Portishead landlord celebrates 50 years with letter from the King

Vic Long and his customers celebrated 50 years of The Ship on 8 November

A pub landlord has received a letter from King Charles III to celebrate 50 years of pulling pints behind the bar.

Vic Long runs The Ship pub in Portishead, North Somerset.

On 8 November, the pub marked its 50th anniversary and hosted a big celebration to mark the milestone. It was during the celebrations that Mr Long learned of the letter.

"I expect we'll have it framed and put it on the wall," Mr Long said.

The 80-year-old is believed to be one of the oldest serving landlords in the UK.

To celebrate his efforts, Jonathan Jones, a regular customer at The Ship, wrote to the King who responded on 30 October.

A regular customer wrote to the King on behalf of Mr Long, the reply incorrectly refers to 1953, it should read 1973

The letter was kept secret until the end of the anniversary celebrations, where it was left waiting for Mr Long on the bar.

Mr Long said: "I'm still getting over the shock of it."

"Good job I got it at the end, if I had [the letter] at the beginning I would have been speechless for the rest of the night."

"A lot has changed over the years. Characters come and go," he said.

"We've been successful and survived, unfortunately a lot of pubs haven't."

Despite working for 50 years, Mr Long said he has no intentions to retire anytime soon.

He hopes The Ship will still be standing in another 50 years, perhaps with people sitting at the bar pointing out his picture.

"As long as people remember me I'll be happy," said Mr Long.

"Having a pint and saying 'did you know the old landlord who ran this place?' I like the idea of that," he said.

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