'I fell in love with this pub so I went and bought it'

When Patrick Mills started drinking at The Bard, he dreamt of owning a place like it.

Then running a garden centre in Widnes, the 26-year-old would stop at the pub on Prescot's High Street as he made his way home to Huyton. The Bard made Patrick fall in love with micropubs and inspired him to swap selling top soil for cask ale.

Patrick's dad Eric Mills has long worked in the hospitality industry, so he decided to follow in his footsteps. Together, they have run Cask on Queens Drive in Stoneycroft since 2020.

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The father and son team took over the micropub just as the pandemic hit but they were able tonavigate lockdowns by selling takeaway beer. In May of this year, they bought The Coach House on Maryland Street in Liverpool city centre - widely acknowledged to be the city's smallest pub.

Their growing micropub empire now includes The Bard, found on High Street in Prescot.

Eric and Patrick took over the pub earlier this month and reopened it under their Cask umbrella last Friday (October 20). Like their other venues, it is compact and has a focus on real ale, though it does also sell keg craft beers and lager.

For Patrick, 26, owning The Bard is extra special. He spoke to the ECHO before he opened for business on Thursday as he took deliveries of casks of ale.

He said: "This is where it all started. My first business venture was a garden centre in Widnes and I used to make my way home coming through this way.

"This was a hotspot for good ale and from there the passion grew. With my dad being in the pub game his entire life, I wanted to dip my toe in with a small site.

"That's how we