The King's Arms landlord celebrates 20 years behind the bar

Richard Baulu, affectionately referred to as Barney by locals, has been running Wadworth owned pub The King’s Arms, in the village of All Cannings near Devizes, since 2003.

To commemorate the landmark, around 500 people took part in a birthday celebration at the pub, on June 17, featuring 34 cakes baked by villagers.

“It was a wonderful celebration and I was very touched by people’s kindness in coming along”, said Barney.

“I was surprised that so many attended, I thought we’d have a few but not that many. Some came from as far as London and Liverpool.”

During the event Barney pulled what was estimated to be his 1,000,000th pint at the pub, a 6X of which Paul Swann, from the Wirral, was the lucky recipient.

Barney was also presented with a commemorative plaque, by Wadworth chairman Charles Bartholomew, to mark the occasion.

Celebratory events for revellers included limbo dancing, a yard of ale competition, hoopla, wet sponge throwing and a game of ‘pin the crown on Barney’.

As well as transforming The King’s Arms into a popular dining pub over the last 20 years, Barney has also endeared himself to the community through his generosity.

He has raised thousands for the village’s primary school, pre-school and other community organisations.

Barney also helped raise £202,000 of donations for cancer charities by staging an annual concert in the beer garden since 2012, which has been supported by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Bob Geldof.

Barney with Paul Swann after pulling his 1,000,000th pint (Image: Jill Newton)

The gigs saw appearances from Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, Midge Ure and Billy Ocean, among others.

The money raised from the concerts paid for multiple community initiatives including a defibrillator, equipment for the village cricket club and repairs to the church and village hall.

Co-organiser and resident Simon Collier said: “Every part of the All Cannings community has benefitted from Barney’s generosity over the last 20 years and so we all wanted to say thank you with this party.

“It coincided with The King’s official birthday, but we also celebrated another king, Barney, our king of The King’s.”

The day was topped off by a letter from Buckingham Palace after organisers secretly wrote to King Charles to tell him of Barney’s achievements.

The palace replied with a Coronation card as a souvenir for Barney.