THE Mark of Friendship pub at Millbrook is run by husband and wife team John and Iris Elliott who have leased it from Inspired Inns, formerly Ushers, for over three years.

The building was originally three cottages and was changed into a pub at some point called The Commercial and the original Mark of Friendship pub was situated in West Street. When The Mark of Friendship was closed the name was transferred to The Commercial.

John was an aviation engineer for around 30 years before deciding to become a landlord. He commented: 'I prefer this job. The Mark of Friendship is a nice friendly little community pub.'

The pub has three darts teams, two ladies' teams and one mens, the ladies team currently standing in third place in the Cawsand and Millbrook league. There is also one men's pool team although the ladies team is being set up at the moment.

Supports charities

The pub supports many charities and is very active with fund raising, such as abseiling down Plymouth's Civic Centre building in September 2000 to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. The pub also supports the Romanian Children's Fund, Cornish Blind Association, The Air Ambulance, RNLI and the Poppy Appeal to name but a few.

The Millbrook Festival Committee, of which John is a member, meets at The Mark of Friendship with the aim to improve facilities available at the village. The Festival Committee also arranges the annual carnival procession through the streets of Millbrook.

The pub has a large and varied menu of homemade food made by Iris who uses as many local and fresh ingredients as possible. Iris cooks a very popular roast on Sundays and John is famous for the chillies that he makes!

The Mark of Friendship has a supper licence which means that they can serve food until midnight and with that, drinks until 12.30am.

The pub also has a Public Entertainments Licence and regularly has bands playing there, the resident band being 'Stats' who play Irish folk music and 60s, 70s and 80s music once a month at the pub. Live music is held every Saturday and Sunday evening, with jam sessions held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

The pub sells various CDs from local bands including Pete Staniforth and Friends 'Mellow', which includes music from Stats, and the Mors' CD, 'Medicine Wheel'.

Regulars at the pub are Barry and Joy Walsh from Freathy. Barry is a member of the darts team and he and Joy often come in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Joy said: 'We call in for a meal and we support the fundraising events.'

Barry helped raise money for the Romanian Children's Fund two years ago when he played darts against anyone who challenged him. Who ever lost the game had to pay 50 pence to the charity.

Barry said: 'It was a fun way of raising money and better than just donating a lump amount, people had to compete to raise the money.'

The Mark of Friendship also supports a local business, Multimarine Composites Ltd, in Millbrook.

'Good as gold'

The company recently built a £350,000, 15 metre sports catamaran, named 'Dazzler', in ten weeks which won the Criterion Round Britain and Ireland race in August and was skippered by Mike Butterfield from Looe. The designers, builders and crew from Multimarines all frequent the Mark of Friendship.

Another regular is Richard Sticks, known to just about everyone as 'Sticks' who is a born and bred Millbrooker. He said: 'I come in to the Mark of Friendship most days after work and I used to be a member of the pool and darts team.'

He continued: 'The pub suits everyone and it suits me. Ever since I've known John and Iris they have always been as good as gold.'

John has been known to do a bit of 'DJ'ing at the discos and parties that Millbrook hosts as the pub also does outside bars for these events.

In one of the recessed windows by the side of the bar there is a display of stained and leaded glass created by Norma Duncan and Stephanie Carne who run a business called 'Splinters'. The pub sell the items in the window for Norma and Stephanie and all money taken goes directly to them.

John and Iris's eldest daughter, Karen Bessard, helps out at the pub whenever needed. She has three children, two-year-old Tyler, Holly, aged four and six-year-old Johann, who was sporting a plaster cast on his arm after falling off his Shetland pony, Jerry, when the Cornish Times visited.

Doggy friendly

John and Iris have two other children, Sean, aged 14 and 12-year-old Gemma who usually bring their ponies down to the pub from the stables, to have drinks and crisps. John joked: 'We are considering putting a hitching rail outside!'

The Mark of Friendship is a children and dog friendly pub, children are always welcome and there is always a dogs' water bowl by the bar with doggy treats available.

The pub has been renovated since it has been managed by John and Iris. It has been made light and airy with softwood tongue and groove around the walls. This was also partly for ecological reasons as John explained: 'Hard-wood trees take 100s of years to grow.

We used the softwood for most of the interior because it not only made the pub light and airy it only takes a few years for the trees to grow.'

There are slate tiles on the bar and non-slip porcelain tiles on the floor. The renovations are still continuing and John and Iris agreed: 'We are getting there gradually.'