I visited the Greater Manchester venue where you can chuck axes and then tuck into a BBQ feast

Hidden away on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bolton is a restaurant with a difference.

Alongside an American-inspired smokehouse barbecue menu, Real Axe offers its customers the opportunity to chuck axes at a wooden target.

After opening at the back end of 2019, the business grew throughout lockdown due to social media and the reputation it gained for its takeout food.

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The spacious venue now hosts the likes of Frog and Bucket comedy nights, live music and club events, and has even applied for an extended licence to stay open until 2.30am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Despite branching out, its main selling point remains the quirky activity of axe throwing, so I went down on a Saturday evening to try my hand.

Instructor Ben briefly showed me the ropes of where to stand, the correct throwing technique and how not to injure anybody before letting me have a go for myself.

It has to be said that he made getting your axes to stick in the centre of the target look considerably easier than it actually proved to be.

It took me a good five minutes of solid throwing to get my first axe to stick, with a number of them bouncing off, missing completely or teasing me by falling off the target at the last minute.

I was part of a group of six, with four of those being complete strangers to me.

Despite this, Ben made sure that the ice was broken by pairing us all up as part of a mini competition.

Despite my less than stellar rate of actually getting the axes to successfully lodge themselves in the board, I managed to get the first bullseye of the night.

To add an extra bit of fanfare to proceedings, Ben rang the bell on the alley we