The Irby Mill, Irby, Greasby

Nov 10 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Pub Column and Lady Penelope had been looking for a cosy pub where you can be tucked away with a perfect pint or a wee dram feeling safe and secure while outside the wind is howling through the trees and the rain battering the windowpanes.

We found it at the Irby Mill, another Merseyside gem listed in the real ale drinker’s bible the 2008 Camra Good Beer Guide.

Like all precious jewels, it comes with its own intriguing little story.

There’s been a mill on the site since the 15th century and an example of what it looked like in its glory days can be found on a print copy of the watercolour by Ridgard Hartley which hangs on its wall.

Incidentally, the original is stored at the most excellent Williamson Gallery in Birkenhead where staff will get it out for you if ask nicely.

When demolished in 1898, it was a broken derelict of its former self as can be seen from another, this time photographic, print hanging adjacent.

The mill’s adjacent cottage, however, was converted to be opened as an alehouse in 1980 and has been serving fine beers ever since.

It consists of two stonefloor-clad rooms linked by a narrow bar where its many regulars like to stand around and chew the fat while supping amber nectar.

It’s also a popular watering hole with the passing trade of walkers and cyclists at the nearby Royden and Wirral country parks – although this access to such ready-made trade may have made it a little too set in its ways.

That was until a month ago when it was taken over by former Upton Hall Convent schoolgirl Suzanne Downward who has invested in the pub with her sister and brother-in-law, Alison and Jason Williams.

Trained as a quality chef she worked with many of the top kitchen boys down in the Smoke before heading off to Spain.

There she ran her own restaurant in Barcelona for three years before – and how about this footie fans – becoming a chef for Real Madrid at their corporate eaterie in the Bernabeu Stadium. There she cooked for all their top players including David Beckham and Ruud Van Nistelrooy recent recruits from Man Ure, sorry Manchester United.

Being a red-hot Liverpool fan, she resisted the temptation to put something nasty in Becks’ nachos or Ruud’s nosebag.

One day, however, when Becks celebrated a victory by his former club over “your lot , Liverpool” she couldn’t help making the retort: “Well ‘your lot’ seem to be doing quite well without you, then.”

Result? Stony silence from Mr Posh Spice and a moral victory for Scousers.

So, with such a food-based background, it’s no surprise she’s keen to develop the Mill as a gastro pub – without the fancy prices.

Consequently, the room backing on to an unused cellar is to be expanded into a 40-seat restaurant where her menu concoctions – which are scribbled in felt tip on the white tiles behind the bar – will be served.

The Spanish connection means that tapas will be a major feature including one called Broken Eggs, made from spicy Spanish sausage, chunky chips and three yolky ouefs which has already hit the spot with the punters.

She nevertheless insists that this foodie conversion will happen without compromising its identity as a traditional alehouse serving six regulars – Abbots, Bombardier, Old Peculiar, Speckled Hen, Theakston’s Best and Cains Bitter – and two guest ales every day.

“Any changes will not affect the pub as a pub – or its beers,” she says.

Coming from someone who can put Beckham in his place, you have got to trust her.