Jill and Dean Baker say farewell to regulars at the Jolly Brewer pub in Stamford

A couple who ran a town pub for almost 16 years have been toasted by dozens of regulars.

Drinkers at The Jolly Brewer, on the corner of Foundry Road and West Street in Stamford, said goodbye to Jill and Dean Baker on Saturday evening as they called time on their stewardship of the real ale pub.

The farewell was organised by regulars Nick and Liz Harding, who set up a whip-round for people to say ‘thank you’ to the Bakers for their hospitality over the years.

Liz said: “We were able to give them more than £1,700 thanks to the generosity of regulars and occasional visitors to the pub.

“Artist Beach, who designed the current pub sign and the pump clips for their Baker’s Dozen beers, provided a bespoke farewell print which we also presented to them.”

Jill and Dean said the farewell came as a big surprise, with Jill adding that they were “a little bit tearful and overwhelmed”.

The couple set up a microbrewery in Ketton in 2015, and since then Dean has been busy developing the business, which supplies Baker’s Dozen cask beers to pubs across the East Midlands.

“There is a lot of work involved in brewing,” said Jill, “and we have just bought three new pressurised tanks to expand the business. Dean needs an extra pair of hands to bring them into use, and since we felt we had done everything we wanted to do with the Jolly Brewer - building up the team, adding TV screens for sport, and holding small beer festivals - it was time for a new challenge.”

The couple want to double their beer production from 4,000 pints a week to 8,000.