A beer enthusiast has completed the world's longest pub crawl, spending an estimated £336,000 across 25,000 venues. Peter Hill, 70, began his mission in 1984, when a pint of lager cost 64p, and has spent 42 years visiting as many UK pubs as possible, consuming around 60,000 pints.
From A-Z to apps
Hill, from West Bromwich, West Midlands, used to rely on A-Z maps and the Yellow Pages to find pubs in each town, but now uses Google Maps and pub finder apps. He often travels alone but also goes with friends from the 'Black Country Ale Tairsters', a group formed after they grew tired of drinking in the same local.
The group still meets weekly in their regular pub to plan trips, which have covered more than 410,000 miles. Hill has entered the record books by averaging 11 pubs every week and spending around £8,000 a year over four decades.
Record-breaking achievement
He has visited every pub in the CAMRA Good Beer 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 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.
Hill 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.'
Charity fundraising
The group began by drinking through 300 pubs on a map from Banks brewery in Wolverhampton, then continued with challenges to raise money for charities. Hill has raised about £36,000, asking for £1 per pub since 1984, initially for the air ambulance and now for Wiltshire hospitals.
He keeps records of all spending, including diesel, accommodation, food and beer, and estimates costs at around £11,000 a year since 2019, though earlier years were cheaper. One room of his home is filled with 300 arch-lever files logging every pub, including pictures, menus and memorabilia.
Hill added: '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.'
