THE landlord of a Bolton town centre pub was toasting the good news after it was announced as ‘The Bolton News Pub of the Year’ as voted by you, our readers.

Steve Hoyle and manageress Linda Walker from Hogarths were celebrating with their staff after we revealed they topped the poll.

Each week, the Bolton News shines the spotlight on the industry, featuring venues in Bolton and surrounding areas in the Pub of the Week section.

We drew up a shortlist of all pubs we featured last year and asked our readers to help create a top six of the best.

After speaking to each of them, our readers got the chance to vote for their favourite.

Hogarths came out top of the pile with more than 1,000 votes including nearly 100 postal votes which counted 10 each to the overall total and we were able to find out how Steve and Linda felt about the news.

Linda said: “We would really like to say thanks to everyone for their support and hope hope they continue to come to us.

“We will also continue to do what we are doing and we hope to get bigger and better.”

Steve added: “We are overwhelmed to win the Pub of the Year.

“It shows the support and credibility of all staff and customers and we are doing something right.

“We like to give the personal touch and get customer loyalty. We are making sure we are the best we can be and that shows in the award.”

Linda and Steve have been behind the bar at Hogarths since January 2021.

The pub and hospitality trade were among the worst affect from the coronavirus pandemic but Steve is positive about the future.

Steve said: “ Things are getting better and trade is picking up with more people coming to pubs. I don’t think it is anywhere near the levels before but we are staying positive.”

Linda added that Sunday nights are the new Saturdays in town with lots of people coming to town and all the pubs look after each other.

The other top six pubs in the awards were The Vulcan, The Alma, The Duke William, The Beaumont and The York pub.