Pub of the week: The King William, Chapeltown Road

This week's pub lies just on the fringe of Lancashire, close to Bolton, and offers something unique for our four-legged friends.

The King William, outside Chapeltown, serves a range of specials and even a 'doggy roast dinners'

The Lancashire Telegraph spoke to one of its managers.

Introduce yourself

My name is Vicky Officer and I manage the King William in Chapeltown.

How long have you worked here?

I started working here in 2015, but I only started managing in 2018.

Vicky on the bar (Image: NQ) How has the pub changed in nearly a decade?

Well, when I first came in we weren’t dog-friendly, but now we’re completely open to dogs. 

I hear you’ve got a dog-dedicated menu.

Yes, that’s right, and from the menu, we donate 25p for every item to a dog rescue charity, so that everything dog owners buy from the menu goes back to helping dogs.

We’ve ‘puppychinos’, ‘dog ice cream’, and even a ‘doggy roast dinner’ for them to get stuck into.

The pub's specials (Image: NQ) Aside from all the dogs, what’s the best thing about running a pub?

There is never a day that’s the same, we’ve got quite a few regulars, and for some of the older ones especially, it’s more of a community thing.

Some older gents come in just to meet up with their friends and it’s a way for them to get out of the house and socialise.

What customers do you best cater to?

We’re trying to become more of a drinking pub, but at the moment we close relatively early because people mainly come to eat.

We’ve brought in open mic nights and quiz nights so, hopefully, we’ll be able to attract more people to come during the evening.

You can grab a pint of ale (Image: NQ) Onto the food, is it posh nosh or cheap and cheerful?

Mixed, we have the classics like fish and chips and pies, and other things like that.

One of our best sellers is honey chilli chicken, which is chicken with a honey chilli sauce on stir-fried veg or noodles, that’s the most popular I think because it’s something different and it’s really tasty.

It’s so popular that on Wednesdays we do a two-for-one offer on it.

The pub has a great outdoor area (Image: NQ) Are your customers mainly coming from the Blackburn or Bolton side?

We do get some come in from Darwen, but mainly they are coming from Bolton and Bromley Cross.

What’s the best thing about the pub?

Our specials, we change them once every two weeks, we used to do them every week but we had a couple of customers that came in every week and didn’t get the chance to have both, so we’re staggering them more.

Also, we never let anything go to waste, so the peelings and stuff will either go into the dog menu or we’ll fry them and put them into sandwiches.