Axe Marks the Spot

If you’ve wandered through Colne’s old market hall lately and heard laughter followed by the satisfying thud of wood, you’ve probably found The Axe Imperium. It’s part Viking den, part rustic bar, part stress relief — and 100% Colne.

The place opened in March, and already it’s one of the town’s quirkiest haunts. There’s a bar made from old pallets, five axe-throwing lanes, and furniture that owner Andy Fletcher built himself. “Seven and a half thousand screws went into this place,” he says. “And a fair bit of swearing too. I’m still finding splinters.”

Andy, who also runs the mobile axe-throwing business Axes to Ashes, is about as far from your average business owner as it gets. “Seven years ago, I was training to move to Canada and live off the land,” he says. “So I became a survival instructor — proper Bear Grylls stuff.” Somewhere between lighting fires and dodging mosquitoes, he became a Range Master — that’s a certified axe-thrower, not a fancy cooker.

It started as a hobby. “I did a few events, then someone asked me to do their wedding. Before I knew it, we were attending festivals, birthdays, corporate dos — basically anywhere people fancied chucking something sharp at wood. Turns out there’s a lot of them,” Andy laughs.

Axes to Ashes started as a way to get people back to basics — learning safe axe use, lighting fires, and finding calm watching embers turn to ashes. These days, Axes to Ashes travels the UK, while The Axe Imperium is, as he puts it, “the HQ, the heart and the home of a lot of happy axe-throwers.”

It’s as inclusive as it is impressive. “We’ve got an L-shaped lane so wheelchair users can get involved too,” he says. “It’s for everyone.”
He’s also a stickler for safety. “I used to be a health and safety manager,” he grins. “So this is probably the safest place in Lancashire to throw a weapon.”

Backed by a top-notch team, including Ben Lloyd, a professional coach, and Kali Tattersall, the UKAT Axe Throwing World Champion, he assures me that between them, they make sure everyone leaves with the same number of fingers they came in with!

Last year, Andy picked up the 2024 Great British Entrepreneur Award for the North West, winning Entrepreneur of the Year – Start-Up in London. “That was a proper proud moment,” he says. But he’s not stopping there. “Over there’s going to be a smokehouse and pizzeria,” he says, waving his brew around. “Then a banqueting hall with a big fire and proper grub. And upstairs? A shooting range – crossbows, air rifles – and above that, a rooftop bar with firepits!”

In November he’s looking forward to hosting a Viking Dragon Fire Night with “Six-foot glowing dragons, fancy dress and a disco,” he grins. “Then it’s straight into Christmas — smoke machines, lights, bad jokes and probably tinsel in me beard.”

He looks around proudly. “It’s rustic, real and built with heart,” he says. “Bit like Colne.”

 

ColneLife Winter 25/26