Powys: Man spends 60 years pulling pints behind same bar

[Mash]

John has seen many changes over the decades, including the price of beer and the choice of drinks.
"There was no lager in 1963 - there was [beer from] Ind Coope, Ansells and mild - that was a dark ale - and Whitbread Tankard," John recalled.
"It was all on the pumps and there was a lot of maintenance at that time.
"I had to vent it and maybe some barrels wouldn't be ready for about two weeks.
"But now they come off the truck and they're straight on and they still call it real ale. But I don't think it's real ale like it used to be.
"A pint cost 11 pence when I started, and then it went up to a shilling.

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1963 was the year when the first album by The Beatles was released and JFK was assassinated.
It was also the year that 80-year-old John Williams started pulling pints.
Sixty years later and he's still behind the same bar in the village of Carno, Powys - but has since become the landlord.
"It's a way of life - I enjoy the stories from the customers, and just hearing what they're up to," John said.
"They're good company. I can't imagine doing anything else."

John behind the bar (centre) seeing in the millennium

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John said the spirits "were quite a bit more expensive".
"You didn't want to be in a round with a guy who drank whisky," he said. "I think whisky was two shillings and sixpence."
His pub is called Tŷ Brith.
At least that's the name on the sign outside - but for locals it's known as Carno Club, and John is called JC or 'Johnny Club' by regulars.
Looking back at the village's history, John said he remembered the heyday of the Laura Ashley factory in Carno.
The company employed hundreds of people at its headquarters in the village which grew in the 1960s and 70s.
"Everyone benefitted from Laura Ashley, whether you worked there or not... everyone was making money, a lot of money.
"People were really enjoying themselves. I saw Bernard and Laura Ashley around, but they didn't come in here. They were good with everyone."

Club members would go every year on a trip to Blackpool to stay in the hotel owned by Welsh singing duo Tony and Aloma, who came to sing in Tŷ Brith in 1984.
The club used to have gaming machines, a pool table and a dart board but the big thing, John said, was dominos. The club had two teams that played in a league in the Newtown area.
The biggest change, John said, was that more families come to the bar now.
"When I started the majority were men, and women stayed at home with the children. But it has changed, especially in the last 10 years. Friday night is like a family night out.
"Carno primary school children come with their parents. Apparently, they ask each other in the schoolyard - 'are you going to the club tonight?'
"They call me 'Johnny Five' because they come here at 17:00."
Many pubs have closed in the decades since John started working behind his bar.
Analysis of UK government figures by Altus Group found that almost 400 pubs closed in England and Wales in 2022. Fifty of them were in Wales.
Despite rising costs, John has managed to carry on and still opens his bar every day of the week.

John said his bar's success was down to the strong local community.
"Good customers - that's the best thing, and we've been trying to keep the prices down as far as possible.
"The biggest problem [for other pubs] is that many have to pay rent and have to raise beer prices, more than I do.
"I'm a free house and therefore can choose what I want to sell."
Sixty years on, John said it was too late now for him to do anything else.
"It's not worth me starting another career now!"

BBC News.

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[gaza the instructor]

Back in the days when Beer was Brown mate and all men drank light and bitter
women had half a Lager or a babycham.

[Jennysgin]

Babycham! I've not thought of that for years.
I remember feeling very sophisticated when I was allowed a little babycham for the bells at new year!

[gaza the instructor]

Thats my girl great memories of well fun in my teens, experimenting with wine, women
and song.
Beer was well cheap, under 60 p a pint in 1974, Babycham about 60p a go, Saturday night
down The Duke of Cambridge was accomplished on a tenner and that included fish and
Chips from The Barracuda (to share). Two morning paper rounds and my after school job
paid me £ 31 a week. Gave my mum a Tenner and I mate was rich and self sufficient.
What the hell went wrong???

[Icefever]

Back in the days when Beer was Brown mate and all men drank light and bitter
women had half a Lager or a babycham.

Mate & I would drink a Manns Brown topped with Banks's bitter.....if you think about the "old days " too much it gets too depressing...

Ice.

[gaza the instructor]

Ice, back in the hot summer of '76 before we had global warming. The draymen were on strike,
so no bitter the only draught beer in our pub was that girlie lager. Well this girlie Lager was
Tuborg Gold, it was ice cold smooth and unknown to us 6% so by closing time we were all
hammered. So much for Girlie drinks and a man's best friend "the light & Bitter".

[Icefever]

@Gaza....It's a good job we guys can brew our own....thank the brewing gods for that...

Ice.

[gaza the instructor]

Ohh yeahhh!!

[Icefever]

Ohh yeahhh!!

Perhaps we should form a cult..... The House of ??????

Ice

[gaza the instructor]

Brewing? Beer? or God? No No already been done.

[Mash]

Ice, back in the hot summer of '76 before we had global warming.

Don't get me started on global warming. When I started brewing beer, you needed heat pad even in the summer. You only turned it off for the last week in August.

Yesterday I tested my fridge pump. A chiller coil for the beer. What is the world coming too...

20230618_062152_001.jpg

[gaza the instructor]

Got some Tuborg on the go Mash?

[Mash]

23l of double diamond

[gaza the instructor]

Shame on you Mash. Now go and wash your mouth out with
Watney's Red Barrel.

[buffalobob]

I remember when there used to be tap rooms in most pubs, where old men used to go to get away from their wives and be able to swear and spit in the fire with the other miserable old feckers

[gaza the instructor]

I survived the tap room @ The Ram Brewery Wandsworth twice !!
When Youngs Beer was Young's.
I will have a pint of mixed or a Ram &Special!

[Mash]

Shame on you Mash. Now go and wash your mouth out with
Watney's Red Barrel.

Just putting the recipe together for red barrel.. Next up.

[WelshGin]

Hymmmmm, I have been there.

Also to the Bathams brewery pub, probably several of them. Every time my wife wanted to visit the Merryhill (Hell) shopping centre. I sat there, peacefully minding my own, however, everyone engaged with me, wonderful, great pork pies wrapped like a toffee sweet, mustard on the bar, bloody good ham or cheese rolls, again mustard and pickle or onion/beetroot on the bar.

I never drove home, wasn't capable. I always slept ell in the car, only time whempn my wife was driving.

[Mash]

Strange name for your wife?