REGARDING the closure of the Ship Inn pub at Blackbrook.

My grandma and granddad had the public house for more than 40 years after they took over from my great-granddad who had lived there for many years before.

Edith and Fred Scott were tenants of the pub owned by the Greenalls Brewery from St Helens.

Then by Greenalls when they moved the brewery to Wilderspool in Warrington.

Many great family memories of hard work by Fred and Edith to keep the establishment one of the best pubs in the area, going to their very high standards, having a cocktail lounge built in the early ‘70s which took the pub to the next level in bringing new drinks to the customer.

Fond memories of myself going down to the pub from school for my tea and then working at weekends stocking beer shelves and cleaning the cellar and boiler room for my pocket money.

Great days in my early teens when pubs were pubs for the working class. They were a hub of the community, which in later years were destroyed by greed from the breweries who put rents up when they saw pubs doing well and inevitably closed due to tenants not being able to make a living.

This is the sorry state today and that’s why the Ship Inn has closed.

Such a sad day for the Scott family as a whole. It will never be forgotten.

David Scott, via Facebook