Month: March 2026

Walking over the threshold of The Coopers Tavern in Burton upon Trent is, in many ways, like stepping back in time. With no televisions, no jukebox, and very little to distract from conversation and good beer, it remains a proper Victorian pub with a deep, almost stubborn connection to Burton’s brewing past.

And talking of time, new landlady Cheryl Gibson, who took over after the much-loved Mandy Addis left last year, is planning something rather special to celebrate National Bass Day on Saturday 4th April: she’s going to bury it. Not the pub, but a piece of its history.

The idea came after a busy weekend when Cheryl found herself staring at the old innkeeper’s board on the wall and wondering what the pub would have been like in those days. “I was looking at the names and thinking how incredible it would be if we could actually see what the Coopers was like back then. I mentioned it to the team, we started throwing ideas around, and that’s how the time capsule was born.”

The capsule itself measures 13.5 by 4 inches and will be placed inside a larger sealed metal box for protection before being buried on the property at 7pm on National Bass Day.

Here’s where the pub, and Burton, come in. Lovers of The Coopers Tavern and Bass are invited to donate items to go inside: photos, written memories, beer mats, newspapers, letters, and even video messages for the future. As a thank you, every donation will be rewarded with a half of ale, it doesn’t have to be Bass but it would feel a bit wrong if it wasn’t. The first 50 people through the door will receive a limited commemorative beer mat, which is almost certainly destined to become a collector’s item, so please form an orderly queue.

The capsule will then lie undisturbed for twenty years until 2046.

“I hope when it’s opened it gives people a real sense of what The Coopers meant to Burton,” Cheryl says. “The connection to Bass, the community spirit, the stories, the people, why this pub has always been such a special place.”

Although Cheryl already knew The Coopers Tavern was unique long before she took over, having spent many nights out in Burton, she didn’t initially realise just how deep the pub’s historical connection to Bass really was. Since taking the pub on, she’s made it something of a personal mission to act as custodian of its history as well as its beer.

“Most of my career was in events, but during the pandemic I ended up learning how to build websites and even completed a university course in machine learning and AI,” she explains. “I’ve always loved marketing and data and I enjoyed that work, but deep down I missed people, the atmosphere, the energy, the buzz of live events. When the Coopers was looking for a temporary manager, I applied, and the rest is history.”

On National Bass Day, Cheryl is hoping people will come down not just for a pint, but to help make a little bit of history too. There will be a photobooth, the sealing ceremony and group toast will be filmed, and then the capsule will be buried on site, not to be seen again for twenty years.

So if you’ve got a memory, a story, a photograph, or just want to raise a glass to the people who’ll be drinking in The Coopers in 2046, get yourself down there on April 4th and be part of the future history of one of Burton’s most remarkable pubs.

Following the announcement that they would be shutting for a period of refurbishment at the turn of the year, the sudden closure of the Weighbridge Inn in mid-January still came as a surprise to many regulars.

The award-winning pub had been part of the Muirhouse stable since 2019, run by Mandy and Richard Muir, and its walls proudly told the story of that success. Framed awards celebrated their much-loved beers Tick Tock Boom and Magnum Mild, while a string of honours from the Burton & South Derbyshire CAMRA Pub of the Year competition marked it out as one of the town’s standout locals: third place in 2022, runner-up in both 2023 and 2024, and third again in 2025.

So when the doors closed unexpectedly, it felt like the end of a chapter.

But as it turns out, it was only the interval.

In early March came the news that the pub would be reopening, a new name, new management and a new start.

“My name’s Phil Chilton, most people call me Chillo, and my other half is Laura Illsley,” he says, introducing himself. Though in truth, many Burton drinkers will already know him.

Chillo has spent most of his working life in the pub trade. He first stepped behind a bar in the late 1980s before taking on his first pub, the Berkeley Arms in Waterloo Street, in 1993. He ran it until 1996, and over the years that followed he became a familiar face in pubs across the town.

In 2011 he took on the Royal Oak in Horninglow, running it for five years before moving on to the Oak & Ivy.

“I had seven mostly enjoyable years there,” he says. “But after COVID things changed. Carlsberg got involved and it wasn’t the same, in the end I decided it was time to call it a day.”

For a while, the pub game seemed to be behind him, until an unexpected opportunity reminded him how much he missed it.

“Last September we were asked if we’d look after the Navigation in Horninglow for a couple of weeks until the new landlady could take over,” he explains. “We really enjoyed it and realised how much we’d missed being behind the bar.”

And there was one pub in particular that had always caught their eye.

“We used to drink in the Weighbridge and always liked its quirkiness and relaxed atmosphere,” he says. “We’d even said before that if it ever became available, we’d love to have a go at it.”

When the pub closed earlier this year, Chillo picked up the phone and contacted the previous owners. Conversations followed, plans were made and before long a new future for the building was taking shape.

When the doors reopen, the pub will also have a new name: The Coppersmiths Inn.

The name is a personal tribute to Laura’s father, Tom Flanagan, who worked in the Ind Coope engineering department as a coppersmith from the 1970s until his retirement in 1997, a small but fitting nod to Burton’s proud brewing heritage.

The name isn’t the only change. The couple have already been busy giving the place a refresh, the interior now sports a new blue colour scheme and one of the most noticeable alterations is to the wall that previously split the bar into two.

“We’ve put a window through it which really opens the space up, we’d have loved to take the whole wall down, but it’s load-bearing, the landlord wouldn’t allow that!” laughs Chillo.

Behind the bar, meanwhile, the focus will firmly be on good beer.

When The Coppersmiths Inn opens, four cask ales will be on offer: a traditional bitter, a modern Citra-forward ale, a stout and an IPA.

Chillo is a passionate supporter of real ale and is particularly excited to be running a free-of-tie pub.

“As we build the trade we’d like to expand the choice of both cask and keg,” he says. “And we’ll always listen to customers about what they’d like to see on as guest beers.”

He’s also well aware that he’s stepping into a pub with a strong reputation.

“The Weighbridge had built a great following,” he says. “We respect that and want to make it our own at the same time. The aim now is to make The Coppersmiths Inn a success on its own merit.”

And for Burton drinkers, it means the lights are coming back on behind another bar, proof that in a brewing town, good pubs rarely stay closed for long.