The first Lymestone Brewery pub could be opening its doors soon after the Stone brewery made an application for a licence to reopen an historic boozer in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Ian ‘Brad’ Bradford wants to open a Lymestone pub at the former Wine Vaults in Newcastle High Street, which was bought by Butters John Bee at auction last year.
The estate agent will take on the front of the building and wants to let the rest of the building to Lymestone as a pub. Because the rest of the building has been rearranged, with toilets repositioned and a new lounge area brought into use, it has the same square footage as when it was previously used as a pub.
Brad said: “I’ve always had the ambition to open a Lymestone pub and we’ve put a lot of hard work to get to this stage, where we’ve applied for a licence from Newcastle Borough Council. In time, I really want to have three Lymestone pubs, one in Newcastle, one in Stafford and one in Stone, obviously.”
Brad and wife Viv live in Newcastle-under-Lyme and brew in Stone on the Mount Road industrial estate (hence the ‘Lymestone’ name).
He added: “If the licence application is successful we’ll be offering the five core Lymestone ales, as well as a monthly special, and other microbrewed beers from other Staffordshire breweries. There’ll also be high-quality continental beers and proper cider, as well as hot food.
“Many pubs are struggling at the moment but it’s wrong to assume that the whole sector is on its knees. A section of the market – as Titanic have shown – is thriving. I would hope that by offering a choice of quality products that can’t be bought in supermarkets that we can make a real success of it.”
