A COUPLE who started a Blackpool tradition will pull their last pints next Tuesday (March 2) at the Saddle Inn.

Pam and Don Ashton, who started the Easter Beer Festival in 1994 to mark the resort's centenary, held a big retirement party on Saturday (Feb 23) to thank all their regulars for seven happy years at the centuries-old Whitegate Drive inn.

"It was rather emotional for us," said Pam, whose daughter's serious illness is the reason for their early retirement. "We've loved not just the building but the most fantastic customers.

"They presented us with a set of crown green bowls, which they knew we wanted to take up. It was very touching."

But the Easter Festival, and a summer one inaugurated last year, will carry on under the new management of Paul and Jacqui Bonar, formerly of another popular Blackpool hostelry, the Raikes Hall.

Don Ashton, who started his career 35 years ago as a bottle boy at the Winter Gardens, has managed many other Bass pubs, including 13 years at the Bloomfield Hotel, before going to the Saddle.

During renovations at the historic coaching inn, said to have been used by Oliver Cromwell's men in the Civil War, they found three centuries-old tankards embedded in the walls and three old clocks which were restored and now tick away behind the bars.

They brought back coal and log fires and Pam, from pub-stock in Kent, put up Kentish hops over the fireplaces.

"The Saddle's always retained its country village appeal," she said, "that's what gives it its character, and I hope it will always carry on the same way."

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