Saltburn pub brightens up summer with brand new flower basket When pub landlord Roy Myers decided to do his bit to help Saltburn’s 150th Birthday celebrations and Britain in Bloom bid – he knew exactly the man to ask!

Roy, landlord of the town’s popular Victoria pub on Dundas Street East, decided a flower basket with a difference would be just the job to help brighten up the summer – and persuaded his dad, retired joiner Ted Myers, to bring his toolbag out of the garage and get busy again.

Now, a boat shaped flower basket made from reclaimed timber is already bringing admiring glances and praise from old and new customers alike – with Roy’s mum Joan, 73, adding to the family effort by choosing and planting the flowers.

Roy, 53, said: “I saw a similar basket outside a house in Redcar, and thought something like this would look great outside the pub. So I asked my dad if he fancied coming up with something special and he’s done a great job.”

Speaking on a busy Sunday lunchtime, Roy added: “I think its important that the outside of the pub looks as warm and welcoming as what’s actually inside. And, even though the boat’s only been up since early this morning, we’ve already had a lot of people saying how good it looks.”

Ted Myers, 77, said: “It was a real pleasure to work on this. We modelled the design on one of the small fishing boats we saw down on Saltburn beach, and we’re really pleased with how it’s turned out.

“We’ve made sure the boat faces in the direction of the beach and, naturally, we’ve called it Victoria after the pub itself.”

Landlord Roy and his partner Janet Coser, 50, who also run busy seaside pubs O’Grady’s in Redcar and the Pier Inn in Whitby, have re-established The Victoria as a popular traditional community pub since taking over the reins 16 months ago.

Roy said: “Although I could talk all day and all night about the completely unfair competition that pubs everywhere face from supermarkets selling alcohol at a loss, we can only concentrate on the positive side of things we do.

“We put a lot of TLC into what we do here, and the boat is another nice part of that. We also have established live bands twice a week, our kitchen is busy – especially for Sunday lunch – and we have a growingly popular pub quiz every Wednesday night too.

“This is still a great business to be in if you love working with people and enjoy being part of the community.”