03 March 2024 , 18:44
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The new bosses at Plymouth's oldest pub have launched an appeal for a famous bench that has disappeared outside their establishment.
On Wednesday, the new team had reopened the sixteenth century Minerva Inn but turned up to work on Wednesday to find the bench sat outside the front for fifteen years gone. So far, they haven't reported the disappearance to the police, hoping that it's been taken by pranksters who will return it soon. The staff are even thinking of giving a gift as a "token gesture" to anyone who finds the bench and brings it back.
Landlady Rosa Abel said she and partner Jake Fahy did a "double take" when they arrived at the pub and saw the bench was gone. She said: "It’s a bit of an outrage, a bit disappointing. I was in disbelief. I turned to Jake and said ‘the bench has gone’. It’s always been there. I just want to get the bench back.”
The Minerva, in Looe Street, dates from 1540, making it the oldest hostelry in Plymouth. The bench is a much later addition, but is thought to have been outside the pub since the 2000s. According to Rosa, the special bench has the inscription "Benny's Bench" scratched on it, and another from a group of Plymouth Argyle supporters who visit the pub on match-days. She is unsure if the bench is worth any money, but it is of sentimental value to the pub.
The bench, along with all other fixtures and fittings in the pub, belong to the brewery which owns it, Red Oak Taverns. The landlady added that she has reported the missing bench to the brewery. She said: "They said it is probably drunks who think the bench would look good where they live. It’s quite heavy, they would have had to lunk it about."
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“Two people could not easily cart it home. I think someone thought it was funny to take it and I hope they will now bring it back. It would be lovely and we would offer something, a token gesture, of some description, maybe a bottle of toffee vodka.”
A famous bench outside a pub has gone missing (Erin Black/Plymouth Live)At 23, Rosa is one of the youngest landladies in Plymouth, according to PlymouthLive. But she stressed the company she is a shareholder in also contains her partner Jake, whose family have run pubs, and Carl Whitwell, who has previously run his own business in Southend. And she is a former barmaid at the Minerva so knows the pub inside out.
She said: "I’ve never run a pub before but have worked in them since I was 18. I’m from Essex originally and came here for university. I even worked here a couple of years ago.
"I found out the landlady was giving up at the end of their lease. I have some savings and was going to buy a flat but decided to look at a pub instead. “I took the picture of Jake and Carl outside with the bench on the day we got the keys. That is the most recent picture of the bench. It’s always been there and now someone has taken it."