Community is everything for the Taylors at this village pub

N 21 years, this week, of writing this column I've met any number of hugely dedicated and enthusiastic people giving their all to make their pubs work.

- COLSTON CRAWFORD

And as I’ve written often, there is a greater variety of licensed premises now than when I started, as people find new ways of working and diversify in these difficult times.

There is still something very special and vital, though, in a traditional pub rooted in its community and I've just popped back, seven years after my last visit, to catch up with Kevin and Lesley Taylor, who run one of the finest I know, the Admiral Rodney, at Hartshorne.

The Taylors are in their 10th year now at the Rodney, which is a good stint in a tied, tenanted pub, and they're starting to negotiate their next five-year lease.

Kevin is 65, Lesley “a few years behind me,” he says, and they have no intention of stopping just yet. They both look a good bit younger.

They love what they do and love pubs, often heading off to seek out good ones in their campervan when they have time off.

Recently, they have found, not that it was doubted, that it pays to have the customers on your side.

Kevin had a hip replacement - he’s waiting for a second one - and Lesley fell off her bike and broke her wrist.

It made things tricky for a while but customers rallied round with big jobs like getting casks into the cellar. You do reap what you sow.

At one point, when Lesley was trying to rush back to work too quickly, she was told very firmly to sit down and take it easy by one of the regulars.