A Baldrine man is happy to have been reunited with a memorial plaque that he and fellow former customers of a closed pub had bought.

Gordon Davies contacted the Isle of ManExaminer fearing two plaques that had been on benches outside the Liverpool Arms had been taken by vandals. Fortunately, that has proved not to be the case.

There had been two plaques on the bench outside the former pub.

But following the pub’s closure, they were removed for safe keeping and one of them had been stored by Heron and Brearley.

Mr Davies initially believed the plaques had been taken by vandals, so he was relieved that had proved not to be the case.

After he contacted the Examiner, we spoke to Heron and Brearley which revealed the plaques had been removed for safe keeping.

Mr Davies said: ’I’m grateful we have one of the plaques back, however Heron and Brearley said they didn’t know the whereabouts of the second plaque, so we’re still looking for that one.

’I hope that maybe a family member took it for safe keeping.’

The plaque that has been returned was dedicated to Frances Lorraine Bowmer, who was a regular in the pub and died in 1998 and Sam Johnson a barmaid who was killed in a car crash in 1999.

Mr Davies, who was an engineer in the Royal Navy, said that having been reunited with the plaque, he and his friends intend to have brass replicas made and a suitable place found near the pub for them to be situated.

He added: ’I’m just glad we have them back. I was a little annoyed when we realised they had been removed but it’s good that Heron and Brearley had the decency to keep it and preserve it.’

A spokesman for Heron and Brearley said they were glad to have found the owners of the plaque after its previous attempts to locate the owners had proved unsuccessful.

The Liverpool Arms closed in October 2017. Since then, an application to turn it into residential housing was rejected by planners.