'I've been to 12,000 pubs and I'm not done yet'

Rob Cocker, 73, has visited 12,000 pubs in 55 years

When Rob Cocker was just 18 he had already decided his local pub was boring - so he soon decided there was no better way to get a new perspective than visiting other hostelries, just to have a "quick half pint".

Little did he know that 55 years later, he would be sat drinking a pint in his 12,000th.

His epic drinking journey has now seen him travel from his Stoke-on-Trent home right across the UK, from Argyll and Bute to Cornwall, to visit as many watering holes as possible, to “see what’s out there”.

Number 12,000 on the list was Costello’s Bar in Warrington, but Mr Cocker, now 73, says he is not done yet.

“I think there are 4,500 pubs in the Good Beer Guide and I’ve only done 1,800 of them,” he told BBC Radio Stoke.

Mr Cocker, of Penkhull, said he started drinking when he was a “young lad” and would often join his friends for three or four pints.

“But I got a bit bored and thought I’d just nip off to some other pubs and have a quick half to see what’s out there,” he said.

“Obviously going to more and more places, you meet more and more people.”

Rob Cocker started recording the pubs he visited when he was 18 years old

He said he would write down the names of the pubs he had been to on the back of a cigarette packet, later transferring them into a diary.

But it was not until about 2004 or 2005 when he began to trawl through the diary and collate his records.

Mr Cocker said his wife lets him “get on with it”, revealing they are both members of the Campaign For Real Ale (Camra).

“She’s been to 3,000 pubs as well, so she’s pretty well-travelled herself,” he said.

Asked if he had a favourite drinking hole in Staffordshire, he said: “We’ve got a lot of good pubs locally and I really wouldn’t like to say which is the best.

"There are a lot of pubs I like.”