EIGHT months ago, The Valentine, in Aintree, looked dead in the water.

Targeted by arsonists the previous Christmas, it later lost its licence. Local residents – who had come to vilify the once-popular local – even celebrated as a court backed the decision to keep it closed.

The blaze-scarred remains subsequently stood fortressed by security fences awaiting the inevitable wrecking ball. Which really was a crying shame for a pub which had become something of a watering hole institution since Aintree Village began to expand half a century ago.

Personally, there had been some memorable sessions there – Yours Truly and Our Kev recall an especially melancholic booze-up in the Vallie on the eve of our 20th birthdays, miserably toasting the end of our youth.

If only we knew then about life what we know now.

What we could never have anticipated, however, was that a favourite pub should come to such a shabby end.

Then something of a miracle occurred, when a new buyer appeared on the scene.

Paul Orr, whose late dad, Joey, was something of a legend in the Merseyside licensing trade, backed by son Joseph and daughter Elizabeth as manager, pledged to transform the pub back into one for the whole community.

Over £150,000 was spent repairing the fire damage and completely revamping the place without destroying its pub identity, transforming into a chrome and laminate doppelganger of its former self.

Elaborate CCTV was installed inside and out plus protective gates and railings fitted on the walls surrounding the car park.

But the most difficult job was not only to win over the local authorities but the residents themselves. They did the first by getting a licence – albeit with a raft-load of stringent conditions attached – but then the came the acid test.

It came on an Open Evening for the locals held a fortnight ago on January 17.

The Vallie had now become the Villie – or The Village Inn – the name change being symbolic of its new life, or return, to being a community local.

And it seems to have worked.

The Inn has won almost universal local approval, which has been aided by a police Section 30 which is still in place. Subsequently, the area appears to have been cleansed of the night-time shamblers who regularly slouched around outside the old Vallie.

Certainly, when the Old Man and the Pub Column popped in one teatime this week, the place was buzzing particularly in the bar, once dark and dingy now bright and beautifully spruced up.

Always a favourite with the footie/racing crowd, it’s somewhere they can now sit and watch what they want without moving an inch, thanks to the plethora of compact plasma screens scattered about.

“When the pub reopened after being closed for 13 months, we had grown men hugging each other and saying it’s great to be back home again,” said 57-year- old Paul, a quantity surveyor who has been in the pubs trade almost a lifetime, having helped his Dad from the age of six.

The Mildmay – named after the inner track of the National course, just a quarter of a mile away – separates the bar from the lounge. This is now the “quiet room” or snug which will be open for 9am cake and coffee mornings from the week after next.

The main lounge has now been given over to food service without, thankfully, changing its feel as a place for drinkers who are returning in droves.

Which means that they may have fallen out of love with their Valentine – but found a new romance with the Inn crowd.

Welcome back.

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