Husband and wife take over Northampton pub

The King Billy in Kingsthorpe village ceased trading with joint tenant Mandy Clare blaming a combination of the smoking ban, high brewery rates and low footfall.

Now landlords Stewart and Sue Neal have taken on the lease, opening for the first time on Wednesday evening.

Sue said: “We came to see it and we fell in love with it. It’s just beautiful.

“Once people know we’re open we know we can do some good business, we have done before.”

Sue and Stewart will have run several pubs before and come to Northampton from Leighton Buzzard.

They will add pub skittles, a pool table and a juke box to the King Billy.

Sue said: “We didn’t come in here to change everything. We’ll be putting on new food and some entertainment but leaving many things that worked the same.

“There’s been a lot of work to do getting things ready.

“But the people who have been in so far have been over the moon that the place is open again.”