A WETHERSPOONS history buff has collected a record 926 menus by travelling to all of the chain’s pubs across the country.
Stan Hartley, 65, spent more than eight years on his pilgrimage to the boozers – averaging at 116 a year – and wanted to keep the price lists for the summary of each pub's history on the front.
He went to most of them with wife Sue, 65, as they enjoyed various trips away, visiting as many as 20 Spoons in one day.
But it took time to win her round to the “daft idea” and she would ask him: “Why does everything have to involve a bloomin' Wetherspoons?”
It is believed Stan has the biggest collection of Wetherspoon pub menus. But his huge stash also shows how inflation has taken its toll on the price of a pint at the budget pub giant.
The first pub he collected a menu from was The Railway Hotel in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, around 2015. It shows a pint of Carling was £2.75 – 79p cheaper than it is today.
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A £3.15 pint of Heineken has also risen 33 per cent and is now £4.18. And a cocktail pitcher has gone from £5.75 to £8.22 – up by a whopping 43 per cent.
He collected his 926th menu at The Stargazer in London’s The O2, shortly after it opened late last month.
Most menus have a paragraph on the front detailing the history of each building, some of which are former opera houses, police stations, cinemas and courtrooms.
Stan said: "The reason I started collecting them was for the pub history on the front and for proof I visited them.
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"My wife thought it was a daft idea. She said ‘what are going to do with them all? Where are you going to put them?’.
"I’ve had to keep them all out of sight so put them away in a folder in the cupboard. They’re not in order. I haven’t got round to that.
"They’re just collecting dust as I moved them out of the way.
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"I would get a list out of where I was going and try to cross the pubs off in that day.
"There was nothing more annoying that realising you missed one, which happened a couple of times in the early days."
Other times he would go with his bus driver mate Graeme Tong, 63, who would help plan out which pubs to go to near bus stops so they could have a drink too.
He has filed the menus away across a huge stash of folders which he keeps in a cupboard at his home in Blackpool, Lancashire.
There are currently 852 Wetherspoons pubs open in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but Stan’s collections began before many shut down and others opened up.
Stan added: "It's been a good adventure."
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “ We salute Mr Hartley.
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“It’s wonderful that he has visited all of the Wetherspoon pubs and we truly appreciate the effort this has taken.
“The menu collection is obviously a great reminder of all of his visits to Wetherspoon pubs over the years.”
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