Former landlord of The Flying Fortress in Bury St Edmunds shares his memories of the long-shut pub as Greene King submits reopening plans

When The Flying Fortress welcomes back customers, Keith Allchin will return to raise a glass to the Bury St Edmunds pub he called home for more than 40 years.

For nearly a decade the wings of the Moreton Hall pub have been clipped as the once bustling business has remained boarded up since Keith and his wife Rosemary bid farewell and sold it to Greene King.

Now the brewery, which was waiting for a housing development around the pub to near completion, has submitted plans to spruce up and transform the dilapidated premises.

It could reopen next year and Keith, 75, of Great Barton, hopes the venue will soar as it did when he ran it for about 25 years.

Back then it sat in open countryside and he initially lived at the property, Cherry House Farm, as a farm manager for Henry Gooding.

He later bought the three bedroom home before turning it, in 1988, into the Flying Fortress, which takes its name from the planes that flew from Rougham Airbase during World War Two.

Having already followed his parents into the licensing trade, Keith had been running an outside bar in the area for years.

“I really wanted a home base because as it happens the Government changed the law on outside bars so virtually anybody could do it whereas in the past you had to be a licensee,” he remembers.

“I wanted a guarantee that I still had an income.”

Having tried to gain permission to open a bar in several spots in Bury, he was finally given the go-ahead to convert his home.

“It was a fairly big operation,” said Keith. “We did it in three different phases – new kitchens, new function rooms, an extra bedroom wing.”

Over the years they employed hundreds including young chefs from college and, specialising in carveries, Mothering Sunday was their busiest day, catering for about 300 guests.

At one stage they also sponsored Bury Town Football Club.

Organisations from across Suffolk used their large function room for meetings including the Road Transport Association and the Furniture Movers Association, while there were get-togethers, dinners, dances, jazz club evenings and discos.

“It was a Mecca if you like,” said Keith.

“I wouldn’t say it was the heart of the estate because the estate wasn’t there most of the time. To start with, it was in the middle of the field. It was a beautiful setting.”

But the changing landscape of Bury brought many changes, not least the construction and ‘creeping’ expansion of Moreton Hall which continues to this day.

It now sits at the heart of an under-construction Taylor Wimpey housing development.

“We were officially in Great Barton at one time and then we got put into Rougham and Bury St Edmunds,” said Keith.

“There were an awful lot of people from Great Barton who used to come and people from out of the town and businesses came for meetings.”

Mementoes celebrating the site’s airfield heritage decorated the pub, such as model aeroplanes, photographs and even a machine gun from the airfield – much of which was later donated to Rougham Tower Association.

The pub’s links to the airfield attracted people from across the globe who wanted to rekindle memories of their past.

They included the Lieutenant Governor of Texas and his father, who served at Rougham.

“There was another person who had been driving along the A45 and a Mosquito was coming back from its third bombing raid into Germany,” said Keith.

“He had been shot up and came to Rougham and he landed on the road and nearly crashed into this car. The person (in the car) who got him out of this aeroplane met him years later at the pub.”

Towards the end of their time at the pub, Keith and Rosemary sought permission to turn it back into a home, but were refused.

Keith said the application was a little bit tongue in cheek and wasn’t a serious proposition because the property was worth more as a pub.

The refusal is now on record should an attempt be made to sell the pub for development in the future, he said.

When the couple decided to retire, there were mixed feelings but Keith said they had worked virtually seven days a week for 25 years.

“We decided to wait until Mothering Sunday because we didn’t want to disappoint people,” he said. “We extended it but we could have gone three or four weeks earlier.”

When they left they had already sold the pub to Greene King, but it never reopened.

“I was very, very sad and disappointed that Greene King hadn’t kept it going and I think they missed an opportunity in having a very profitable business,” said Keith.

He said he was pleased the pub would reopen and is interested to see what changes are made to the building.

“I shall go there for a pint,” he said.

As he looks forward to a time when the pub can fly again, Keith’s eyes hover over pictures of the venue’s formative years, transporting him back to their proudest moments.

“We built something from nothing,” he said.

“We did a very good job entertaining and looking after customers and the relationships we had with suppliers and staff.

“Even now we still have regular meetings with staff.

“It brings back very many pleasant memories.

“Even today looking through the photographs of the 25 years, it’s satisfying to know something you’ve done has lasted the years.”