MANY PEOPLE feel a strong attachment to their local drinking hole but friends Peter Caley and Christian Ross have taken theirs a step further than most.

MANY PEOPLE feel a strong attachment to their local drinking hole but friends Peter Caley and Christian Ross have taken theirs a step further than most.

The pair have been regulars at The Inkerman, in Norwich Road, for more than ten years but as from this week they can be found at the other side of the bar after taking on the tenancy.

Mr Ross, 34, said: “For the last year or so the pub has been in decline and trade was going elsewhere.

“It was dying a bit of a death really and we decided that we wanted to try to return it to the good old days.

“I had mentioned the idea to someone a few months back and then it turned out that Peter had too so we decided it made sense to give it a go together and get it back up and running.”

Mr Ross, of Shelfanger, near Diss, and Mr Caley, 38, of Norwich Road, Ipswich, signed the papers for the pub on Monday and it opened its doors again for the first time on Wednesday.

Both men have full-time jobs that keep them busy, so running the pub in their spare time is a real labour of love.

Mr Caley runs his own construction company and Mr Ross is a commercial manager for a Sproughton-based company.

Mr Ross, who began using the pub when he worked in Ipswich, said: “It's not really about the financial side it's about getting our pub back to how it used to be.

“We spent a couple of days giving it a really good clean and dust and when we opened on Wednesday lunchtime it was really nice to see a few familiar old faces.

“Hopefully there will be more of those returning.”

One of the first things the pair did was ensure they were fully-stocked as the pub had not been serving dray beer for around three months before they took it on.

They also plan to run a number of different events.

Mr Ross said: “We're going to have special offers on at the weekends and have regular karaoke and disco nights on a Saturday.

“We're concentrating on that to begin with but over time we are going to start thinking about modernising it and really making it into a 21st century pub.

“I aim to be in the pub at least five times a week, either in a business or drinking capacity.”

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