ONE Joseph Holt pub in the area will reopen on Monday, April 12 as the coronavirus lockdown is eased, it has been announced.

The Cart & Horses on Manchester Road in Astley will be open for drinks only.

It will serve customers from Mondays to Fridays from 4pm to 8pm; and on Saturdays and Sundays from midday to 9pm.

The Manchester-based brewery announced which of its pubs will open from Monday, April 12.

The other pubs in Leigh and surrounding areas run by the brewery include The Tamar, on Wigan Road, Leigh; Atherton Arms, Tyldesley Road; Mort Arms, Elliot Street, Tyldesley and Sir Charles Napier on High Street, Golborne.

Meanwhile, there is also the Edington Arms on Ladies Lane, Hindley.

A full reopening of hospitality venues is anticipated from May 17, subject to progress on the key tests of the roadmap including the vaccine rollout and Covid case numbers.

In the announcement on its website, Joseph Holt said: "We’d like to say a huge thank you to every single one of our customers and staff for your support, resilience and positivity throughout last year and the start of 2021.

"As a long-standing family brewery, we are proud to be at the heart of your local community and we will continue to be there long into the future.

"The announcement made on 22nd February by the Government gave some light at the end of a very long road and we are delighted to be able to re-open the selected number of pubs below from 12th April for outdoor service.

"Please note space will be limited in our beer gardens and at this moment, we are not taking bookings for any of our pubs. We will try to accommodate as many customers as possible, but unfortunately this cannot be guaranteed".

Guidelines to be aware of:

We will be operating under the ‘Rule of Six’ guidelines and we kindly ask all customers to understand and observe this restriction.

Customers must remain seated and face coverings will be mandatory whilst entering and exiting the pub, using the toilets and paying for drinks at the pay station (if applicable).

We will be operating table service only until further notice and we kindly ask customers not to approach the bar but make their way to an available table in our beer garden where a member of the team will take your orders.

We continue to maintain the highest cleaning standards of all our pubs and we will be operating mandatory Test & Trace policy.

See here for more.