THIS is where it all began for these beery wanderings of ours.

Back in spring 2009, with the pub industry on its knees, I went on a news assignment to The Bay Horse in Blossom Street, where I heard a sorrowful story of gloom and foreboding that prompted us to act.

York's longest-serving landlady, Dee Ralph, was hanging up her bar towel after 26 years, calling time before she was pushed, rueing the falling trade that had driven her out of her business. The cancellation of the 2008 Ebor Festival had been a terminal body-blow, this being one of the closest pubs to York Racecourse, and The Bay Horse was boarded up for the first time in decades.

York Press:

The Bay Horse in Blossom Street, under new management

Dee, dispirited and dismayed, predicted her pub would be one of six to close within as many weeks in York and here at The Press we decided to do what little we could, launching this column a few weeks later to highlight the good-news stories among a climate of dejection and to acknowledge and promote a valuable industry in need of a little support.

Dee's doomsday scenario didn't quite materialise. Many pubs did indeed fall by the wayside and the threat of closure still hangs over many others, but The Bay Horse lived on, taken over by Pete Pendlebury, who was then building a mini empire in York's beer scene.

Now, Pete has another team behind the bar. The "new management" banner above the front windows drew me back in, to find a new landlady full of optimism.

Charlotte Marquis moved here in October from The Brown cow in Hope Street, and says she is enjoying life in a bigger, busier, more varied pub. She has persuaded her mum Emma to join her, giving up a 25-year career as a dental nurse. (Cue jokes about pulling pints instead of teeth and filling in behind the bar. She should have taken over The Crown, one wag in the office said when I began writing this piece.) Charlotte is running the bar, while Emma is in charge of the accommodation, the pub including several lettings rooms for visitors.

York Press:

Emma and Charlotte at the bar

Charlotte says she had become bored at The Brown Cow. The Bay Horse, by contrast, draws a more varied crowd: B&B and hotel guests from along Tadcaster Road and Holgate; those heading into town or heading home; football fans; locals; cinema-goers from Reel over the road. And, once the racing season resumes in May, thousands upon thousands of racegoers.

Before then, Charlotte hopes to be in full flow, with a series of events to add to the pub's appeal. Currently, it shows lots of live football in the front room, has a large bar area that draws all and sundry, and has a quieter back-room, more suited to those after some peace and quiet. The beer range is limited but the ales are well-kept, with the Moorhouse's Ice Witch - a crisp, refreshing, fruity pale ale - on excellent form when I visited last week.

York Press:

The back room

The Bay Horse has a long, proud history in York. It dates back more than 265 years, and dominates a prominent spot on one of the busiest routes into the city-centre, and one wall beside the bar still holds a plaque boasting of the pub's inclusion in the Egon Ronay Guide to Pubs and Tourist Sites in Britain - way back in 1972.

Whether it will achieve national recognition again remains to be seen. But as we come full circle, the picture is decidedly rosier than six years ago, and if Charlotte's enthusiasm yields the results it deserves, then The Bay Horse will ride on triumphantly once more.

York Press:

The bar's front room

 

 

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