A GWENT pub is bucking a national trend of closures by reopening 16 months after its doors shut.

The Cherry Tree Inn in Tintern, Monmouthshire, reopened last weekend despite national figures estimating more than 50 pubs and bars are closing every week as the industry suffers in the face of the recession.

But landlord Steve Pocock hopes the inn’s well-established reputation and friendly feel will encourage punters to return more than a year after he left to run another nearby public house.

Mr Pocock, who has owned the Cherry Tree with wife Jill for the last 10 years, decided to close it last year when the couple were offered the opportunity to take on another business.

But when their new business venture did not work out, Mr Pocock decided to return to the Cherry Tree and get back to his first love of owning his own pub.

After a lick of paint and a new menu, the Cherry Tree was back and ready to defy figures from the British Beer and Pub Association showing 52 pubs closed every week in 2008.

But Mr Pocock is confident the Cherry Tree can be different.

“It’s always been a quirky, off the beaten track kind of place,” he said.

Although the couple are currently only employing two other workers at the business, as trade picks up they hope to build staff numbers back up to the 16 employees they had before the inn closed.