Pictured above: (l-r) Ashley Howard and Brian Deakin raising a glass to the reborn Sun Inn

Familiar faces from the 1970s and 80s were back behind the bar as Titanic Brewery celebrated the opening of the Sun Inn, Stafford.

Former landlords Ashley Howard, 79, and Brian Deakin, 76, jointly pulled a celebratory first pint to mark the rebirth of the Sun.

The historic town centre pub was a favourite destination for pub-goers for decades but has been shut in recent times after an attempt to run it as a wine bar.

Staffordshire based Titanic Brewery bought the building earlier this year and has restored it as a traditional style pub.

Brian Deakin, of Weeping Cross, Stafford, licensee from 1975 until 1994, said: "Titanic has done a wonderful job. The alterations have been carried-out in a very tasteful way and I wish the pub every success for the future."

Keith Bott, Managing Director of Titanic Brewery, paid his own tribute to Mr Howard and Mr Deakin.

"These are guys who ran proper pubs and, as a brewery and an industry, we would like to see more proper pubs opening in future years," said Mr Bott.

Titanic Brewery, based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, is run by brothers Keith and Dave Bott who were brought up in Stafford.

The brewery has bucked the national trend of closures in recent years to open four new pubs since 2007.

Keith declared the opening of the Sun as a special day as it was among the first town centre pubs he visited as a young man.

Around 20 new full and part time jobs have been created as a result of the Sun Inn's revival.

And the pub is among the first in the UK to use cutting edge equipment to chill its beer and provide heat for customers.

The Geo Bar heat recovery system takes excess heat created by pubs' chilling equipment - which is usually expelled outside the building and lost - and uses it to heat water, either for direct use or in the heating system.

As well as saving money on energy bills, the Sun Inn will save 34,230kg of C02 emissions every year - the equivalent of 750 journeys from Stafford to London and back in a family car, or planting eight football pitches of rain forest.