Leeds landlady spends 300 hours recreating pub as doll house during lockdown

Amy Sayers, 35, is the landlady of The Swan Inn on the main street of Addingham Ilkley.

After the 'novelty of lockdown wore off', Amy - who was forced to close the pub due to Covid restrictions set out by the government - told the Yorkshire Evening Post she needed a new project to keep her mind busy.

So, in between home schooling, Amy set out on her dream of recreating her popular pub in miniature form - spending up to eight hours a day on the two month venture.

Amy has used off cuts of materials from her own pub and bought materials from independent retailers online to design an amazing version of her pub.

The dolls house comes complete with models of regulars, beer pumps made from matchsticks and even a newspaper rack housing a copy of the Yorkshire Post.

Amy posted pictures of her amazing creation on social media.

Just hours later, the post went viral - with her friends and family astonished at her intricate design.

Amy now plans to give the dolls house pride of place in her pub when the regulars return, who are eager to give it a closer look.

She said once she got the idea to recreate the pub, she 'just went for it'.

Amy, speaking to the YEP, said: "I needed to keep my mind busy, the novelty of lockdown had worn off by this point.

"About six to eight hours of my day has been taken working on it, in between home schooling too.

"I keep finding little bits to add to it, it needs some more tables and guttering adding.

"But it is pretty much finished now, I am so happy with it."

Amy told the YEP she used many different materials to replicate the bar area of the pub.

Off cuts of bar stools were used to mirror reality and the beer pumps were even made from clay buttons and match sticks.

Where possible, Amy made everything in the dolls house from scratch.

However for certain materials, she used independent retailers on Etsy - including an intricate version of her pub's cash till.

Amy has even helped 'celebrate' a birthday in the pub at the request of one of her friends and created doll and cardboard cutout versions of regulars.

She added: "Most of the items in the pub have been made, I just bought a few bits from Etsy to complete it.

"We have put cardboard cutouts of our regulars inside the pub too.

"My daughter said 'do you want this doll to go inside it?' and it looked just like one of our regulars.

"I even helped out with an idea for a friend by putting a group of our regular customers in the pub for a pretend 'birthday party', as if they were here drinking."

Amy said she was shocked to see the reaction of her friends and family on social media as she photographed the progress of her creation.

She added: "The reaction has been amazing since I put it on social media.

"I will put it inside the pub when we can have people back in again, so many have asked to see it.

"I think I will try and put my new skills to use to build a new full size shelf for it to sit on, in a glass box maybe.

"If I was to recreate it again there are things I would do differently but other people don't seem to see it like that.

"I couldn't believe the reaction it has got.

"It has been amazing and I have loved working on it."