Restless Pat can cater for all

NOT content with opening a new bar, two new kitchens, new laundry and a new dining area, hotelier Pat Riley is already planning her next development at the Grains Bar Hotel.

Plans have been approved for a 120-seat function room, with a further seven en-suite bedrooms on the first floor, at the 28-bedroom hotel which sits in nine and a half acres atop Ripponden Road with it’s glorious views over Saddleworth.

Not that those views were too evident on the day I spent a happy hour with Pat and her senior assistant, Hayley Edwards.

A low cloud had rolled in and this was one of the days when the valleys drip with moisture.

But the clouds couldn’t dispel the optimism of Pat, a sprightly 74-year-old who spends her time between running the business, which she owns with her son Adrian, and living in Shaw where she is guardian to her 14-year-old grand-daughter Danielle.

Pat also finds time to cook — her first love — for her guests, insisting they have a proper evening meal at the end of a long working day. For Pat and Hayley, from Moorside, the hotel is clearly a labour of love. They take great pride in the facilities which attract customers from the length and breadth of Britain and many more from abroad.

Nine lads from Spain had been staying at the hotel only days before my visit and Pat confided that, in the 21 years since she started trading, many celebrities have spent time at the hotel, happy to be out of the limelight and go about their business unrecognised and without hassle.

“This is one of the beauties of the hotel. We can cater for just about everyone. I like to ensure we retain a personal touch and insist that every guest is shown to the room by a member of staff,” said Pat who found time and energy to talk to me, conduct a guided tour of the new facilities and organise the evening menu. All at the same time.

Restless is a good word to describe the owner, who bought the business when it was a four-bedroom farmhouse with a derelict shippon and barn. It was an investment at the time as Pat was still heavily involved in her outside catering business.

Within three years, she was offering bed and breakfast at Grains Bar and business soon grew so that Pat had to decamp her own room and move into the cellar.

She persuaded Oldham Council planners to allow her to rebuild the shippon, creating 14-en suite rooms ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. This proved a masterstroke as she could have sold the rooms many times over.

The latest expansion has allowed the hotel owners to offer wedding facilities and there is a growing demand for funeral wakes at Grains Bar.

Next will come the function room but Pat is ready to take stock for a while and let her guests enjoy the new facilities.