The quietly spoken, gentle giant behind the bar at The Fountain Hotel in Liskeard, does not bear any resemblance to the tough, former rugby player, now turned successful coach, that is the other side of well known landlord Chris Hocking.

He runs the busy pub together with his wife Trudi, and no longer a hotel in the correct sense, the large building is instead the family home of the couple and their four children - Sophie (16), Samuel (15), Sebastian (13) and Saskia (8).

Mine Hosts for the last six years, Chris and Trudi are both from local farming stock, Chris being the only son of Colin and Anne Hocking of Tregrills, Menheniot, his sister farming at Tencreek, near Liskeard with husband John Kendall, and Trudi hailing from Botallack at Lerryn, being the daughter of Frank and Dana Bryant. Chris did not want to take on the family farm when his parents retired, and instead opted for the pub, welcoming the help of his dad behind the bar from time to time. Chris chuckles when he says that he made the right choice between beer and beef.

Before his 'conversion' to beer, Chris played for Plymouth Albion, a club he now helps to coach and which he joined at 17, having started out at 13 with the local Liskeard/Looe RFC. He came back later to Liskeard, playing for the first team, but now concentrates on coaching the successful U15s of the Junior Club, having been with the squad since they were minis at U7s. They have only lost the county cup once in all that time, which is double pride for Chris as Sam is a team member, and Sebastian is coming up behind his brother in the U13s squad

Governor

Eldest daughter Sophie, a pupil at Liskeard Community College with her brothers, and where mum Trudi is a governor, likes to report the team matches for the Cornish Times as part of her Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award which she is working towards. Saskia is still at Menheniot Primary School.

Situated at the top of the town's parade, now Liskeard's newly regenerated area, The Fountain Hotel is said to have been built in 1787 when the turnpike roads were being constructed. These helped to improve communications throughout the county and in 1796 the first stagecoach service to run was established by Walter Cross, a Mevagissey smuggler. He saw the possibility of making money out of the enterprise by buying inns in Liskeard, The Fountain being one of them, and also at Torpoint, to service customers who provided a ready market for his contraband.

However, not to be outdone, the local innkeepers got together and organised a stage coach service of their own which was called Princess of Wales. The Fountain is the longest surviving pub in this area of the town, and as well as stage coaches such as the Royal Eclipse Coach in 1819, using its hospitality on the way between Falmouth and Torpoint, it was also used by the slower, but cheaper horse omnibuses.

The first recorded innkeeper was James Lyne in 1830, and throughout its history there have been many since, one being James Alger, who was listed in 1851, 1861, 1878, 1881 and 1883. A retired farmer in the area who is an Alger descendant has a cider flagon engraved "Alger Fountain".

These days the customers tend to arrive on two legs instead of four, and there are many of them, as The Fountain Hotel is "open all hours", from 11am-11pm every day, except Sundays, when it's 12noon-10.30pm. Chris and Trudi employ a large staff of 14 to run the kitchen, from where comes a tasty array of appetising bar meals, and the three bars. There is the large lounge bar, where town meets country every day, and many opinions and jokes are exchanged, the public bar, which houses the pool table and is a popular venue for The Fountain's younger patrons, and the upstairs room which often pulsates to the beat of disco music and local live bands at weekends. In fact The Fountain is a hive of comings and goings all day long and has an appeal to all age groups, Chris and Trudi being proud of its family atmosphere.

Complimentary

Regulars are complimentary about their mine hosts, but even more so about the beer, everyone of them interviewed by the Cornish Times saying saying how good it is. Some of the beer conniseurs explained in great detail that the quality of the drink depends on how the landlord looks after it. But Chris says it is a very simple operation, which is just is down to good housekeeping, in other words 'cleanliness'.

A customer for the last 28 years has been Lawrence Neals from Pensilva who has seen many landlords come and go and says Chris is his favourite so far. 'He's a nice chap, good as gold' he said. 'Everybody here is friendly no matter how busy they are'. In agreement was 'Peter' of Liskeard as he likes to be known, who is becoming slightly famous for his choice of hats. He is at present sporting a tall colourful jester type 'titfer', and says it is all about making people smile. He parted his jacket to also display a yellow tee shirt which proclaimed "The Fountain Barmaids are Gorgeous".

Also enjoying a pint at the bar was Lieut Cmdr (retd) Ian Page, chairman of St Keyne Social Club, who in his other life works for a private company in Taunton, issuing maritime safety information to ships, which involves charting the oceans of the world. 'The beer is good, and it's good value' he said.

He was enjoying a lunchtime drink and chat with Robert Hutley, the chief executive of the Magistrates Courts Service for Devon and Cornwall. With the head office being re-located to Liskeard, Robert and his family are soon hoping to move to Looe where they are having a house built. He began as a trainee in his profession 24 years ago at the magistrates' clerk's office in Liskeard so his career has brought him round full circle. 'The Fountain has become my local again' he said, 'it is my favourite pub in Cornwall'.