FIVE brothers were reunited under the pub window where they met for a seaside outing 50 years ago as they gathered to remember their mother with pints of her favourite John Smith’s beer.

Rat Trap landlord Mark Richardson was among the siblings who recreated a treasured family photograph at The Magnet in York to honour Audrey Smith, nee Richardson, who used to work behind the bar.

Four of the brothers also worked in the pub as they were growing up, either behind the bar or bottling up.

Audrey, known as Dodge, passed away peacefully aged 82 on February 21, and was remembered with hymns and memories at her funeral in York Crematorium last Wednesday (February 21).

Nicky, 53, Mark, 56, Tim, 58, Kevin, 61, Nigel, 60 and a sixth brother, Greg, 43, who was not in the original picture, joined family and friends at the pub in Osbaldwick Lane for the wake where they raised glasses of John Smith’s beer.

Audrey had gathered her sons in their best outfits there before an outing to Scarborough half a century ago.

Mark said: “We had mixed emotions meeting up at The Magnet after all these years. On the one hand we were sad because we lost our mother, who brought us up on her own but did the job of two parents.

“On the other it was fantastic to get all the brothers back together and remember the good times.

“Our mum was a happy-go-lucky person whose cup was always half-full. She would light up a room and she would have been over the moon and delighted to know we had met back at her favourite pub.”

A well-loved local character, Audrey worked as a ‘clipper’ on the buses, as a dinner lady, a cleaning supervisor and in restaurants. She shared her knowledge of parenting with local mums and took their children under her wing.

An Elvis Presley fan with a never-faltering sense of humour, she also ran a cafe and sold ‘kiss me quick’ hats on Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Mark followed his mum into the pub trade and has been licensee of the Rat Trap in Swindon for the past two decades. Nigel and Nicky have also been licensees.

“When we were teenagers my mum would invite everyone round our house in York and make bacon butties and coffee,” he said. “Everyone was welcome and they always enjoyed meeting at her house.

“She taught us that the pub trade is about enjoying people’s company and making them feel welcome, no matter who they are. She’ll be sadly missed after being the life and soul of so many people’s lives for so long but it’s thanks to her we are the happy-go-lucky family we are.”