The new owner of a landmark eaterie in Wrightington is planning to return it to its former glory.

In recent years, the venue once known as The Hinds Head, on Mossy Lea Road, has been an Italian restaurant and a tapas bar twice, but when Paul Rogers takes over this week (AUG 11 2008), he will restore the name and – he hopes – the pub’s status as the village local.

The businessman will transform The Hinds Head into a gastro pub, offering classic British dishes made with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, a great choice of wines by the glass and real ales, all delivered by a restaurant-style table service.

Paul has already turned around the fortunes of The Railway @ Euxton, on the A49 near Chorley, converting it from a men’s drinking pub into a popular gastro pub that attracts almost 800 diners a week at a time when the pub industry as a whole is in crisis.

It has earned him a place as a finalist in Lancashire Life magazine’s forthcoming food and drink awards as Newcomer of the Year and he hopes to mirror that success at The Hinds Head.

He said: “Pubs are no longer seen as just a beer house and I believe we’re bucking the national trend because we offer the quality food of a top end restaurant, but with the more relaxed and informal atmosphere of a pub along with sensible pricing.

“The Hinds Head has had many different identities over the last decade, so I am going to take great pleasure in returning it to its roots as a gastro pub and welcoming back the locals. What makes it more exciting for us is we also can be involved with the bowling green that is part of the pub.”

Both pubs' menus read like a ‘who’s who’ of local producers. Suppliers include Swarbrick, Goosnagh (poultry), Mrs Kirkham’s (Lancashire cheese), Ribble Varlley Farm (fruit & vegetables), H. Greaves & Son, Up Holland (beef), The Cottage Loaf, Eccleston (bread), Susan’s Fudge, Preston and Lakeland of Fleetwood dock fish merchants.