Last orders for ‘Boycie’s’ favourite Midland pub
IT may not be the Nags Head, but the closure of one of his favourite Midland pubs is enough to make Only Fools and Horses’ Boycie choke on his cognac.
News that the famous Air Balloon boozer is to be bulldozed would not be welcomed by the actor who played him.
The pub, in Birdlip, just a few miles from Junction 11a of the M5 served its last pint on New Year’s Eve.
It is being demolished to make way for a new bypass.
One of its biggest fans was the actor John Challis who played pompous second-hand car dealer Boycie in Only Fools And Horses. He lived with his wife Carol Challis in the village of Adforton in Herefordshire and drove past the pub “hundred of times”.
He died in 2021 but his widow Carol voiced her shock that one of their favourite pubs was closing down. She tweeted: “Goodbye to the Air Balloon or the Air ‘alloon as John used to call it after the B fell off one year.
“Finally there is to be a new road but the pub has to be demolished to make way. On our way to London we passed it hundreds of times. Progress? Sad news.”
The Air Balloon dates back to 1784 and gave its name to the roundabout that it is next to. But because of the number of crashes at the spot, a new road layout is planned and the pub is in the way.
The pub is located on a roundabout on the A417 just over the Worcestershire -Gloucestershire border and a short distance from Junction 11A of the M5. The junction is notorious for crashes and hold-ups and regularly features on radio traffic reports. Plans to change the road layout have been mooted for decades and were finally green-lit in November.
A £460m upgrade scheme – called ‘The Missing Link’ – has been approved which will see 3.4 miles of new dual carriageway built.
The pub was named the Air Balloon because the area contained popular launch sites when ballooning was first popularised in England in the 1780s.