-
Video - Save our local pub
Sorry, you must enable Javascript to display media contentWith public houses closing down across the North West, Inside Out visits the derelict Star Inn in Salford where the community has taken over its local.
-
Bidding to take over a local pub
The local boozer has been a part of North West life for centuries - a place where friendships are formed and all aspects of life are celebrated.
But across the region hundreds are being boarded up and closed down. At the last count the figure was running at two per week.
The Star Inn in Salford was one of them.
It was a pub that could trace its origins back to 1867 and boasted a proud history of being at the centre of its local community. But in October 2009 the brewery that owned it decided to close it down.
Its regulars were devastated. One of them Eileen Barrett said, "This is the heart of the community that has been torn apart. We did everything here at this pub. But no more."
But hope was on the horizon. The Star's regulars decided to gamble their life savings in the hope of breathing life back into the historic little boozer.
The question is could they succeed when so many others were failing?
Over 40 of the pub's regulars joined a local cooperative and bought The Star at an auction.
The next challenge was to turn the boarded up building back into a much-loved local in just a few weeks.
A team of volunteers worked day and night to re-open in time for the Christmas and the New Year in a race against time.
The cooperative members come from a range of backgrounds and include Margaret Fowler, a university lecturer, and local GP Tim Worden.
Margaret says, "Some days you wake up with this massive list of things in your head and you think how on earth am I going to do all of that? But it's easy. You just share it with somebody else along with the project and just get on with it."
Tim is also optimistic but pragmatic at the same time, "We can’t guarantee winning but we can guarantee giving it a bloody good try. One thing we said at the start of the project was that if at Christmas we are sitting in our own houses drinking bottled beer, we will wish we had tried."
Finally – after six weeks of frantic activity – The Star is ready to shine once more.
Margaret Fowler is ecstatic, "I can’t really say how I feel. I’m just a bit overwhelmed by it all. I’m just so pleased.
"It’s one of the last few traditional pubs in England and we intend to keep it.
"It’s fantastic. Brilliant. It’s just like being home." -
Video - Measuring tide times
Sorry, you must enable Javascript to display media contentLiverpool and the Merseyside coast have been at the centre of world seafaring for many centuries.
Seafaring was built on an unrivalled understanding of tides.
BBC Inside Out North West's Andy Johnston goes on the trail of historic Wirral objects that influenced the history of the world by predicting tide times.
Hilbre Island, two miles off the Wirral shore, was a key location for measuring tides from the 19th Century.
The historic measuring device is still kept in a half-derelict former lifeboat station on the island.
It was one of several historic tide measuring stations on Merseyside.
The numbers were crunched inland where Andy Johnston goes in search of some of the historic equipment involved.
These world-changing measuring devices played an important role in ensuring that today's tides can be measured as accurately as 2 cms.
They also played a key role in Britain's military campaigns during the Second World War.
Credits
- Presenter
- Andy Johnson
- Reporter
- Jacey Normand
