There was standing room only as drinkers packed into a village pub to watch Peter Clifton pull his final pint. After more than 50 years behind the bar, the 85-year-old and wife Patricia have decided to call time and enjoy a well-earned rest.

But while punters crammed in to toast the popular couple at Quadring’s White Hart Inn for one last time on Monday (April 8), the afternoon session was a bittersweet one for regulars as the landlord’s retirement also means they will no-longer have a village pub. “I’ll be sad to stop, but I just can’t do it anymore,” explained Peter, who has chalked up 57 years in the trade, but says illness has left him with ‘no energy’ for bar work anymore. “This is the best pub I’ve had, everyone’s very friendly here. “I’ve enjoyed the pubs, you always have a bit of company. And the people of Quadring are lovely people, they’ll always help me. “I’ve done my whack, I’m about knackered really.”

Peter - well known for his ‘Clifton cobs’ - cheese and red onion rolls that would appear in the bar to feed hungry punters - is looking forward to taking life easy at the Town Drove pub he will still call home. Peter joked he’s gradually moved ‘towards the sea’ after beginning life in the trade in Loughborough, then moving on to pubs in Wymeswold and The Horseshoe at Oakham. A move to Quadring followed 27 years ago, spending five years running the Red Cow before moving round the corner to the White Hart.

The greatest change to the pub scene Peter has noticed over the past five decades has to be the decline of hostelries. The Horseshoe is now a Co-op and the neighbouring Red Cow a curry house, just one of a number of changes locally, which included Gosberton Risegate’s Black Horse closing its doors on April 1. “When we came here these three villages - Quadring, Donington and Gosberton, including the Risegate - there were 13 pubs open,” said Peter, who always preferred a brandy and tonic over a pint. “Last week there were three open, the Black Bull at Donington, the Black Horse at Risegate and us. “Now there’s just one.”

While Peter and Patricia prepare to take life a little easier, a question mark looms over the long-term future of the White Hart. "Whether someone wants to come and buy the pub, I don’t know, because wet pubs are not selling,” he lamented.

While drinkers’ venues may not be as packed as they used to be, that certainly wasn’t the case for the Quadring publicans’ final week at the pumps. “It’s been busy all week, like it used to be in the old days,” Peter said. “It’s been really nice to see. The regulars all know each other, all get on with one another and they’re a good crowd of people. “I think lockdown changed it for a lot of pubs. People were used to doing their shopping and getting a box of Carling or a bottle of wine. That’s knackered pubs up a bit, I think.”

As well as the many cards from well wishers, the departing duo were also presented with a bronze stag – which spent Monday taking pride of place on the pub’s hearth - to signify their 22 years at the White Hart.

“He’s an excellent landlord, always welcoming” said Nick Chadburn, who has been drinking in the pub for more than half a century, ever since his dad dipped his dummy in a pint of Guinness as a two-year-old. “I had my first legal drink here as a 12-year-old when I was allowed a shandy and I’ve been drinking here all my life. My family have grown up coming here. “It’s a very emotional day for me.”

Nick, a self-employed window cleaner, prided himself on working seven days a week until he decided to give himself Monday afternoons off to join the self-titled Old Farts Club.

For more than a decade, elder drinkers from the area have congregated at the White Hart once a week for a good old get-together. “It doesn’t matter if there’s six of us or 30 of us, we always have a great time,” Nick added. Thankfully, the club will continue after being invited to congregate at the Curry Inn, formerly Peter’s Red Cow, at their usual weekly time. But for many punters, the closure of the White Hart has left them lamenting the loss of their only watering hole.