A NINETY-YEAR-OLD took a trip down memory lane when he visited the pub he lived in as a boy, for the first time in more than 50 years.

Edwin Gillman moved with his parents to the Twelve Bells in Lewis Lane, Cirencester, in 1938. At that time, as Mr Gillman was just coming into adolescence, the pub had no running water, no inside toilet and didn’t serve food. Perhaps most surprising, the pub had its own rifle range.

Mr Gillman lived with his landlord parents Victor and Phoebe, until he married Beryl Davis in 1955, and moved to Tetbury.

Amazingly, Mr Gillman had not visited the pub since his father died in 1963.

“It used to all be Symonds beer from Bristol but they brew their own beer there now. I don’t like a lot of beer though so that didn’t matter too much to me,” he said.

“Until after the war we had no running water, just a pump outside in the yard. We had some good times there back in the day. Pubs are all very different these days though, we didn’t use to serve food but these days people won’t come in unless you serve meals.”

A lot can change over 50 years, and the Twelve Bells is no exception. Structural changes made parts of the pub unrecognisable, but much of the building retains its old charm.

Circumstances prevented Mr Gillman from celebrating his 90th birthday in September but his family gathered at the pub in January to enjoy the first time Mr Gillman had seen his old stomping ground since the early ‘60s.

Mr and Mrs Gillman, still happily married, had lunch with their children Julia, Geoffrey and Catherine; two of their four grandchildren, James and Elsa; and their son’s and daughter’s spouses.

Mr Gillman said: “It was really lovely to have the whole family together.”