‘My mum was a barmaid. I was raised on Bacon Fries!’ - readers on the pub that changed them

From 80s punk hangouts to celebrity hotspots to good old community boozers, readers reveal their much-loved locals

I started working at the Windmill in the Surrey Hills when I was 14 and the landlord, Cecil Baber Brendan Holland – Dutch to the locals – became my second father. My second son’s second name is Brendan, after him. Several photographers, entrepreneurs, sportspeople and musicians lived in the area – Eric Clapton’s house was just around the corner. Although I never quite got over answering the phone to someone asking for Mick and I made the mistake of asking “Mick who?”

The champagne lock-ins were legendary but not limited to the rich and famous. Plumbers and painters and the local bobby shared the bar with industrialists and faces. There weren’t many fights, but when it did kick off, Dutch would change from gentleman to street fighter. But I never saw him throw a punch – he never needed to. I watched him bar Oliver Reed one afternoon: he had a reputation for picking fights. They shook hands and Oliver left. Twenty-five years after it closed, Carol – one of the cooks – held a reunion party. We were all there, including Eric, the developers, the industrialists, the plumbers and painters. But Dutch was dead, so the magic was just a memory. Dutch had previously run the White Horse in Shere – the pub featured in The Holiday. If you want to feel the Windmill, watch the pub in that film. It burned down a few years ago and it’s right that it did. The Windmill belongs to a place before. Ben Darlington, 63, Maidstone, Kent