys and Cherry Old Mout cider
  • Thwaites original – the most popular ale at £3.80 a pint
  • Thwaites gold
  • Black sheep - the best bitter and currently on as a guest
  • Thwaites Hargreaves – another ale currently on guest

What events have you got on?

We have a pub quiz and bingo on a Tuesday, we do get the odd band as well plus a few weddings.

Anything else about the pub you’d like to add?

Yes, we’re dog friendly, and we get lots of walkers, please be aware that we’re shut on Mondays however, on other days we’re open from noon.