Anger over theft of astroturf from Bolton pub beer garden

THE owner of a recently-renovated pub has been left angry and confused after artificial turf was stolen from its beer garden.

The Stanley Arms, in Chorley Old Road, was renovated and reopened in June by Yogi Mistry, owner of The Crofters in Bradshaw, and his team, bringing it back to life as a pub after it had been operating as a restaurant or closed for many years.

The team, including manager of the Stanley Arms Nimesh Patel created a beer garden which has proved to be a great success in the last few month, especially during the Euros and the recent hot weather.

A large part of the car park was adapted into a beer garden, with artificial turf used to give it more of a garden feel.

Mr Patel believes that in the early hours of Wednesday morning someone or a group of people came into the beer garden, taking one of the smaller rolls of turf under the marquee.

They had rolled up one of the much larger pieces of turf, but it appears to have been too heavy for them to lift and take away, instead opting for a smaller piece.

Nimesh said: “We bring in the TVs and the chairs every night just in case but there’s no way we can do that with the grass.

“We’d left the pub by 10.30 that night but by the time we got back at 9.30 the next morning it had gone. They tried to take one of the bigger areas but couldn’t as they are quite heavy.

“It’s just very annoying really as we’ve put a lot of effort into making the garden as nice as possible for people.

“Quite a few people have said since that they’ve had some of theirs stolen from their garden along with garden furniture so it’s lucky they didn’t go for anything else.

“We put our van in front of the entrance last night and everything survived. We’re probably going to have to nail everything down now to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Nimesh said The Stanley Arms, also known as the Sally Up Steps, has had a very successful reopening, buoyed by the Euros, and will be now taking full advantage of the reduced of restrictions.

He added: “The football was really good, everyone was in such a good mood. This weekend will also be our first at the pub where everyone can dance with the live music and we’ve got plans to bring in karaoke and speed quizzes in the near future.

“The customers have said they’ve loved being able to come back to order at the bar and it’s been really good to meet the regulars and locals and just have a proper chat with them.

“We’ve got staff who have not worked at a pub without restrictions and they love this normality too, It’s really good to be able to speak to people who used to come years ago too.”

Share this post