Was an inspiration with campaign to save ‘The Bec’
WE were sorry to hear that Úna McBride had passed away at the age of 59, writes Neville Grundy. Una has deservedly been in the news because, despite terminal cancer, she raised funds for charities such as Queenscourt and Macmillan, culminating in a ‘Courage and Sparkle’ event in St George’s Hall, Liverpool.
Six years ago, Úna was involved in an entirely different campaign: to reopen the Becconsall pub in Hesketh Bank.
The Bec, as it was known, was originally the hunting, shooting and fishing lodge for the aristocratic Hesketh family. It eventually became a pub and was run for 25 years by Úna’s parents, Frank and Úna McBride.
Being the only local pub, it was central to village life, although in latter years it went in to decline. After it closed in 2009, Úna set up a campaign in the name of her elderly mother, known locally as Mrs Mc, to reopen the Bec, not just as a pub, but as a community social enterprise for use by local groups and residents for meetings and functions.
She set up the ‘Save The Becconsall’ committee which quickly became very active and was able to attract interest in the project from a pub entrepreneur. Úna and her team worked tirelessly to resurrect this fondly-remembered pub, hoping to provide a valuable asset for the community. Local CAMRA fully supported their work.
Maureen Baldwin from the action group said at the time: “The Becconsall was always a very attractive family pub when it was owned by the McBride family and it would be great if we could recreate that once again.”
Sadly, that was not to be, and a structural survey revealed that the building had been so badly neglected that it was beyond economic repair. Demolition followed and the site was then redeveloped into houses and flats.
Despite her own battles against cancer, Úna later applied her formidable campaigning skills to raising thousands of pounds for health-related charities, for which she was honoured at the Merseyside Women of the Year Awards. We in CAMRA applaud her inspiring fundraising work, but also remember her earlier work as a highly committed pub campaigner in Hesketh Bank.
The Southport and West Lancs CAMRA website is at www.southport.camra.org.uk. Previous CAMRA pub reviews in this paper are at: tinyurl.com/vis-pubs.