Love Your Local: The Black Star pub in Stourport, a true gem of a pub, owned and run by the landlords.

Express & Star

The Black Star pub is what pubs should be, full of a wealth of character and the love and pride in it by the people that run it is evident. No wonder its been nominated for an award.

Transcript

00:00so we're here at the black star pub and you are landlady i am guilty what's your name maria

00:08gooding how you doing maria okay love yeah good thank you yeah not bad and uh i've just um i know

00:14this pub i've had a couple of beers here on a sunny weekend before but i didn't know this

00:19fantastic room existed upstairs and this used to be a chapel it did yes many years ago what's

00:26the story with that then so it was a chapel many years ago and during the war was used as a morgue

00:32as well um i'm not 100 sure on the dates of all the history to it yeah but then marston's obviously

00:38bought it and it was very derelict when we came here 10 years ago so after being here a year we

00:44gave it a new lease of life and it's now a fully functioning function room and it's a yeah at one

00:49point this massive high rise ceiling this was kind of sectioned off wasn't it and you couldn't

00:54really appreciate it um there was a ceiling and it was all made into letting rooms yeah a little

01:00bathroom at the end there's lots of stories from locals so the one gargoyle hasn't got a nose

01:06anymore yeah and apparently the children that were sleeping in the room found the gargoyle scary

01:12so one of the regulars come in drunk yeah chiseled it off and we never wanted to replace it because

01:17we thought it's part of the no that's part of the story any people that used to live here and

01:21old landlords and landladies still come in and use the premise now so it's really nice and the

01:27giant poppy behind you that's you were telling me that's just come back from repair and that goes on

01:32the outside the pub at the appropriate date yes we have a big bow at christmas with the ribbon and

01:37then last year we decided to have a black ribbon and mark it with the poppy and it also fits with

01:43our mural that's on the front of the pub as well for the remembrance for the yeah it's great that

01:49gardens behind the pub the art murals great isn't it yeah fantastic bit of work that and you've got

01:54your bench as well you remember and spend where does that come from all all kind of the nod to

01:59to the servicemen and that are you or your husband ex-service family history okay yeah ex-services

02:05and my husband's from herriford yeah i don't need to say any more with that yeah yeah um and we yeah

02:10we do try and support servicemen and women where we can and you know they're always welcome here as

02:16well and what's this um award you've been shortlisted for then we shouldn't give it a shout

02:20we have been um nominated by a customer for the best traditional pub in the midlands yeah and

02:27we've now made it down to the last 10 yeah voting lines close on the 19th of may tomorrow

02:33so fingers crossed and then we're in the hands of the judges um so they check our google trip advisor

02:39instagram facebook webpage and apparently they do make unannounced visits as well so

02:45i think there's some secret visiting going on yeah so we find out on the 17th of june

02:50how we've done with that so fingers crossed but just to be in the top 10 is absolutely fantastic

02:56yeah get that pat on the back but i mean you know it's well earned you were saying you were here at

03:00what 10 this morning you'll be getting home at one in the morning yeah that's a long shift in it

03:05hey because i guess because you're in the kitchen a lot aren't you so that's your yes it's not a

03:09glamorous lifestyle being a landlady yeah yeah no i do thoroughly enjoy it as well so what's

03:16special about this pub obviously it's got a great location just tell us a bit about that and the

03:21location is right on the canal so we've got lots of boats going up and down we've got a very very

03:26core um of regulars we came to stourport 10 years ago i think it was quite an impact um we bought

03:32the pub five years ago so we're now independent free house and it's just a lovely vibe we have

03:38live music friday saturday sunday which is all free um we do great home cooked food yeah i'm

03:44saying that and we've just built up a really good rapport i suppose what you've put proper

03:52integrated community haven't you you were just saying you have up up in this function room

03:56there'll be meetings who comes and meets here carnival committee meet um bramble for the local

04:02narrowboat that does the tours they do it we have ghost walks and the cricket club the rugby club

04:08everybody who wants a meeting up here we've got a new one as well for it's for the um waste that's

04:13going into the river so they've started meeting here as well yeah we have lots of meetings and

04:19it's it's free for locals and people to use that need somewhere to meet and you would you were

04:25filling me in it's the only pub in the country called the black star isn't it it's quite unusual

04:30yeah and uh this bit of a mural from the peaky blinders what's all that about so in the last

04:35peaky blinders the black star was mentioned i won't repeat the words that were said because

04:42um so we decided to have the artwork because we're the only one on that gets right on the

04:46canal as well and that was why it was all involved you've got fantastic lights we've got the original

04:51tiled church mural um church floor some funky lighting and then this it may look like a real

04:58window but this is part of your creative design and work as well isn't it yes my husband decided

05:03that he wanted something different on the wall um and that we'd be kind of looking out onto

05:08gardens because it's just a plain wall and it just worked really really well really effective

05:12yeah well done on the night we've got some amazing shoes here go on pick them up and give us a twirl

05:19so custom um custom made of course yeah black star and we've got hpa yeah my valley and then

05:27your betty back sorry yeah and the state so you've had these specially made obviously and you were

05:33saying you're going to get some um some more done for the awards night yes my husband doesn't know

05:37so there we go cat's out the bag ready for the awards night just so that i can be a little bit

05:43different

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