interview to come in. And as I walked in to look round, some guy pinched my bottom. But I decided to take it on. I had the pool table taken out, put flowers on the tables, and turned the place around. I won the prestigious award of Best Development Pub, awarded by Greene King Brewery.” Two years later, with that success under her belt, Bev was offered another, larger pub which was going to undergo a major £400k refurbishment and again she made a great success of it. As a result, she was given the chance to take the helm at The Argyl in Henley. “That was fantastic, by then my daughter was eight years old, it was a beautiful part of the world and the pub was right on the market place. There was the regatta coming along, and it was terribly popular every day of week. “Sadly it turned out to be a bit of a bad time for me as a male customer started stalking me, so much that eventually the police were called in.. There was also a problem with a lot of drugs. I’d seen deals going on and got the police involved and they were watching the pub which made me some enemies. “It was the first day of summer holidays and my daughter popped across the road to Woolworths, came back and later that day someone called the pub, using a word muffler and stated not once but many times during that day they had seen her walk across the market place and the final time they said my daughter’s names and that’s when I called it a day. “Someone threatened to kill my daughter, said her name and that they would see her when she was out and about. I decided that was the final straw, packed my bags straight away and left, vowing I would never run a pub again. “I rang the company I used to work for as a cash collector and got a job with them, rented a little flat and was adamant about never going back to the pub trade.” The temptation of returning to a way of life she loved proved too much, however, as Bev’s 40th birthday approached. “In 2004 Mark, the manager at the Prince of Wales asked me if I’d like to go back as assistant manager, telling me I was a natural. I agreed to do just one shift for him and as I walked behind the bar, I felt a shiver, almost like a bolt of electricity, it was like coming home. People I’d known before were coming in and saying ‘Bev’s back!’ I had a smile back on my face. “I was still feeling I never wanted to run a pub again but I agreed to do two days and the manager
told me ‘you have to work here’. He asked would I hold the fort for him for a few days while he went away - he never came back. Sadly, Mark suffered a dreadful fall of a ladder, had a brain haemorrhage and didn’t return. After Mark’s accident I was asked to take it on and that led to a wonderful spell for me. “I made it the best pub in the town, doing really well, put on Hampton Court Flower Show specials and we won lots of awards - I even won a trip to Cuba as a reward. But then the smoking ban came in and I knew it was going to hit that pub badly. I was really worried about it and felt that I didn’t want to be there if the pub started to go downhill. It was a bittersweet time as I’d put so much into it, but I decided to leave.” Bev moved to another inn, thinking it could be make or break time over whether she continued to be a landlady. There she again successfully tackled a drugs issue but a much more unpleasant situation arose. “The barman, who had worked there for about 35 years, lived in at the pub. He was a heavy drinker and just before Christmas he fell down in his room and was badly injured - he had to have one arm amputated. “Although it wasn’t my fault in any way, some of the regulars blamed me and one of them spat at me. I’d put a lot of time and effort in and thought the pub was really going places, but they didn’t want me there.” Bev returned to one of her former pubs but it was there she experienced the most traumatic experience of all. “Something horrific happened when a man who was very drunk was refused service,” she recalls with a shudder. “He attacked some of my regulars, TOWNANDCOUNTYMAG.CO.UK | 43