26/01/2026
๐ Important Customer Announcement โผ๏ธ
It is with great sadness to announce that we will be closing permanently at the end of day Sunday 1st February.
This is something we absolutely did not want to do as we have invested a fortune into this amazing pub for you, its communityโฆ however, behind our back, the brewery that own the building (Punch Taverns) had other plans.
Since taking the pub over in late august 2025, we give the place a good overall including a new look, a new offering and a fabulous new team along with future plans for the pub! Something that we do in all of our sitesโฆ this was welcomed and the site has gone from strength to strength. The 5 year agreement with the brewery had been completed with their representatives and ready to be signed in December. Unknown to us, the brewery had seen just how well the site had been doing and could see this through the brewers lines in the cellar and the increase in ordering from them! The pub has done well above our expectations! And this is down to our fabulous regulars, loyal customers, new faces and of course our down to earth team.
The brewery delayed the signing until just earlier last week, where we was given the devastating news that the brewery wants the Railway back as a โin house managed siteโโฆ why not before you ask? Well, because theyโve let someone do the graft, the backbone work and the rest so that they can take full advantage of the successโฆ their new in house company โPunch Unity Pubsโ will be taking the pub over and will expect the doors to open and the customers continue to come. When this exactly will happen, we donโt know.
The most upsetting thing is, we see this sort of behaviour up and down the country on a daily basis and the regulatory body (Pubs Code) must put more protection in place for Tenants. Luckily for us, we have a fabulous company and network of pubs, but for some, it could be their only one and that could take away everything from them.
The brewery did offer for us to keep it on and hold it until the plan to take it in house came into effect in coming months, unfortunately for them, weโre invested in our sites for the long haul, not to benefit another big corporate company. Itโs not tenable for us to have this as an holdings site as itโs already heavily imbedded into our permanent sites, we must now part ways with the pub from our brand point of view as we canโt make long term plans for the site.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all dearly! The fabulous community of Pemberton for welcoming the positive changes we made and becoming part of our (what we hoped) would be a long journey, unfortunately it will end on Sunday evening, 1st February. Our fabulous Manager, Rhys will be relocating to The Greenland Fishery in Neston and all of our other team members will be relocated to local OV-Group sites. We look after our teams, they are the glue to what we do.
As you can tell by the tone of the post, we are absolutely annoyed, Pโd off and angry that a local hospitality company is agreeing to sustain and put big plans in to a local and for the greed that is the brewery to come on in and take all of that away for their own gainโฆ shame on them. This is a bridge weโre quite happy to burn. We work with a verity of big & supportive breweries & small ones that do see the bigger picture and our security is exactly that, secureโฆ this one just donโt hold them same values.
All booked entertainment will be contacted today to move their booking or to cancel, our football team will be relocated to another one of our venues and our ladies darts team will be offered the same. They have been great assets to our ethos and we want to continue to support them where we can.
๐ Until Sunday, itโs business as usual, all the same offers, sports, entertainmentโฆ the lot โผ๏ธ
This social media page will conclude on Monday 2nd Feb following a big thank you from us to you and will be merged with our home company page so that you can continue to see where you can find your local talent and the goodness that we offer locally.
From all of us at OV-Group Innโs & Taverns and of course the team at The Railwayโฆ Thank you ๐
Your nearest OV-Group Venues are:
The Whitesmiths Arms
Kilcoyne's Irish Bar
Raven Wigan
Prince of Wales, Springfield
The Cherry Gardens, Wigan
Lady Mabel's at The Cherry Gardens
Soul Time, Wigan
