West Midlands beer fan who has spent £336k on world's longest pub crawl reaches 25,000th boozer

A West Midlands beer fan who has forked out around £336,0000 drinking on the world's longest pub crawl has celebrated reaching his 25,000th boozer.

Peter Hill, 70, embarked on his epic ale-drinking journey back in 1984 when a pint of lager cost just 64p. He has since spent the last 42 years ticking off as many British pubs as possible all while sinking a whopping 60,000 pints.

Pete used to use an A-Z and the Yellow Pages to find a list of pubs to visit in each town he visited - but says it's now much easier to plan due to Google Maps and pub finder apps.

Pete often travels solo but also hits the road with pals "the Black Country Ale Tairsters", a group formed after they grew tired of drinking in the same local. But each week they still meet in their regular to plan their next boozy adventure, which has seen them travel more than 410,000 miles.

Pete has entered the record books by trawling the length and breadth of the country averaging 11 pubs every week and spending on average around £8,000 a year over the four decades.

He has drank in every pub in the CAMRA guide, every pub in Wales, at least one pub in every British county and has had a pint on 69 islands around the UK. He also holds the Guinness World Record for the Longest Pub Crawl and completed his 25,000th pub on Friday 16 October at the Old Royal Library in Great Malvern, Worcestershire.

Dad-of-two Pete, from West Bromwich, West Midlands, said: "I'll keep on going while I'm still fit and healthy enough. I said I'll keep going while I enjoy it and you can't beat having a beer with your mates in the pub. I'm 70 now so the longer distances are proving a bit more difficult.

"Since finishing all the CAMRA Good Beer Guide pubs, I've just been flitting around the country trying to pick off areas where I can get through a decent number of pubs without travelling too far. But recently we've been to Essex, Grimsby and Yorkshire, so we still get about.

"I tend not to do more than 12 pubs in a day. That's about six pints across the day, and then I've got to get up and do it all again the next morning. Last week, we had a week in Grimsby, so that's quite a lot to have during the week, but I was determined to tick them all off. I still had 58 pubs to do there. It's the nearest seaside town where I could knock a good number off the list.

"I went to visit my daughter in Essex and I had to promise her not to turn it into a pub crawl - but I managed to fit a couple in."

One room of Pete's home is now stacked full of 300 arch-lever files logging every pub and includes pictures, menus and other memorabilia from his travels.

He added: "I drank in a pub in Grimsby last week which I didn't realise until I checked my records I had drank in before. I had it filed under Cleethorpes this time instead of Humberside - and they border each other. So I had to drive to Worcester to find a new pub I hadn't drank in, to get me to 24,999 in time for today.

"My 25,000th pub was a cracking pub, with brilliant company and a great gaffer. We had a tremendous day. I often go on my own but there's a group of around ten of us who still get together. It's a great laugh. The wife comes with me sometimes, but I have to be careful not to turn our trips away and holidays into pub crawls. I'll perhaps fit in one or two when she's about."

The group started out drinking their way through 300 pubs listed on a map handed out by the local Banks brewery in Wolverhampton. After visiting every one they decided to continue, embarking on challenge after challenge to raise money for charities.

Pete said: "I started asking for £1 a pub in 1984 and I still ask for £1 a pub now - we've raised about £36,000. I started for the air ambulance but now raise money for Wiltshire hospitals.

“I keep a record of everything I spend, including diesel, accommodation, food and even beer, so I know exactly what the trips have cost me. But my travelling costs have been much higher than the amount I've raised.

"Since 2019 it cost me around £11,000 a year - but obviously costs were cheaper to start with so I reckon it could be around £8k a year. Sometimes one trip will cost me a few hundred quid just to visit one pub due to the distance so it's hard to say for definite. I'm afraid to add it all up and even more afraid of the wife if I did.

"Back in the 1980s and early 1990s it was a completely different job. I'd have to go to the county town, visit the library, look through Yellow Pages, buy maps, an A-Z and plot every pub myself. Don't forget, pubs used to open from 11am to 2pm and then from 6pm until 10.30pm, so it was much harder to plan routes. These days it's a doddle. You just go on WhatPub, type in the town you're looking for and every pub comes up on a map.

“I still enjoy trying different beers, but some of my favourites remain Abbeydale and Oakham. They've always been among the breweries I look out for."