News

Bill & Coo: Popular Bolton Café Bar Coming to Ramsbottom?

August 18, 2026 by Lee Leave a Comment

Exciting news for Ramsbottom – well, exciting for most of us, anyway. Bill & Coo, the much-loved café bar from Harwood in Bolton, has applied to open a new venue on Square Street.

According to documents submitted to Bury Council and reported by the Bury Times, the Bill & Coo team has applied for a premises licence, with a licensing panel meeting scheduled for 27 August to decide on the application.

If you haven’t come across Bill & Coo before, they’ve been a fixture in Harwood for five years now, growing from a former sandwich shop into a bustling neighbourhood café bar with over 10,000 Instagram followers. They celebrated their fifth birthday back in May with a proper knees-up, complete with £5 margherita pizzas and £5 margarita cocktails. Not bad at all.

The application asks for permission to open between 10am and midnight Monday to Thursday and Sunday, and 10am until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. The later 2am closing time has also been requested for Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, Sundays before Bank Holidays and the Thursday before Easter. The application covers alcohol sales, recorded music indoors, and late-night refreshments.

It’s that later licence that’s caused some raised eyebrows locally. Several residents have already submitted representations to Bury Council ahead of the August meeting. One described themselves as being “in shock” at the application, citing existing noise issues from nearby venues and having spent £1,250 on blinds and shutters to manage it. Another said they’d be happy to welcome the bar but felt midnight should be the cut-off. A third raised concerns about anti-social behaviour on the street late at night, including noise and litter.

Those are genuine concerns and worth hearing. At the same time, it’s great to see an independent business that has clearly built something special wanting to grow and expand into Ramsbottom. Fingers crossed the licensing panel can find something that works for everyone.

The decision will be made at Bury Council’s licensing panel meeting on 27 August. The Bury Times notes that Bill & Coo could not be reached for comment ahead of publication.

Would you be happy to see Bill & Coo open up in Ramsbottom? And what do you make of the late licence debate? Let us know in the comments.

Ramsbottom Lane Residents Win £1,000 Each in People’s Postcode Lottery

July 13, 2026 by Lee Leave a Comment

Some lucky residents on Ramsbottom Lane woke up to a very nice surprise this Monday, 13 July, after their postcode BL0 9BU was drawn as a winner in the People’s Postcode Lottery daily draw.

Every eligible ticket holder on the street picked up £1,000 each. Not a bad way to start the week!

The winning postcode was one of 19 drawn across the UK that day, with the full list of daily winners published each morning on the People’s Postcode Lottery website.

Beyond the prize money, the lottery also raises funds for good causes. Players’ subscriptions go towards supporting a wide range of charities across the UK and beyond, with the lottery running dedicated monthly draws on behalf of 20 charities.

Turns out the 13th of the month is not so unlucky after all, at least not if you live on Ramsbottom Lane.

Congratulations to everyone who won! If you were one of the lucky winners, we would love to hear from you.

Source: Lancashire Telegraph

Wolfie’s Bar Has Opened on Square Street

July 3, 2026 by Lee Leave a Comment

A new bar has just opened on Square Street, and honestly, it sounds like exactly the kind of place Ramsbottom needs.

Anita McKay and Tony Hague have opened Wolfie’s on Square Street, in the unit that used to be No 5 Ramsbottom. The couple, both 49, had a clear goal: get a bar open before they hit the big 5-0. Three weeks after getting the keys, they’ve done it.

The name comes from Anita’s family. Her grandparents had the surname Wolf and ran several bars around Bolton back in the day, so there’s a real family legacy behind it.

They did a soft launch for family and friends last weekend, and the doors are now officially open this week. Tony’s been busy putting together a menu of specialty cocktails, and there’s also an Omni darts board in there if you fancy a game.

What’s really caught my attention though is what Anita said about the community side of things. She mentioned seeing a post on What’s On Ramsbottom from a young lad who said he was lonely and had nowhere to go after work.

Her response?

Go and tell him to come in, challenge the landlord to a game of darts, and have a natter. That’s a lovely way to think about running a pub.

Anita runs the Health and Wellbeing Awards, the Bolton Women in Business Awards, and the Northern Wedding Awards, so she knows her way around events. She’s planning to put that to good use with charity events and coffee mornings to support Bury Hospice, who are right next door to them on Square Street.

They’re also already buying their wine from The Vineyard across the road, with Stewart supplying the bottles. That kind of local trading is great to see.

Anita told the Bury Times: “Very much community-led, very much wanting to support the businesses that are around us.”

Wolfie’s is open now on Square Street. Worth popping your head in.

Have you been in yet? Let us know what you think in the comments.

New £143k play area underway at Whitaker Park in Rawtenstall

June 14, 2026 by Lee Leave a Comment

Work has started on a brand new play area at Whitaker Park in Rawtenstall, and it sounds like it’s going to be a brilliant upgrade for younger kids.

Rossendale Borough Council confirmed back in February that £143,000 would be going into improving the toddler play space, and the spades are now in the ground. The whole thing is expected to take around five weeks, with the council aiming to have it ready in time for the summer holidays.

The new space will include a large play unit, improved and inclusive equipment, sensory play features, new safety surfacing and picnic areas. It’s all being designed with KOMPAN, the same team behind the junior play area that went in last year.

The focus is on bringing the toddler area (aimed at two to eight-year-olds) up to the same standard as that newer junior space, replacing worn-out equipment and surfacing in the process. As a bonus, it should also help cut down on the maintenance costs that come with ageing kit.

Councillor Adrian Lythgoe, lead member for environment at Rossendale Council, said when the plans were announced: “Families have really welcomed the new junior play zone, and we’re pleased to move forward with plans to upgrade the toddler area next. This will help ensure the whole play space is safe, attractive and enjoyable for younger children.”

If you use Whitaker Park regularly, it’s worth bearing with any disruption for now. It really does look like it’ll be worth the wait.

Full details from Rossendale Borough Council via the Lancashire Telegraph.

Will you be taking little ones down to check it out once it opens? Let us know in the comments.

Ramsbottom’s Oliver Drake of metal band Evile is fundraising to clear his debts – and the story behind it is worth knowing

June 2, 2026 by Lee Leave a Comment

Oliver Drake, 42, lives in Ramsbottom, plays lead guitar and sings in thrash metal band Evile, and has just set up a GoFundMe to clear the last of his debts. If you’ve not heard of Evile, formed in Huddersfield in 2004, signed to Earache Records, six studio albums, tours across Japan, the USA and Canada. One of their songs even features in the film Final Destination: Bloodlines. Not bad going.

But here’s the thing about being in a touring band that a lot of people don’t realise: it’s really, really hard to make it pay.

Oliver has spoken to the Bury Times about how years of funding the band, selling possessions, and being unable to hold down a steady job while disappearing on months-long tours gradually built up into a serious debt problem. Add in the cost-of-living crisis, and chipping away at that debt has become incredibly difficult.

He put it plainly: “Metal music is not the most lucrative genre to be a part of, and pretty much since we started, I was doing most things like writing music, logistics and everything behind the scenes. No one will give you three months off to go touring, and then you come back for two weeks and then leave again.”

Evile still exist and still play the occasional festival when something good comes up, but regular touring is off the table. Oliver now works full-time as a service engineer, which means long stretches away from his wife and two daughters, aged five and eight. Both girls have autism, and his wife, who works at a nursery, manages things at home whilst also dealing with her own mental health. The debt hanging over the household makes all of that harder.

That’s really why he set the fundraiser up. As he says himself: “It’s all for them, really.”

Alongside his day job he runs an online guitar school, streams on Twitch, and makes guitar and comedy content online. He’s done 24-hour charity streams before to raise money towards the debt, and this GoFundMe is described as “the last hump to get over.” The goal is £8,000, and it’s already raised around £3,000 in the early days.

The response from Evile fans has been something else. Oliver told the Bury Times: “A lot of Evile fans have come forward and said, ‘You helped me through tough times, so this is me repaying it’. It’s very humbling.”

Running a band for two decades, funding it largely from your own pocket, and then having to ask for help publicly takes some guts. Worth giving the campaign a look if this resonates with you.

You can find the full story over at the Bury Times.