THE finest real ales are set to start flowing again at a landmark Bolton pub following a £120,000 refurbishment.

Welcome Taverns will open the doors of the Ainsworth Arms at the junction of Halliwell Road and Moss Bank Way next Thursday.

The company, which also owns the Brewhouse in Blackburn Road and the Thomas Egerton in Egerton, is aiming to “put the local back into the pub industry” and has kept many original features, such as the snug.

Marketing manager Mike Wright said Welcome Taverns was hoping to attract local sports teams into the pub.

He added: “It has previously been a meeting point for many local teams, and we would like that to be the case again.

“We are keeping the format of the pub, but we have modernised it in certain areas.

“But it is still a local. We are keen to draw on the history of the place.”

The pub will also have original laminated dominoes tables and a dart board.

Mr Wright said: “We are keen to attract teams which play those sports, as well as football teams looking to be affiliated to us.”

He also said there would be the usual range of real ale beers, specifically the Dunscar Bridge ales, on tap in the pub. These include the brewery’s Northern Range — True North, Northern Sky and Northern Storm.

The Ainsworth Arms pub name is said to commemorate the Ainsworth family who lived in the Bolton area for many generations.

Peter Ainsworth, born in 1711, founded the Halliwell Bleachworks in Bolton around 1739, while his eldest son, also named peter bought Smithills Hall in 1801.