We have a williams bon chretien pear tree that my brother bought for us from Crocus not long after we first moved in (I think). It's trained in a double-U cordon shape, which makes it strongly vertical. It just happens to be a good fit for the spot between our front door and the living room window, although I have to give it some canes as support against the wind. It's growing in a large half-barrel, and up until this year it produced masses of flowers every Spring, then lost all of the developing fruit.
(That's an old photo before I realised it needed support! It's taller now.)
This year I changed tactic with the watering, and started giving it an entire watering can to itself. Lots more than in the past. And what do you know? I got a lot of pears this year.
(That's one of Clarkie's photos.)
I got some advice off a friend, who said that when the first one fell off I should harvest all of them and keep most of them somewhere cool to stop them ripening too quickly. I've been keeping them in the fridge and just ripening a few on the windowledge as I need. They are tasty and very juicy, and I've still got a load to go!