LANDLORD Phil Pointon is getting into top gear behind the bar after giving up the motor trade.
Phil, former customer service manager at Robert Eardley in Crewe, is enjoying a new role as host at the Blue Bell pub in Betley.
He said: 'Hitting 50 made me think. After 35 years in the motor trade, I decided it was time for a new direction.
'I remembered working behind the bar at the Bulls Head in Davenham as a young lad. I loved the fact I was getting paid to chat to people in a pub.
'Since taking over the Blue Bell I have realised there is a lot more to running a pub, of course, but we are loving every minute of it and the locals are a great bunch.'
Phil is running the 200-year-old Blue Bell with his wife Stephanie. The pair have tried to discover the roots of the name and have two theories.
Phil added: 'In bygone times there was kiln nearby. Potters called a kiln a blue bell because of its shape.
'We would rather the more romantic notion of a blue bell wood nearby but there isn't one!
'Technically we are in Wrine-hill, just over the Staffordshire border and yet we have a Crewe postcode.
'We have christened the village beautiful Betley because it is so pretty.'
The couple have bought the lease from Punch Taverns and are planning a programme of sympathetic restoration retaining the pub's traditional charm.
* Do you know how the Blue Bell got its name?
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