Landlady revived pub's fortunes

A former landlady of The Beehive pub at Belvedere has died.

Daphne Kesterton, aged 66, ran the Lansdown pub with her husbandEric for nine years from 1977, building it up into a successfulbusiness.

The couple decided to run their own pub after working in thetrade elsewhere and Mr Kesterton said they had enjoyed making it asuccess.

"When we took it over it was very run down to say the least,"said Mr Kesterton.

"It was a cider pub and it took us a year or two to get it on itsfeet again and it took off after that."

Running the pub meant the couple were working and livingtogether, as well as raising their family.

They came up with innovative ways to boost trade, making the pubpopular with students, capitalising on the weekend TV show Tiswas.

Mr Kesterton said: "On Saturday mornings we did Tiswas and toastand it just took off because we catered for a lot for students, fromNewton Park and from the University of Bath. We even got a mentionon Tiswas.

"The university rugby team adopted us as its watering hole andthey went mad for Tiswas and toast."

The Beehive - now the Grappa Bar - attracted even more publicitywith talk that it had its very own ghost, Bunty.

"I never saw anything at all but some very strange thingshappened and, of course, the Ghost Walk used to come round there,"added Mr Kesterton.

The couple also kept a different sort of community spirit aliveby entering the city's Great Sedan Chair Race - winning a prize fortheir chair which was shaped to look like a beehive.

After leaving the pub Mrs Kesterton went to work for actress JaneSeymour at St Catherine's Court, near Batheaston.

Mrs Kesterton leaves three children - Paul, Sally and Michelle -seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She was first diagnosed with cancer in 1996 - receiving a furthershock when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer on the sameday.

Mr Kesterton paid tribute to his wife, saying she would begreatly missed.

The couple moved to Cornwall six years ago.

"She was a lovely, pleasant person who worked very hard," hesaid.

"She was very party-orientated, especially when we had the pub,and she loved any excuse to have a party."