The Woolpack

This article is about the soap opera. For the cloud formation, see cumulus cloud.
The Woolpack

The exterior of The Woolpack
Type Public house
First appearance 16 October 1972
Address Main Street, Emmerdale
Owners
Employees 4 (currently)

The Woolpack is a fictional public house on the popular ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Its sign is a wool bale, a popular symbol in sheep-rearing country. It has played host to many of the soap's storylines and is the focus of the programme. It is the second oldest TV soap pub, opening its doors in October 1972 and being preceded by The Rovers Return Inn which opened in December 1960 and succeeded by The Queen Victoria which opened in February 1985. The Woolpack is the only soap pub to have changed locations as part of a story-line. In 1976, the original Woolpack was found to be suffering from subsidence. Another building was bought by landlords Amos Brearly and Henry Wilks and made its debut as The Woolpack later the same year. This was to cover Emmerdale Farm's move from Arncliffe to Esholt for location filming.

The first Woolpack was the Falcon Inn in Arncliffe. When the outdoor scenes were moved to Esholt in 1976 the Commercial Inn was chosen as the new Woolpack. The present Woolpack is on the purpose-built Emmerdale village set on the Harewood estate which is based on Esholt.

The 1993 plane crash saw the Woolpack wine bar demolished trapping many people inside and paralysing Chris Tate from the waist down. It was also involved in the storm of 2003 where the roof was struck by lightning which caused the chimney to fall through the roof causing a window to collapse and fall on Tricia Dingle, which eventually resulted in her death.

For the show's live episode (Emmerdale's 40th birthday) in October 2012 the bar area was recreated within the "shell" that resides on the backlot at Harewood House. Previously all interior scenes were shot solely back in Leeds. The Woolpack's cellar, the living quarters and Marlon's kitchen would all be inside the village's Bed and Breakfast at Harewood House based on the studio's set layout.

Landlords and landladies

Over the years, the Woolpack has had several landlords and landladies, the current landladies being Chas Dingle (since 2011) and Charity Tate (since 2016). The longest serving landlord is Amos Brearly, who served as landlord for 43 years (1948–1991), although only 19 of those years were onscreen. The longest serving landlady is Diane Sugden, who served as landlady for 17 years (1999–2016).

1948–1973: Amos Brearly
1973–1991: Amos Brearly & Henry Wilks
1991: Henry Wilks
1991–1994: Alan Turner
1994: Alan Turner & Shirley Turner
1994–1999: Alan Turner
1999–2002: Diane Blackstock & Bernice Blackstock
2002–2006: Diane Sugden & Louise Appleton
2006–2008: Diane Sugden & Val Lambert
2008–2010: Diane Sugden
2010: Jimmy King & Nicola King
2010–2011: Diane Sugden
2011–2016: Diane Sugden & Chas Dingle
2016–Present: Chas Dingle & Charity Dingle

The Malt Shovel

For many years the Woolpack had a rival pub in the village called The Malt Shovel which was supposedly slightly downmarket compared to the Woolpack. Episodes in which the Malt Shovel have been mentioned include The Plane Crash and The Storm ones. The Malt Shovel was later redeveloped into an upmarket bar, Malt, to the chagrin of then Woolpack Landlady Val Pollard.

Current employees

Job role
Chas Dingle Co-owner/Landlady/Licensee (50%)
Charity Dingle Co-owner/Landlady/Licensee (50%)
Carly Hope Barmaid
Marlon Dingle Chef/Barman
Victoria Barton Assistant Chef/Barmaid

Occupants

Above the Woolpack are living quarters. Pub owners Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) and Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) live there, with Chas' son, Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) and his fiancé Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) as well as Aaron's half-sister Liv Flaherty (Isobel Steele), and Charity's son Noah Dingle (Jack Downham).

Key events

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.