Staff

John has been with the company for a good few years, and has helped to run a number of our busier operations. He’s a bit of a fitness fiend, loving nothing better than a run in the woods, is very upbeat and cheerful by nature, and has put together a very happy crew. John is hooked up with another B&P legend, Angharad, who ran the Armoury with great success, and they have a young son, Noah.

Lucy was a real find for us - she'd been deputy general manager at Hawkstone Park Hotel for some thirteen years and was really happy there, but felt that nevertheless it was time for a change. One of her passions is writing lists and ticking things off when they are done. If she's done something before it got onto the list, she'll write it onto the list, then tick it off. Obvious potential.

Affectionately know to all as 'Lill Rach' because she is quite little. She came to us having studied Politics and Counter Terrorism in Newcastle - if she'd stayed there she could have been 'Professor Lesser'. But she didn't, she came here and we're glad about it. She's a bit of dynamo on the hockey field although has recently given it up because the competition is too slow. This is a picture of Rachel getting very excited having found a mature goat's cheese named after her.

You can tell just by looking at him that Dave is a real character, and we’re very pleased to have him in the company. Dave came to us from heading up the kitchens at Crewe Hall, so he knows his oats. Quite apart from his cooking, he's guaranteed to cheer you up.

Andy is a truly enthusiastic budding chef who believes that the only thing worth talking about is food, food and food, and the only TV programmes worth watching are food, food and food. Apart from this, Andy used to be in a hard-core boy band called “Stoke Roses”, who featured a lot of rock anthems about….food. He used to date a girl called Charlotte, after the apple dessert.

Craig is a gentle giant of a man standing at 6ft 8inchs and size 16 feet making the beautifully big kitchen of The Hand and Trumpet his obvious choice of work. Craig loves cooking and organization which is highly apparent in his food and is an inspiration to the young chefs.

Tom started life with us as a pot washer inbetween studying Law, English and Film Studies but has since discovered that food is his true passion and is now training to be a great chef. He's a Stoke City fan and is a great player within our team.

James, like all good young cooks, started life in the kitchens washing pots. His endeavor and keeness to produce gotgeous puddings led him to progess further and become a fully fledged member of our cheffing team. He's a bit of a 'petrol head' and likes nothing better than to polish his alloys in his break.

Paul is one of those guys every pub must have: he never stops working, is always looking for things to do and always has a smile on his face. He is a mad footy follower and talks a good game. When Paul is not keeping the kitchen spic and span he looks after the pub neighbour's award winning garden.

Roger lives just over the road from the pub so can watch his garden grow from his front window. He's got a big project on his hands here and it always requires patience watching your garden grow, but the potential at the Hand is enormous.

Gill is a local girl from Betley and lives in a lovely house with husband Roger (not our gardener) and son little Harry, at the top of a hill which overlooks the whole of Cheshire. Gill's cleaning expertise is known far and wide so we had a job on our hands to steal her away from the dubious environs of the local men's sports club...she was unaccountably reluctant to leave.