AXE ATTACK

Natasha Daley, 29, from Southport, decided to stay the night at her newly refurbished pub, but then she got a terrifying surprise…

- KATIE PEARSON

Gagging from the stench of the toilets, I looked at the broken windows and filthy floors.

‘It was once the hub of the community,’ the estate agent explained to me.

Now, in August 2018, the rundown pub in Southport was derelict.

Still, something about it drew me in.‘It’s got a lot of potentials,’ I said to my partner Alex, 33, grinning excitedly.

He’d been encouraging me to open a pub for months. I loved cooking wholesome grub, and I’d always worked in restaurants and pubs.

I loved the idea of having a pub I could call my own.

But since our son Harrison, then two, had arrived, I’d been doing​ office work to pay the bills, and I hated every minute of it.

‘We’ll help out,’ my dad Jason, 47, promised.

My mum Christine, 44, nodded. So, excited, we took it on. Alex and I spent the next few weeks scrubbing the floors, decorating, and scouring websites for cheap or free furniture for our new pub.

Then finally, in October 2018, we opened our doors.

‘Welcome to Enelle’s Glass House,’ I greeted our first customers, beaming proudly.

We soon had regulars, held social nights and even regular salsa classes in the function room upstairs.

Alex and I took it in turns running the bar and looking after Harrison at home, a 30-minute drive away.

One evening in June 2019, Mum and I decided to stay late to get some paperwork done.

‘I’m off,’ Mum announced around midnight.

‘I’ll stay and get this done,’ I told her. ‘You head off.’