ON October 30, a few rather wet customers enjoyed a range of beers in the Lowther, just weeks after a £130,000 refurbishment. It was a pleasant evening despite the rain outside, a little quieter than usual, but still a good mix of students and locals, young and old, enjoying both draught and bottled products at discounted prices.

It was also the last time the Cumberland Street riverside pub was open. The floods invaded the Cumberland Street premises, instantly wrecking the refurbishment.

This has been a frustrating few months for manager Caroline Hickey, who has spent many a night in an unheated and flooded property on her own.

Climbing up ladders was part and parcel of her live-in job during this wet period in her life. But a new-improved Lowther is expected to open for business on Monday night at 8pm, and Caroline is convinced it won't happen again.

"We are a lot more flood proof this time," she beamed. "Pumps are in place to ensure that the cellar can be relieved of even the most amazing amount of water in just ten minutes.

"We will also be better prepared with flood barriers to be erected either side of all the sets of doors. We might get away with this never happening again."

A full range of drinks will be available at those discounted prices.

John Smith's, Theakston's Cool Cask, Fosters and all the usual products can be picked up at not much more than a £1 and deals are in place in partnership with the nearby Gallery nightclub.

A new and full menu will also be available at the pub, with Caroline itching to open the doors.

"I can't wait to have some female company," she said. "Since we've shut, it has just been builders, builders, builders. It is time for change. I want my customers back."

There will be a busy couple of days over the weekend, as staff battle to get every table-top polished, and every brass fitting rubbed. Not to mention the restocking - since freezers and bottles were freely floating around the room during the flood's 17ft 8ins peak.

As well as locals returning to the pub, Caroline is confident that her appearances on television in Belgium, Holland and Japan, among others, will bring in the tourists keen to visit the pub "from the telly".

"I can't wait for Monday," she said. "The only floods will be the beer flowing from the taps."

- WHAT - no Firkin name? It's true, the Phalanx and Firkin brand is being removed for ever from Micklegate in York. With it dies the chance for us all to make firkin silly jokes.

Drinkers may remember that the pub was the more traditionally named Coach and Horses before it was absorbed into the Firkin chain in 1996. Allied Domecq, which owned that chain, has since been sold, with the firkin pubs snapped up by Bass and Punch Taverns. The York pub is now in Bass hands.

Before Easter, the pub will close for a couple of days while it undergoes a refit. The green and cream irkin colour scheme will be replaced by fresher look, and one considered more customer-friendly. A new menu will also be launched.

And it will have a new name. But what? Landlady Amanda Hamill is not saying, although she revealed that a customer had come up with it.

The beers will remain as they are now, with Bass and Speckled Hen as regulars plus one guest. "We want to make it much more female-friendly, with more comfortable seating," Amanda said. But the big screen for football will remain.

- BROADCASTER Eric Robson has become the 1,000th member of the Official Black Sheep Fanatics Club.

To celebrate the milestone, he became brewer for the day at the Masham HQ. Under the watchful eye of Paul Ambler, Black Sheep Brewery's head brewer, Eric followed the brew from mashing to fermentation. Black Sheep boss Paul Theakston was also present.

The chairman of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time discovered that a brewer's day starts early, at around 6am. Compensation comes from the chance to test the finished product, and Eric is a big fan of the Black Sheep beers.

"I did not realise just how complex the whole brewing process is," he said. "There is some fearsome chemistry involved in terms of how the natural ingredients of malted barley, hops and yeast react with each other and a great deal of skill is required if you want an end product that is full of flavour."

The Official Black Sheep Fanatics Club was started in August 1999.

For more information on the club, ring 01423 871750.