Time, gentlemen please, to show respect for an ancient alehouse

Last orders: Locals prepare to fight any attempt to modernise Cotswolds pub unchanged for generations

RICHARD SMITH

Real ale enthusiasts are campaigning to save one of England's most old-fashioned pubs following the death of the owner, Ivy Ruck.

Five Mile House in the Cotswold village of Duntisbourne Abbots (population 300) is unchanged from when Miss Ruck's parents took it over in 1930.

Beer is still served from three barrels which rest on rails behind the bar, and the wooden bench seats, tables and settles in the snug have been in place for generations.

These fixtures and fittings form part of the 17th century pub's Grade II listed status. But the former coaching inn has remained closed since Miss Ruck, 70, died in February, and her family have now put it on sale for pounds 160,000.

Some regulars are striving to form a syndicate to buy the pub and keep it intact - amid fears that an outside buyer will modernise it or convert it into a five-bedroom house.

One regular, Bill Watkins, a retired businessman, said: "The Chelsea set and weekenders in the village didn't use the pub but the real locals did and I would love to see it preserved.

"The atmosphere was super - if you went in and told Ivy you were hungry, she would tell you to go home and come back later. The only food she served was some rather ancient pickled eggs.

"There were no jukeboxes or fruit machines and definitely no music - good God, that would have been sacrilege.

"One of the regulars would carry a barrel up from the cellar and Ivy used to give me the keys to choose a bottle of wine from downstairs. There was a special key for the whisky."

Miss Ruck became landlady when her mother, Eve, died in 1982. Apart from a weekly shopping trip to Cirencester, she hardly left the premises, and served alone behind the tiny bar seven days a week.

The Campaign for Real Ale describes Five Mile House as "a gem, a time capsule from an age when a pub was less a business and more a way of life".

Miss Ruck's brother, Maurice, 68, grew up there and helped Ivy in the cellar. Now he and his sister, Mrs Audrey Howse, have decided to sell up. "I still remember the days when farm labourers were only allowed in the tap room and the farmers drank in the bar," said Mr Ruck, who still lives in the village.

"The pub has never been altered - my parents left everything exactly the way it was. Ivy was exactly the same.The pub meant everything to her, it was her life. It's certainly going to be a wrench turning the key for the last time, and I hope it will remain a pub."

The estate agent, Peter Chambers, said 10 potential buyers - including a brewery and a businessman - had viewed the property since it came on the market a fortnight ago, and several had said they wanted to keep it as a pub.