Thriving pub a great example of hard work turning around fortunes

The Wheatsheaf on Market Street in Wolverhampton is a very good example of this principle, having changed from a failing business ready to be closed and converted into flats into a popular and vibrant real ale drinkers pub.

Set in the city centre opposite Wolverhampton Police Station and just down the road from the bus station, the Wheatsheaf has a prominent place on the street and has been a presence there since 1854.

It consists of of four public rooms on the ground floor and a club room on the first floor which became a billiard room and, in 1919, was converted into bedrooms to allow for accommodation, with an extension added four years later.

The pub was bought by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries in 1909 and was extended in 1959 through the old shops next door being demolished to allow for a beer garden.

Now owned by Marston's, the pub has been under the stewardship of landlady Lisa Parsons for 10 years, who said that the brewery had warned her of the limited future prospects of the pub during her interview.

She said: "The pub has had many tenants and retailers over the years and when I arrived 10 years ago, it had been failing a lot and Marstons told me during the interview that this was going to be its last chance and if we couldn't make a success of it, then it was going to turned into flats.