EACH week, we try to shine the spotlight on top venues where we can go and enjoy time socialising with family and friends.

Well, with the better weather, you may want to travel a bit further out – so we’ve been over the border to find out more about an award winning venue.

Name of the pub

Casked Crafty Ale House & Ginporium

Address of the pub:

14-16 Bury Road, Rawtenstall

Landlord/landlady name:

Mike & Amanda Jones

How long have you been the landlord/landlady for?

Since December 2017

Bar staff and their names:

Luke is the manager, Simon assistant manager, Chloe, Sean, Gary, Eli, Ella and Jo bar servers.

Give us some history about the pub

Conceived and created as a one room Micropub in 2017, we extended into the adjacent unit in 2019, and now specialise in craft beers, and an extensive range of hand picked gins and spirits. We’ve won CAMRA Rossendale pub of the year three times, the latest one this year.

Is food served? Is so what’s on the menu?

We serve packaged snacks. Customers are welcome to bring their own food (within reason!) into the bar to enjoy with our lovely beverages.

Is there a beer garden

We have seating for 20 on our sunny pavement area

Do you have any darts/snooker/pool teams

No, but we have Casked Runners, our running club and a walking group which meet up every Wednesday

Most popular drink served is:

Our range is ever changing with 5 local cask ales and 8 craft keg so there isn’t any one favourite. We also offer over 85 gins and our gin of the week is always popular

Do you have an entertainment line-up?

We have a quiz every Wednesday and live music most weeks usually on a Thursday

Have you faced any challenges within the industry

Covid was a huge challenge. We survived by delivering fresh cask ale to our customers’ homes. Since then the energy prices and near-recessionary trading conditions have hurt a bit, but we are surviving, thank goodness.

The best thing about running a pub is

The atmosphere and customers’ relaxed faces when we’re busy.