When the Steam Railway Company closed without warning in September, nobody knew if or when it would reopen.

But now there is good news – the Old Town pub is getting ready to relaunch next week.

It will be run by manager Steve Griffiths, who was in charge when it was closed out of the blue by then leaseholder the Phoenix Pub Group.

He said: “I want to keep this pub for as long as I can.

“I love Old Town, and the people who come in are so friendly.

"For a pub this size, we’ve had a couple of incidents but that’s it.

“Even when we’ve had the big boxing nights or the Champions League final there’s never any problems and it’s such a nice pub to look after and run.

“It’s my home as well but it’s grown on me.”

The pub's owner Punch and Steve held talks and agreed he would reopen the pub. The firm is now looking to refurbish it but not until the new year.

“What the actual refurb is, I don’t know,” Steve added. “I can’t imagine it being anything other than a sports themed bar, but I don’t know how it would actually look.

“It’s a well-established pub in the area at the end of the day, it’s known for its sport.”

The Steam Railway was originally supposed to open this week, but that has been pushed back the opening to next week.

Steve said: “Everything was going quite well, until the reports came back to say the electrical and fire compliances aren’t up to scratch so we can’t open a pub of this size if it’s not okay.

“Everything was taken when Phoenix left but it’s all been coming back over the past few days. The fridges, the glasses, the bric-a-brac and the table football.”

On the shock closure, he said: “Phoenix came in at 8.15am, told me to come downstairs and they took everything and closed us down.

“Two days after that, I got a text message off one of the operations managers just to say 'don’t worry, things are going to be okay', and I’ve not heard anything since.

“I was working for the ambulance service as well at the time, but I’ve had to resign and now I’m focusing on this.”