'I left my job as a florist to open a micro-pub in the Black Country which I run with my family - it's been life-changing and means everything to us'
What started out as a former florist's career change in pursuit of a dream has bloomed into a pub which is a family business and a popular spot for a quality pint.
Sometimes, the idea of starting your own pub can be limited to that: an idea.
Many people will have yearned to run their own pub, selling whatever beer they wanted, but never been able to follow through with the idea due to time, money or the lack of a suitable venue.
The idea of running a pub was one that Delwyn Sharpe had had for a long time, but had been set in his career as a wholesale florist until 2018 when, as his daughter Leanne Wehrle puts it, he might have had a mid-life crisis and decided to go for it.
The end result was the creation in June 2018 of Tivi Ale, a micro-pub set inside a former shop on Regent Road in Tividale and run initially by Delwyn and Leanne, who explained how the process happened.
She said: "What happened was my dad had always wanted to run a bar and had seen a few micro-pubs popping up around the area and said 'oh, I wouldn't mind doing that', so it started from there.
"I used to live around the corner and we were looking at the right space to put this bar, so I was walking in the area and saw this empty lot which used to be a Select and Save, but had been empty for ages, so I talked with the supermarket next door about it and, long story short, we took over the lease.
