TWO beer-loving teachers have swapped the classroom for a new life – selling their favourite ales.

Married couple Sarah and Darryl Leech, of Darcy Lever, set up their shop Bunbury's in Chorley Old Road to specialise in unusual real ales and craft beers.

The pair will be holding a 'rauch off' on Thursday — a competition between new Horwich microbrewery Drink Up Brewing and Peak District based Torrside Brewing to see which sells best.

They will both be selling rauchbier — a type of German beer with a distinctive smoke flavour made by using malted barley dried over an open flame.

It is currently a very busy time for the couple as Sarah is on maternity leave from her job as an English teacher at Harper Green School looking after their four month old son — as well as already having a three-year-old son.

The shop, which sells 125 different bottled beers and ciders and also has a bar area to allow customers to taste the drinks, was set up in October and has gone from strength to strength.

Sarah, aged 37, said: "Darryl taught maths at Sharples School and he wanted to have a change of career. We are really into going out, but doing something a little bit different and not just going out and getting drunk. We like visiting places and relaxing with a drink, so we wanted to cater for that. We also got really fed up of people saying their's nothing in Bolton to do and doing the town down. We talked about it for a while but we decided to go for it. We have done really well so far."

The shop prides itself on selling a range of quirky, different beers, such as an Estonian beer fermented in cognac and a strong nine per cent stout from a London based brewer, as well as beers brewed closer to home such as those produced by Rivington Brewery Company.

They came up with the name Bunbury's after seeing an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic play The Importance of Being Earnest, an imaginary friend which Algernon pretends to have in order to avoid unwelcome social obligations.

The event starts from 7pm on Thursday, February 4.