A FATHER and son have joined forces to relaunch the historic Woodman Inn at Thunderbridge.

Craig Leslie and father Graham, he of Galpharm and Huddersfield Town fame, bought the 18th century hostelry in July and have spent the last three months breathing new life into the Kirkburton landmark.

They are using the increasingly popular business model of a restaurant, bar, hotel and wedding/civil ceremony venue all under the same roof (or series of roofs in this case) – à la 315 at Lepton and The Weavers at Golcar.

The Leslies have enlisted the help of 30-year-old Will Orme as head chef whose eclectic CV spans far and wide.

He trained and spent several years at The Three Acres, where his father is joint licensee, two years in Australia and stints at 1885 in Stainland, 3 York Place, Leeds, and The Star Inn at Harome, North Yorkshire, as well as cooking for both Manchester football clubs.

Four of us set off to put the restaurant to the test. Having previously been on the market for 18 months and briefly closed, the locals are obviously pleased the place is now open for business, as we had difficulty finding a parking space.

Big, busy and buzzy was the scene downstairs as we entered from the dark street. The well-lit interior has been revamped gastro pub-style with a roaring open fire, wide floorboards, beamed ceilings and solid wooden tables with high-back upholstered chairs.

I had, however, booked the upstairs restaurant and we found ourselves in an altogether more sedate dining room, scheduled for refurbishment early in the New Year.

Our waiter was polite, but rushed – there was a big group in and service was on the slow side. Luckily we weren’t in a hurry and spent a very pleasant three hours over the meal.

The menu is currently the same upstairs and downstairs and ranges from traditional dishes with meat and fish to lighter bites such as salads and posh sandwiches.

After perusing the extensive list of 51 wines, and with the tiny Examiner budget weighing heavily on our minds, we ordered what turned out to be a very good bottle of Pinot Grigio Sacchetto at just £16.95, followed shortly afterwards by two bottles of Australian Shiraz (same price), which were most definitely not covered by our meagre expense account. Still, we all have to make sacrifices in the line of duty.

Traditionalists will be delighted to read that the menu definitely isn’t fancy or experimental. It’s mostly good, straightforward hearty fare prepared from quality ingredients.

Delicious home-made bread soon arrived to take the edge off our hunger.

For starters Harry and I had prawn cocktail, £6.95 for an enormous portion of nicely-presented seafood on a bed of lettuce with lemon. The tasty cocktail sauce was served on the side, a nice touch as neither of us wanted our prawns drowned – if indeed it is possible to drown a crustacean.

Derek and Fran’s starter portions of Treviso salad (£4.95) were also fresh and generous. Other starters included crispy Asian beef salad, devilled chicken livers, York ham hock terrine, mussels and homemade Yorkshire puddings.

My 21-day aged rib-eye steak, well priced at £17.95, was locally sourced and, had it been day time, I might well have spotted its compatriots munching their way around the surrounding fields.

The meat was lean, as requested, with a juiciness and fullness of flavour which would encourage me to order it again on any future visit. Harry gave the thumbs-up to his beef shin pie and Fran’s fish and chips was excellent: “As good as a memorable one I had at Hunmanby, donkeys’ years ago.”

And Derek’s burger was good, not great. We all enjoyed our meal and would go back; a colleague who was in on the same night commented that her salmon fillet in soy sauce was on the salty side.

We couldn’t, however, fault their sticky toffee pudding with four spoons.

VERDICT: Book downstairs for a buzzy atmosphere and promising food.

The Woodman Inn

Thunder Bridge Lane, Kirkburton, Huddersfield HD8 0PX

Tel 01484 605778

Website: www.thewoodmaninnhuddersfield.co.uk

Opening hours: from noon every day, closes 11pm Monday to Thursday, 11.30pm Friday and Saturday and 10.30pm on Sunday

Children: Welcome

Disabled: Ground floor access, but toilet not wide enough for wheelchair

The bill: £21.10 per head, excluding drinks

Would you go back? Definitely