Frank Collins took on the family business, the Dog & Partridge in Sowood, West Yorkshire, since he was 68 and, despite turning 97 on Tuesday, he has no desire to retire
Pub landlord Frank Collins has toasted his 97th birthday with a pint or 10 – and reckons he’s the oldest barkeeper in the country.
Frank took on the family business aged 68 when many people are already retired. But he said: “I’ll carry on behind the bar as long as I’m enjoying it. I’m quite happy – at least I’ve always got company.”
Frank’s dad Jack, a prominent local landlord, bought the Dog & Partridge in Sowood, West Yorkshire, in 1955. But in February 1956, a month before it was due to open, Jack died from cancer.
Frank’s mum Mabel stepped in, keeping with the pub’s long line of landladies – Mary Lumb ran the Dog & Partridge before the Collins family. Frank helped around the bar with cellar work in the evenings.
But when Mabel moved into a care home in 1997, the police came calling at the Dog. Frank said: “Inspector Smith said I’d have to find someone to take charge. I said he could do it, since being a police inspector was a part-time job. But he wasn’t having that, so I got the licence. That was in 1998. As far as I know I am the oldest [landlord] in the country. Someone said I might be the oldest in the world.”
Before taking over, alongside helping his mum at the boozer, he was a designer in the textile industry at Pat Martin’s mill in Lindley, Huddersfield, and later as a one-man band making travel rugs and mohair throws.
And he does not regret the career switch. He says: “I am quite happy with it.
“Pub life is all I have known. I used to help my dad when I was about nine. When I was 16 just at the end of the war my parents went to Bridlington for a break and left me in charge.”
Two years ago, the Halifax and Calderdale branch of Camra gave him an award for outstanding service. And last Sunday, Frank celebrated his 97th with a small gathering and a large thirst, saying in anticipation: “First pint is on me – and then the next 10 are on them.”