Colin the Caterpillar bakery set for Oldham expansion

Park Cake Limited has permission to bulldoze a former pub right outside its bakery in Oldham to extend its grounds. 

The Honeywell Arms at 491 Ashton Road has stood boarded-up since September 2024 and was bought up by the bakery shortly after.

Former Honeywell Arms. Credit: Google Maps

Once a long-standing Robinsons Brewery pub, it struggled to remain open in the challenging conditions for the hospitality industry and a violent attack on the pub landlord in 2023. 

Oldham Council has approved the demolition of the two-storey building, which includes a private flat for the pub landlords on the first floor.

Town planners said the boozer had suffered ‘long-term decline’ with no visible investment in improving its facade since 2008. They also noted there were alternative pubs available within 1km (0.6 miles). 

Honeywell Arms. Credit: Google Maps

In a planning report, council officer Dave Richards said: “The demolition does not amount to the unnecessary loss of a valued community facility … and would remove a degraded, visually harmful structure from a prominent location. With appropriate conditions, the proposal would secure a safer, tidier and more coherent interim site appearance.” 

Park Cakes bakery hasn’t yet revealed what it plans to do with the land. But in the short-term, they told town planners they wanted to ‘modernise the frontage of the Park Cakes Sites, by improving traffic management and access safety and removing a visual blight at a major junction’. 

Jessica Budgett and Matthew Haynes from the commercial and concept teams at Park Cakes

The bakery has not confirmed when the works are due to happen. The demolition will take place over the course of two weeks.

Work hours are restricted to between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, to minimize impact on the surrounding residential areas. 

The demolition will mark the end of an era for the pub building, which was last managed by Jack Dodd and his partner.

Mr Dodd ran the pub for 26 years before it was formally dissolved in August 2025. 

Pub landlord Jack Dodd holding cat Felix (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

In 2023, his partner was left needing 15 stitches after the couple tried to defend the pub from burglars.

At the time, the pair told The Oldham Times that the attack had made them want to move out of the area.