THE owner of an historic town centre pub, who took over the site during the pandemic, has said she is ‘loving’ being open without restrictions for the first time.

As of July 19, dubbed ‘freedom day’ by many, punters were no longer required to be sat at a table at all times and could order from the bar the old fashioned way instead of through an app or other table service.

Most pubs across the town have embraced this, making clear on their social media pages that people will be able to order from the bar again and customers don’t need to wear face coverings if they don’t want to.

Lisa Day, who has run a number of pubs over the years, including the Farmers Arms in Daubhill and a pub of the same name in Darcy Lever, took over the Old Three Crowns late last year, meaning she has either been closed or running under tight restrictions until Monday.

The Three Crowns took full advantage of this, celebrating the dropping of restrictions by hosting a big disco in the car park behind the beer garden at the back of the pub, with more to come later this week.

Lisa said: “It’s been absolutely amazing so far, I have loved every second of it.

“It’s been really busy since the restrictions were dropped. We had a big party which we’d been planning for a while in the car park which went amazingly well. We had a disco with a DJ and everyone just looked really happy.

“To see everyone just enjoying themselves again and having a dance without having to tell people to sit down and put their mask on was really nice for me and the staff.

“We’re taking great enjoyment of not having to do table service anymore either. Having customers back to the bar and being able to just have a chat with them is lovely. It’s so much less stress than table service.

“The staff are not anywhere near as stressed anymore after the changes and it feels great.

“Honestly it’s been a bit overwhelming, seeing people just happy again and smiling, everyone is loving having a bit of normality back again.

“This is exactly why I took over the pub so it’s good to see the hard work paying off. It’ll be great to see how it is this weekend considering how good it has already been during the week.”