Fairy Tale Revival For Rural Gem

"It's amazing how things have turned out," says Mark Bristow reflecting on all that has happened since he decided to give up his job with Sheffield council and take on a rundown Pub in East Anglia. He's turned the business around, started a family he was told he could never have, and found time to open a brewery that already has a number of awards to its name. It's been quite a seven years.

I'm chatting to Mark in the new dining room extension at the Fox & Hounds at Heacham, Norfolk. It's smart, with lots of stripped wood and glassware, and a menu supplied by a new chef who is keen to intorporate beer with his cooking. It's also nicely tucked out of the way of the main part of the pub, which is a busy one-room arrangement with pool and other activities. Mark's been working on the extension for most of the last year and it's the latest stage of building the pub into a substantial business.

When Mark first set eyes on the property, it was in a sorry state. The previous owners had failed in all their attempts to make the establishment pay and the business was only turning over about £40,000 ( a year) Undaunted, Mark came up with the cash to take it on.  His partner, Marie, had run sandwich shops in Sheffield when the lease on one successful shop was clawed back, their patience ran out. They want business they could truly call their own and, while they considered shops and other ideas, a pub seemed a good bet.

In 1999, Mark quit his job the Sheffield Treasury Department and they took up residence in the  run-down property "There wasn't even a bathroom here," he says but that wasn't the number priority. His first move, natually was to install some proper beer."They only used to have I Toby Bitter, he says. "I didn,t know it was still being brewed" He fitted five handpumps to the cask beer made a welcome return to the Fox. Since then Mark has served thousands of guest ales, despite finding room for the beers I brew on the premises. "I hope I  am not that conceited to think that people want to drink my beer" he says.

He's learned to brew as he's gone along, but he's doing rather well at it

At the side of the pub stood a derelict old cottage. Mark didn't know what to do with it and was considering demolition until Brendan Moore of Item Brewery suggested it would make a nice little brewhouse. Mark took Brendan at his word and installed a five-barrel plant that now turns out about a dozen beers, all of which are also bottle-conditioned. He's learned to brew as he's gone along, but he's doing rather well at it and has picked up several awards for his efforts. The latest, for instance, is for a cherry beer called Heacham Kriek, winner of a bottled beer contest at The Real Ale Shop at Branthill Farm nearby where Mark buys his barley. Mark throws whole cherries into the copper to get the fruity effect, so this isn't a typical Bel 'an Iambic beer; but it works.

Ther highlights of his range include Nelson s Blood, containing a dash of rum, and Punt Gun, an Old Peculier-type strong old ale.

Also featuring are the nutty Nina's Mild, the blond Heacham Gold, and a creamy, fruity stout named after Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades.

Some of the beers have been dedicated to Mark and Marie's two children. "We were always told that we could never have children," he reveals, "then nine months after we moved here a baby was on the way. That was Daisy." A second child, John, followed a year later. "We've also got a successful pub and a successful brewery," he says. "It really is a fairy tale."