GIRL power is alive and well and coming to you from a canalside pub on Wern Road in Sebastop-ol, Pontypool.

Leaseholder Emma Bennett has increased turnover at the The Open Hearth by 20 per cent, won a silver award from real ale brewer Greene King - and brought up her baby daughter single-handed after the collapse of her marriage.

She's backed up by an all-woman team of 15 full and part-timers. But because the pub's offerings includes nine real ales, I predictably fell into the trap of asking who did the cellar work.

Laughing, Ms Bennet said: "That's every man's first question! "You all think that, secretly, downstairs, there's a huge bloke throwing barrels around.

"But I do it myself and I've trained some of my staff to do it as well." This self-reliance ex-tends to the kitchen where Ms Bennett shares the cooking with Jane Sparkes.

Both women are self-taught and put on an ambitious menu featuring homemade curries, stir-fries, vegetarian, fish, and scores of dishes based on cuts of beef, pork, lamb and chicken.

"We also offer some more unusual options including ostrich, crocodile and kangaroo."

Hungry diners come in all shapes and sizes and the pub caters for both ends of the spectrum.

If Elvis is reading this, he might be attracted by the Mighty Bites menu ('Eat the lot and get a certificate').

Dishes include a 32-ounce steak with all the trimmings, or a half roast chicken with a full rack of ribs. Priscilla Presley, on the other hand, might be more attracted by the Slimming World menu.

"These are regular dishes but cooked in slimmer-friendly way."

This formula (plus hard work, no doubt) did the trick for Ms Bennett who has lost six stone over the last 12 months.

This inspiring business is an example of a young woman coming back to her roots.

Ms Bennett grew up a stone's throw away on Stafford Road. She studied business and finance at the University of Glamorgan and earned her spending money as a barmaid in Newport's pubs and clubs.

"One place I worked, called Arcades, was a Whitbread house and I worked as relief manager when the boss needed a holiday.

"Through doing this I got to know Whitbread and the company offered me a place on its training programme."

This was the start of a seven-year odyssey in the Whitbread pub estate with postings to Weston-super-Mare, the Cotswolds, Ave-bury, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cheshire plain.

At 21 she took on her first managership at the Horse and Hound at Broadway near Evesham.

The responsibility didn't faze her.

"After working part-time for so long as a student it came quite naturally to me."

She also won an award for running the most profitable pub in the Whitbread estate: The Coach House at Weston.

"This is a seven-day a week job, and incredibly hard work, but it seems to suit my personality.

"And because I'm prepared to tackle everything there's plenty of variety." Since taking over The Open Hearth she has pushed the business more in the direction of being a community pub.

It has become a popular venue for wedding receptions, it hosts the Round Table and other committees, and in the summer has a programme of activities including beer festivals.

"I had over 50 beers at our festival last September and trying to arrange for them all to be delivered at the same time and have time to settle was a nightmare.

"There were barrels everywhere, thousands of pounds worth of beer, and I was really worried they wouldn't sell."

But no chance of that, her thirsty clientele polished off the lot. Drinkers were serenaded by a local scratch band, and everyone enjoyed it so much they can't wait for the next one.

The Open Hearth building has grown over the years, but the original bit (on the footpath of the beautiful Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal) is grade II-listed.

It probably dates from the 1820s and was once known as The Railway. Local legend suggests the name Open Hearth came from the furnace at nearby Panteg Steelworks.

"They say that women would take jugs of beer from here to quench the thirsts of their men working at the steelworks."

It's nice to see that women are still pouring ale at The Open Hearth and with such an appreciative audience on tap they look likely to be doing so for some time to come.