A POPULAR Whitefield pub is now offering food for the first time following an extensive £500,000 revamp.

The Goats Gate at the junction of Dales Lane and Radcliffe New Road has reopened after undergoing. a huge refurbishment.

The makeover includes an overhaul of the kitchens and a new, wraparound veranda and beer garden.

But the biggest change at the inn is a new menu.

Until the recent work the Goats Gate had been an exclusively "wet pub", with a drinks-only offering.

It has now joined brewery Joseph Holt's 45 other food houses and even boasts a new pizza kitchen.

Alongside pub classics, Goats Gate will be serving unique pizzas including the Joseph Holt Beer BBQ Farmhouse Feast and the Bury Black Pudding and chorizo garlic flat bread ­— created as a nod to the town's iconic delicacy ­— as well as traditional favourites.

However missing from the revamp is the pub's landmark model goat which will no longer straddle the black gate on the pub roof.

The famous feature has been put out to pasture ­— or rather is in safe storage ­— but will still be making special appearances.

Also gone is the old pub sign which has been replaced.

Richard Kershaw, Joseph Holt`s chief executive, and a fifth generation member of the Holt family, said: "We're absolutely thrilled with the revamp and the transformation of the Goats Gate into a food house – not least because of the service it will offer to our customers and of course the boost to the local economy.

"Increasingly people are looking to pubs as places to enjoy tasty, freshly cooked food. We`re sure that the idea of having a pizza and a pint or indeed any food and drink combination will prove to be very popular.”

Although now housed in a much more modern surroundings, a public house has been serving beer to thirsty patrons at the Goats Gate site for over 100 years.

So named as it stood close to a field in which goats had been kept, the first Goats Gate Hotel opened on the site of a farmhouse which was pulled down to make way for the inn.

The pub was then rebuilt in 1962 by Peter Kershaw, Richard's father.