MY PUB: The Oxford, Rochdale

Famed for its cheese & onion pie accompanied by a great wine or fresh pint of bitter, the pub offers a wonderful garden for when it’s sunny and cosy fireplaces when it’s not so nice outdoors.

Here, Tom McNeeney, manager of the pub, tells The Morning Advertiser all about this site, which dates back to 1845.

The pub

The McNeeney family took on a Star Pubs’ lease for the Oxford Hotel 13 years ago and run it as a family business, which we are immensely proud of.

We want to appeal to as many people as possible. As well as serving the local community, the Oxford is a destination pub with customers travelling for special occasions and events.

The layout consists of a large restaurant, a smaller intimate dining room, which holds 30 and is used for small functions like wakes, and a bar with small tables and bar stools. It’s important to have an area for drinkers. It has a traditional décor with a couple of wood burners and flagstone flooring in the bar area.

Outside, we have a large car park and a beer garden that holds 100 people. We won a Manchester Evening News award for the Best Beer Garden in Greater Manchester.

We also have a large, covered area with room for 120 where we hold events. It has a service kitchen and bar. We use this all year round and have extended our events programme to make maximum use of the space.

The publican

The whole family play a part in running the Oxford. My mum Alison and dad Phil are still directors of business and very hands-on. I am the manager responsible for the day-to-day running of the pub and am increasingly the face of the business.

My younger sister Ella oversees the kitchen and works alongside a team of chefs.

My mum has been a publican for 40 years so has a wealth of experience. My father started working full time at the Oxford in our second year at the pub. He’s incredibly talented at building and practical things. He built the events area.

My sister and I grew up in pubs. I had a part-time job in a kitchen at 14 when I was still at school.

I studied English language at university, which has been useful for the pub’s PR and marketing. The Oxford has become well-known for its voice on social media. We do lots of long-form posts on Facebook. Engagement is through the roof for when we run reflective, behind-the-scenes pieces. We are also regularly approached for media interviews, including me being asked to host a weekly spot on local radio.

I also had stints in retail, including working for Apple, which gave me a wider insight into marketing and helped us create a distinct pub. However, I came back to the industry as hospitality is in my blood.

The trade

We’re mainly a destination food and events pub though people will just pop in for drinks.

We’re surrounded by green spaces that attract people to the area so we lean into that with our marketing. Visitors used to going out in Manchester like the return to a feeling community that the city can lack.

The team

Everyone has different roles and responsibilities, playing to their strengths. We try not to put too much emphasis on any one person.

As the manager, I oversee front of house. My younger sister Ella takes the lead in the kitchen, which is run on a flat hierarchical system with no head chef.

My dad is our maintenance person and fixer of things and we have a dedicated cellarman, who is very talented in this area.

The drink

Real ale is popular locally and so is a focus for us. We have two ales on tap. At other times, such as peak summer, Christmas or when we host big events, we have three. We serve Wainwright and rotate ales through local breweries.

Wine has become an increasing focus for us. It’s important not just to appeal to men standing at the bar with a pint. We have 15 standard wines and run a private special bin of 15 popular wines that are sold at a better price point, available by the bottle only. We have an independent wine supplier who we partner with for our cheese and wine festivals.

Beer sales are up 6% year on year. We have a very good low & no range including Heineken 0.0 on draught, which is a huge selling point. We also have Old Mout alcohol-free options, Guinness Zero and alcohol-free prosecco.

The food

Where our pub is located, we need to have a menu that has a broad appeal.

We offer a traditional menu which includes popular dishes like beef pies, fish & chips and liver & onion, as well as a more contemporary items like salt & pepper chicken and tandoori kebab – one of our best sellers. We’re most famous for our cheese pie, which has been featured on Radio Manchester.

The events

Our cheese & wine festival was so popular that we’ve made it a twice-yearly event.

Some 42 wines, which are curated by our wine supplier, are available by the glass or bottle alongside a selection of 32 cheeses. My mum once worked on a cheese stall so picked the cheeses while a singer and saxophonist provide the entertainment.

We will be hosting a summer seafood and champagne festival this year with the same wine supplier. We’ll have a bossa nova band and encourage people to dress up as though going to a wedding.

We host an annual Christmas market on three Sundays with nine stalls, an outside kitchen serving bratwurst, hog roast sandwiches and apple crumbles and a bar serving little bottles of wine and prosecco as well as mulled wine and hot chocolate.

The Manchester Evening News listed it in 2024 as the best alternative to the official Manchester Christmas market and Chatsworth [in Derbyshire].

This year we’re introducing a Chocolate festival that we’re doing with Manchester-based Slattery chocolatiers, which is also family owned. I read they were struggling so reached out to them to see if they would be interested in doing the festival together. Now all the media, who mentioned them closing, including BBC’s North West Tonight, want to cover this as a positive story.

The future

We have a good relationship with Star Pubs and are currently talking to our business development manager about the possibility of upgrading our outdoor bar to introduce draught beer.

We feel that by the end of this year, we’ll finally be using the Oxford to its full capacity, hosting weddings and large events. It’s only taken us seven years! Business rates are calculated for all the property so we need to use every last bit of the pub.

We’re going back to opening seven days a week because there is demand.

And, as for expansion, watch this space…