HERE’S your chance to run one of the most famous pubs in the country. Because the licensee’s lease on The Old Bull at Inkberrow - as featured in the long running radio soap The Archers - has been put on the market for £89,000. The 17th century black and white property itself is owned by Enterprise Inns and leased to landlords Mike McCarthy and Lyn Fishburn until 2021. Now they have decided to call time and take things easier.

“Times have changed and running a pub is a young person’s game now,” said 60-years-old Mr McCarthy. “I’ve been a landlord for 45 years and it’s time to call it a day. We always said we would give it six years here and that’s coming up soon.

“However, there’s no danger of the pub closing, we’ll keep going until we find someome to take over, because it’s a unique place and we’ve had some great times here. We have achieved what we wanted to achieve and we have always enjoyed the link with The Archers. It is a very traditional pub and we get a lot of tourists taking pictures, they come here because of the BBC soap.

“Everybody falls in love with it and that's exactly what happened to us when we came. I'll be really sorry to go, but I know it's right.

“For me, the highlight of the last six years has been meeting the locals. We've got some lovely villagers and we have people coming in regularly from the tennis club or coming in after a shoot. But I've also really enjoyed meeting all the tourists that come here. We have lots of people visiting us just for our attachment to The Archers. It's not a huge pub, it's a small pub that gets very busy.”

The village of Inkberrow - along with nearby Hanbury - lays claim to being the fictional Ambridge in The Archers, which was devised by Godfrey Beasley, then producer of agricultural programmes for the BBC Midland Region, and first broadcast in 1950.