Pub landlords have confirmed they will call time on their three-decade stint at a 15th-century inn later this year.<\/p>\n
Charles and Tracey Leaver have been pulling pints at The Chequers Inn in Laddingford, Maidstone, for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
Charles and Tracey Leaver of The Chequers Inn, Laddingford. Picture: Andy Jones<\/p>\n
However, with the pub\u2019s lease coming to an end in September, they have \u201ctaken the difficult decision to retire\u201d from running the historic tavern.<\/p>\n
Announcing the news on social media, Tracey joked she was \u201cno longer in the position to tie Charles to the kitchen 12 hours a day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything will stay the same over the summer with events and fun, and the staff are all staying on with us to look after you,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s anyone out there who would like to become the next guardians of this lovely pub, let us know!<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll leave it there for the moment; there\u2019s still another six months.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Chequers Inn pub in Laddingford<\/p>\n
The news has prompted an outpouring of support, with many customers expressing their disappointment at hearing the news.<\/p>\n
Katie Newman wrote: \u201cTo the best bosses ever! You will be missed enormously, but it\u2019s absolutely deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for the wonderful memories and friendships we were able to make, all due to you both running an absolutely awesome community village pub,\u201d said Joanne Hooper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will never be another Chequers like the one you created.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Simmons added: \u201cWe will miss you terribly. We have had so much fun with you over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles Leaver with Katie Newman<\/p>\n
Speaking to KentOnline in 2024 as they celebrated their 30th anniversary at the inn, Tracey admitted their longevity had taken them by surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never thought we were going to be here this long,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought maybe three years, and then we\u2019d move on, but we just liked the village so much, and the people, that we stayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in a 15th-century building, you do realise that you are only the custodians.<\/p>\n
Throughout their tenure, the couple have made it their mission to put the pub at the centre of the village and have come up with no end of ideas for community events that have now become a village tradition in themselves.<\/p>\n
Charles and Tracey Leaver with some of their customers<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the annual Bangers and Beer day, the Train and Transport show (which is on again next month), visits from the Hartley Morris, and Tracey\u2019s favourite – the annual fun veg and flower show.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, there have been a lot of changes over 30 years – the no-smoking ban was perhaps the biggest, and also changes in people\u2019s habits,\u201d said Tracey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat hasn\u2019t changed is the people, who are lovely. We\u2019ve watched children in the village grow up, become shy teenagers, then adults.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pub landlords have confirmed they will call time on their three-decade stint at a 15th-century inn later this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,192,191,1318,50,56,54,55,3045],"class_list":{"0":"post-516926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-kent","13":"tag-maidstone","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-weald"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}