THE role of the good-old local pub in community life is currently in focus as a number of drinking holes across the region call time due to the difficult economic climate.

THE role of the good-old local pub in community life is currently in focus as a number of drinking holes across the region call time due to the difficult economic climate.

Countless close friendships have been built while standing at bars throughout the county, with games, quizzes, meals and other special events bringing broad sections of the community together. But as the economic situation begins to bite, some pubs are struggling to continue, and their loss will be greatly missed.

This has been particularly emphasised by the vast numbers of responses to a picture we printed from November 1968 which showed the final evening at The Rising Sun.

In the picture was landlord Reggie Reynolds who could be seen pouring some of the much-loved pub's final pints.

Journal reader Andy Lockwood said: 'I was pleased to see the picture of the Rising Sun, in particular of Reg Reynolds. I became friends with his son Clive and together we played in and around the area. It was just about the only building in one piece, as all the others were run down or boarded up.

'I have many fond memories of Reggie. He would let Clive and I help stock the shelves with bottles of beer and soft drinks and reward us with a couple of shillings each, it was great.'

Reggie went on to run the Oak Tavern, while a part of The Rising Sun's bar was kept alive by Jock Stoddart.

Mr Stoddart wanted to keep the exact section of the bar where he used to stand and with the help of Jim Cullen he was able to move it into his house in St Margaret's Road, Lowestoft, where he had a collection of maritime memorabilia.

The story was featured in the Journal on Friday, July 17, 1970, and his wife Edna and daughter Jen, who still has the bar in St Margaret's Road, brought in the newspaper cutting.

Mr Stoddart had also looked into the history behind the bar and discovered that past landlords had included Bloater Nicholls, Reggie Reynolds, Gus Jensen and Mr Burwood.

George (Bloater) and Jessie Nicholson's granddaughter Anna Smith contacted us to explain that her grandparents had been the landlord and landlady between 1955 and 1965, and that her husband's grandparents, George and Olive Buck, had also been landlords prior to that.

'My grandad was a well know trawler skipper prior to taking over the pub, he got his name Bloater because he was born in Yarmouth - where the Bloaters came from,' she said.

Anna was also able to explain why there were so few women in the previous pictures.

'There used to be a separate bar, the Snug, where the ladies used to sit and drink their Mackeson. I can remember standing behind the bar in the Snug and showing the ladies Rosie and Beattie how to do a new dance called the Twist, I must have been only six or seven,' she said.

Further memories of the pub were evoked when Geoffrey Durrant, of Gloucester Avenue, Oulton, showed off four watercolours of the Beach Village that used to be hung on the walls when Gus Jensen was landlord.

Mr Jensen had given the H. Palfrey 1962 paintings to Jean Durrant's uncle Leslie Upson as security for money that was owed, but as the money was never repaid, the paintings are still in his family's possession.