LISTEN: New lease of life for one of Lancaster's oldest pubs

One of Lancaster's most historic pubs is open again and its new boss has spoken to Beyond Radio about the challenges he's faced in bringing it back to life.

Liam Mulgrew reopened the Ring o' Bells just before Christmas after the King Street pub had been closed for several years.

Liam, who also runs the George and Dragon on St George's Quay, his team and friends had a stressful few weeks as they dealt with numerous problems to get the doors open again.

But now the Ring o' Bells is back and he has big plans for its future.

LISTEN to our interview with Liam Mulgrew

"The Bells has got a lot of history with a lot of people," said Liam.

"It was a fantastic pub and has had a fantastic beer garden. The potential alone was enough to get me interested. 

"The George and Dragon will always be my first pub and 100 per cent we're keeping it. But I've never wanted to stop at just one pub."

Liam and the team faced a number of issues as they prepared the pub for its reopening.

"It had been broken into, it'd had squatters living in it, people had come in and vandalised it as well, the piping for the plumbing had been nicked, the boiler got nicked, the lead off the roof was taken and somebody tried to start a fire in here as well," he said.

"We had all that to clean up. There was a lot to be getting on with! It's definitely been challenging

"Luckily for me I've had people in the background helping me. My team from the George and Dragon have pitched in, my best mate Rose has come in to clean and help me paint.

"We spent about five or six weeks here, every hour of every day, getting it ready.

"The original vision was to get it ready for November 28 but this got pushed back when our plumber said, you've got no chance. Every time he was fixing a burst or a pipe, there was another burst. That was one of the biggest hurdles, that and the damage to the roof. Water leaking in everywhere.

"It was bad. It was definitely a stressful six weeks! There were times I nearly walked away from it."

But Liam persevered. And with the Ring o' Bells now open again, he plans to continue to give it some TLC without changing it too much.

"We are still in the process of doing it up but I'm not wanting to change it from what it is, a traditional old school pub," said Liam.

"It's not going to be modernised to too much of an extent. It's just a case of bringing it back to life and getting what was known as one of the best beer gardens in Lancaster back to being one of the best beer gardens in Lancaster."

The beer garden (below) is currently overgrown with shrubbery but Liam hopes it will be cleared and reopened by April.

"It's definitely been interesting, definitely a challenge, I'm definitely enjoying it and so glad I've done it, and I'm incredibly lucky to have good people behind me," he said.

"I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what else this year has in store with this pub and further developing it, and seeing where we get with it."

Read more: Reopening date announced for popular Lancaster pub - Beyond Radio