WELCOME to The Oldham Times Pub of the Week.

Each week we feature a pub in the community.

If you would like to be next week’s publican email simone.okane@newsquest.co.uk

Here its landlord Stuart Thurston answers our Q & A.

Name of the pub: The Highfield Inn

Address of the pub: Ripponden Road, Moorside

Landlord/landlady name: Stuart Thurston and Kay Thurston

How long have you been the landlord for? “We are in our fourth year now. We came on January 2018.”

Bar staff and their names: “We have our son Niall,20, and his girlfriend Megan, who have worked for us since we took over the pub, and Tracey, Georgia, Jack, Summer and Georgia Jones.”

Give us some history about the pub: “The building is just short of 300 years old, it’s one of the oldest in Greater Manchester and it was built next to the old tin mine. In the premises itself there is still tunnels that go to the tin mine from the back garden, obviously you can’t access them, but they are still there.

“It used to be an Oldham brewery pub and it’s now owned by Punch Taverns. It started off in the 1700s as an Innkeeper’s for cattle and people could stay here.”

“There was also an accident in the 50s which took the front end of the building off and they had to rebuild the front. It was an HGV truck that was coming down the road and it collided into the front of the building."

Is food served? "No, just wet sales."

Is there a beer garden? “Yes, we’ve just invested in our beer garden. We have got a huge shed with a TV that plays the football. Every match we’ve been fully booked.”

Do you have any darts/snooker/pool teams? “We have The Highfield pool team and a football team that comes here called Moorside FC.”

Most popular drink served is: “Draft beers are popular and the gins go down well too.”

Most memorable moment at the pub:“We’ve had a few. It was good during the world cup in 2018, we took a video of all the lads at the front, set flares off, were all cheering, and all the traffic stopped for a few minutes.

“We’ve had some good artists on, we had a Neil Diamond tribute that was a good night. We have had a band on called the Microdots, and the Kirky Brothers who are three brothers and one is a nurse at The Oldham hospital. We’re the only venue in Oldham they perform at.”

Do you have an entertainment line-up? “Yes, we have our own stage built. We mainly do singers and duos. I do gigs in a duo called Identity and we have done a couple of gigs here as well. My band mate is Matt Berry, we were school friends.

“We do entertainment every Saturday night without fail to keep the regulars entertained. We do events like Play Your Cards Right on a Sunday and on Fridays we do The 100 Club, which is a draw and regulars can win a bar tab of £50.”

Have you faced any challenges within the industry? “Covid-19 and the closures has been the biggest challenge and trying and survive and come back.

“I’ve found people now want to venture a bit further into Manchester, we’re a community pub but I feel sorry for landlords who are expecting the regulars to come in a bit more. The way we see it if you don’t use it, you lose it because at the moment smaller pubs really need more help than the bigger ones in the town centre.”

What’s best thing about running the pub? “Meeting people and new friends. We have come from Chadderton and made good friends while being here and new people come in every day, which has been really nice.”

What is the worst thing about running the pub? “The hours that you have to put in but it’s a lifestyle rather than a job, so you have to think of it that way.”

Perfect hangover cure... Spam, egg and cheese on toast. A friend gave it to me a long time ago and I’ve stuck by it ever since.”