Friday 29th July 2011 - Published by Lara Page - Account Manager
Local Pub Aims to Break its Run of Bad Luck
After a traumatic year, a Wallasey-based pub is celebrating getting its owners, and its beer festival up, and running again.
The Magazine, on Magazine Brow, had a horrendous run of bad luck in 2010, with a devastating fire, a flood, and licensee Linda Baxendell being diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
Linda says her misfortune began when one of the model witches displayed inside the pub was stolen last year.
“The pub has long been known for the curse of its witches that hang from the ceiling. It is said that if you touch one of the witches, bad luck rears its ugly head,” Linda explains.
On April 16th 2010, one of the witches was stolen, and just two days later, an electrical fire broke out, due to a power surge.
Linda’s husband, Les, received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, and The Magazine was badly damaged and in need of refurbishment.
The couple were forced to live in a caravan for nine weeks, while £100,000 worth of restoration work was carried out.
Nevertheless, on their return to the pub, Linda and Les’ nightmare continued, as torrential rain flooded the pub – running the newly laid carpet.
Thinking their luck couldn’t possibly get any worse, the curse of the witches struck again; two months later Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It’s been a long, difficult year for both of us, especially being in and out of hospital for chemo and radiotherapy – annus horribilis springs to mind!” said Linda.
As a result of all this adversity, The Magazine’s annual Beer festival had to be cancelled in 2010.
But, the pair are now celebrating Linda’s 60th birthday, by reinstating their annual beer festival.
“Sadly, we didn’t hold our beer festival last year, because of all the bad luck we went through, but we’re hoping everyone will come and join in our celebrations this year!” added Linda.
It’s the third time the beer festival has come to The Magazine. It will feature 12 cask ales, four cask ciders and lagers from all over the world. There are also a few odd flavours in there too, for more adventurous drinkers – namely Top Banana and Double Espresso.
The beer festival will run from Thursday 18th to Monday 22nd August.
