The Ship Inn will re-open its doors tomorrow, after a fire damaged the pub last October.
The fire, at the pub in Aldborough, was started by a washing machine and caused extensive damage. The restoration has cost £500,000 and the pub is now larger with enough seating to accommodate up to 200 people inside and outdoors.
Brian Rey and Elaine Howden, the owners of The Ship Inn, have been restoring the pub since January.
Brian said:
“It’s been amazing the response we’ve had from the community and our staff. We had 16 staff members and they all wanted to stay on, which I have to say was quite moving.
“We now can seat around 200 people throughout the garden and pub. We now have wi-fi outside and a second card machine to bring outside. We’ve also now bought a new pizza oven.”
Last October, the pub set on fire through an electrical fault with a washing machine. The emergency services were called when a fire alarm sounded at 2am.
Brian spoke about his experience when the pub set alight. He said:
“It was hardly believable, I thought I was hallucinating. When we called 999, five fire engines turned up. We were told that if we ingested smoke for another ten minutes we wouldn’t be here today.
The store room after the fire
“We just stuck some face masks on and I knew we needed to get out of there.
“After the fire, we had no heating so we spent a lot of time in bed, simply to get warm. We had one electric heater plugged in and that’s it.”
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Brian and Elaine have seen many high-profile guests to their pubs, including Prince William and Harry, as well as Gordon Ramsay.
The couple’s old pub, The Fenwick Arms, was featured on an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in 2006. In the episode Gordon said he had ‘a lot of respect’ for Brian, as well as claiming that their Yorkshire puddings were ‘excellent.’
The episode led Gordon and Brian to set up a ‘Real Gravy’ campaign, which was created to promote Brian’s gravy and Sunday roast.
“I’ve had five million emails about the Real Gravy campaign and I’ll never be able to get through all of them,” Brian said.
