Black Country man on mammoth pub crawl visits 21,000th boozer
A Black Country pub enthusiast is celebrating stopping off at an incredible 21,000 boozers over an astonishing 35-year journey.
Peter Hill started a charity pub crawl back in 1984 when Banks's Brewery released a map of 300 pubs.
Yet since then, he said it had 'slightly spiralled out of control' having visited thousands of taverns across the entire UK.
Part of the Black Country Ale Tairsters, father-of-two Peter is the only member to have visited the full 21,000 - but is often joined by fellow members on his travels.
During each visit he collects a menu, makes a note of the decor, gets a book signed by the landlord, and asks them for £1 for charity. He then files away the information in what has now become 204 lever arch files, in his home.
Peter, age 62, said: "I've taken about 80,000 photos, collected menus, postcards - they're all at home on my shelves. They're spilling out the one room though and starting on the landing now."
Asked how he feels to have reached such a milestone - with the 21,000th pub being the White Rabbit in Bilston - he joked: "Well, every thousand pubs is another 10 lever arch files I've got to make.
"I've done 308,000 miles round the UK - I love it, absolutely love it."
Peter has raised £30,000 for charity just by collecting £1 from the landlord each time he visits a new pub.
"It costs me all my money, this project," he added. "We used to just take a plastic bag and sleep outside the pub or in a field but ever since the Sun brought out the £9.50 holidays I do that instead.
"People call me Mr Sun Holidays as I've had 105 so far. It gets me somewhere to sleep at least! My next one is in March down in Devon. I do it every weekend, I never miss one."
The retired engineer lives in West Bromwich with partner Dawn Taylor, who he admitted 'doesn't drink'.
"She might occassionally come with me - she'll go round the town or city and I'll go to the pubs and then we'll meet up for tea and stay in a hotel," he said.
His two children get involved too - 25-year-old Jodee recently drove her father to a pub in Northern Ireland and son Wade, age 27, drove him to Kent.
"I love unusual pubs. The beer is not my hobby. My hobby is pubs. I just love finding new places."
