Penryn landlady celebrates 20 years behind the bar

Angie Parfitt, proprietor of the Famous Barrel in St Thomas Street, passes the two decade mark on the first of the month, and on Saturday, October 4 will be celebrating with regulars and former patrons.

She said: “I never thought I’d do it really, I never dreamed I would.

“I’m throwing a party to celebrate and I want to ask all my locals and people from the past who don’t come in any more.

“It’s a local pub, with lots of nice locals, but as the years have gone by people have moved away.

“Some have been here as long as me. There are some lovely ones that have died, “People get married, or have children, or move house, and they don’t come out much. They say they will still come in but you don’t see them.”

Angie moved to Penryn from Leicester almost thirty years ago, and said her age is a closely guarded secret: “Even my customers don’t know.”

She took over the pub after working as a seamstress repairing clothes at the old Budock Hospital. She finished her shift one day, and the very same evening she was behind the bar pulling pints The pub has changed little during her tenure: it had been refitted ten years before she arrived by the previous owner, who cleared out the little rooms in favour of a large open space and fitted the pub’s curious barrel-shaped doorway.

She said she has seen a few changes in her time. “The main change,” she said, “is that the beer has gone up so much.”

“When the smoking ban came in I thought it would put me under, but it didn’t. It came in in July and everyone came outside and quite enjoyed it. Until the winter came. Lots of pubs have gone, the Three Tuns, which is now the Thirsty Scholar. The Cross Keys has gone, which was my main rival; years ago I shared a lot of my custom with them.

“It’s the locals that have kept me going, I can almost say that on one day so-and-so will come in. And I get students too, they’re my little extras, along with the holidaymakers that find me, because I’m a bit hidden.”