The landlord at The Brushmakers has celebrated his silver anniversary of pulling pints at the popular pub in Oulton.
Mark Byrne reached the amazing milestone on 10th August and was presented with a Silver Service certificate by the Heart of Staffordshire Camra group on Monday night. He also celebrated with a barbecue at the Kibblestone Road pub last weekend – and a pretty amazing cake!
Mark’s first pub was The Vine in Hanley (“a real punk rocker’s boozer,” he remembers!). He took on The Railway in Norton Bridge in 1984 before arriving at The Brushmakers on 10th August 1990.
His philosophy was, ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it’, and he continued to run the pub as it always had been. A quarter of a decade on, his philosophy remains the same, and it’s obviously a good one!
“So many pubs get makeovers now and become really twee and ‘plasticy’,” he says. “This has always been a proper pub with a proper bar, a place for people to meet up and socialise. No food, just a place for people to meet up and chat. We’re not one for fads and fashions!”
There have obviously been changes over the last 25 years that all pubs have had to deal with. For Mark – who runs the pub with partner Diane – the changes to the licensing laws that brought in all-day opening were a big one. But apart from that, he says running his pub now is the same as it was back in 1990.
Mark has known many of his locals for the whole 25 years – many of them, in fact, have been drinking at The Brushmakers for much longer than that. For Mark, it’s like a big extended family.
“There’s a real camaraderie,” he says. “Everyone gets involved, like with the barbecue we had last weekend. Two customers, Steve Thomas and Sophi Jordan, took that on and sorted it, which was lovely. Lots of pubs don’t have that nowadays, but we’ve certainly got it at The Brushmakers.”
