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Picture source: Bill Richardson

The Balancing Eel was situated on Ocean Road. This pub was used as The Blitz Bar following closure.

My husband and I were manager/manageress of the Balancing Eel for about 6 months, after managing the Black Bull in East Boldon. This was in the early 70's. My husband Roger (a Toolmaker by trade) was 36, I was 29 and our son was 7. The pub had been renovated and the Gaslight Gallery was popular among the 'older' customers. We sold sherry on tap and one lady used to come in quite regularly during the evening, and she would down a couple of schooners. She was quite happy when she left. We had a juke box installed in the Alice lounge (Ladies bar), and we chose the music ourselves and made sure there was nothing too raucous! I can remember my husband I dancing in the lounge after we had closed and cashed and bottled up. The restaurant downstairs was always busy. We inherited a temperamental chef and one day he didn't arrive for work and I had to cook. I'd had no training or experience and by the end of the day/ evening I was exhausted. Fortunately the food, steaks and crumbed fish and scampi were ready prepared and frozen. The mushrooms came out of a large tin. Apple pie and cream for dessert were very popular. The accommodation upstairs was a bit grim. There were 5 rooms (as far as I remember) on the first floor and 5 on the top floor. There was a door closing off the stairs to the top floor. We had a German Shepherd who would not go into our bedroom or upstairs. No matter what we tempted him with he refused to go. We were convinced the pub was haunted. The brewery had done nothing to the accommodation when they renovated the pub. The floor boards were very old wooden ones with large gaps between them. The whole place had a very Victorian feel about it. Our last pub was The Polaris in Skelmersdale. It was a fairly new pub and a very busy one. From there, in 1971, we emigrated to South Africa where we lived for 50 years. My husband passed away in 2003 but I continued living there until late 2020 when I left. I now live in West Devon.

Liz Wilson (June 2025)

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