A Saddleworth restaurant that sells 'old fashioned' homemade meals and delivers pies to the community has been forced to hike its prices and fears closure as costs continue to bite.

The Old Mill House restaurant, based in Springhead's Housing 21 independent living complex, is run by Joan Cartwright and her family.

Joan, who was initially a retired landlady after the death of her husband, said a friend persuaded her to cook her homemade food in the restaurant for two weeks.

She said: "But four and a half years later, I'm still here."

In that time, the restaurant has become popular among locals, particularly in lockdown, as it delivers its pies to the wider community.

Joan and the team get to work baking a wide variety of rag puddings, pies and quiches every morning from 6am.

However, the cost-of-living crisis has taken a dramatic toll with prices going up, including main ingredient cheese, which has risen per block from £3.60 to £4.50.

Joan added: "We are struggling to get hold of the very big blocks of cheese - we'd get 20 a week, but now we can't get them and where you can, they've brought in a smart price range where you can only buy three at a time."

As a result, staff are doing 'cheese runs' to stock up, but it's having a knock-on effect with costs creeping to £50 a week just in fuel.

Joan said: "Everything has just gone through the roof - even parking in places when we go to deliver.

"We're noticing it on a day-to-day basis."

She said parents were choosing between buying uniforms or food before schools returned and some customers are now buying items from the Old Mill House and will try to make it stretch a few days.

Joan said her pies are "well worth it" with plenty packed inside and doesn't want to drop standards.

Yet as a result of the spike in costs, Joan said she was forced to increase the price of her pies by 50p.

She said: "It's the best we could do and we try not to put it up because we supply chip shops and sandwich shops.

"We're keen to keep the cost down for them too because then they're going to have to put their prices up.

"We can't afford to put wages up at the moment and the girls understand, but of course, their bills have gone up at home."

Staff at the restaurant are also being more careful by trying to cook on certain days or by getting the bulk done in one day.

However, Joan said she's still anxiously waiting for her October energy bill to come through and doesn't know the real effect of the rise just yet.

She added: "I'm dreading this month - the bill was about £140, but now I'm looking at about £500 a month.

"That's going to be crunch time for me really, whether we can carry on."