Barmaid Kelly feels very much 'at home' at Padiham pub where she started life

Barmaid Kelly Conway feels very much 'at home' behind the bar at a popular Padiham pub.
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For she is pulling pints in the very place where she lived for the first two years of her life.

Kelly's parents, Brian and Ruth Mason, ran the Free Gardener's Arms from 1979 until 1982, the year Kelly was born.

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They stayed there until Kelly was two, before running Read and Simonstone Constitutional Club and several pubs in Todmorden until their retirement.

Like being 'back home' for barmaid Kelly Conway and her former landlord dad Brian Mason.Like being 'back home' for barmaid Kelly Conway and her former landlord dad Brian Mason.
Like being 'back home' for barmaid Kelly Conway and her former landlord dad Brian Mason.

Kelly only moved from Burnley to Padiham in April this year and it was a friend who saw the job advertised and suggested she go for it. Kelly has experience in the licensed trade as she has previously worked at the Ram Inn, Cliviger and the Thornton Arms in Worsthorne.

Kelly, now 37, said: "The Free Gardener's is a lovely place to work, the customers are all so friendly and supportive.

"It feels really nice and right somehow to be back here even though when I lived here I was too young to remember any of it really."

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Kelly is married to her builder husband Gareth and between them they have seven children who are Jamie (21) Sophie (18) Eleanor who is 14, Ruby and Wilson who are both nine, Lilia, who is seven and three-year-old Bodhi.

Kelly's parents have been to see their daughter at work and they received a warm welcome from current landlord Steve Hindley,who bought the pub 18 years ago.

He gave them a grand tour of the pub and Brian even showed he is still a good mine host when he got behind the bar with Kelly to pull a pint.