EVERY day could be Valentine’s Day in The Basketmakers pub.

Owner Blue Dowd has seen romances beginning – and ending – there for 30 years.

And the tins on the wall of the pub in Gloucester Road, Brighton, tell the stories of all the dates, break-ups and make-ups.

Blue, 74, said: “It all started about 25 years ago when a young girl came in and sat by the window waiting for her date.

“After an hour she came up to me and said ‘Blue, I was supposed to be meeting someone, she’s not turned up and I can’t wait any longer. If she comes in looking for me, tell her I left her a note in the tin by the window’.”

Her date never appeared, but the idea of leaving notes in tins was born.

They include everything from misspelled drunken limericks to declarations of love.

Blue said: “One couple came here on a first date years ago. Unbeknown to her, he wrote her a note asking her to marry him and put it in a tin.

“Years later he contacted us and told us they’d been married almost a year.

“He wondered if there was any chance his drunken proposal note was still in the tin. We invited him to come in and have a look.

“He found it and had it framed for their first wedding anniversary. There’s magic in those old tins.”

Blue first started putting the tins up when he needed something to cover up the old fireplace.

He said: “I had a few kicking about at home so nailed them up. Within weeks, customers began donating them,and now the walls are full.”

Blue’s son Joe Dowd, 27, manages the pub.

Asked what makes The Basketmakers so special he said: “Well, I met my beautiful fiancée outside in the summer, that makes it pretty amazing for me.

“We serve an award-winning selection of ales, more than 100 malt whiskeys and ten different gins. All our food is homemade, our pies are legendary. We are a traditional pub.

“People come here to catch up with their friends, meet new people and soak up the friendly atmosphere.

“Maybe it’s those things together that make it so special.”

Blue said the magic of the pub helped him meet and fall in love with his wife Marion after 30 years.

He said: “Marion and I used to date when I worked in London back in 1982.

“We parted ways and didn’t meet again until 2009.

“When I saw her again, she looked as gorgeous as ever.

“We picked up where we left off. It was as if we’d never been apart.”