Music venue hits right note

A well-known live music and real-ale pub in Buckinghamshire is on the market with Christie & Co. The Fox & Hounds, in the historic town of Stony Stratford, plays host to a renowned annual blues and jazz festival and is a magnet for musicians year-round as well as being a traditional local pub with real ales, pub games and food. It hosts 110 shows a year, attracting musicians and fans from throughout the UK and even from the US. It also hosts the annual Stony Live Festival in June and has been home to the Fox & Hounds Blues & Jazz Festival every July since 1995. The pub has served more than 800 different real ales in nine years. Dishes from around the world are freshly prepared in the pub's kitchen. Proprietor Ken Daniels moved to Stony Stratford from London in 1990 to work as an IT project manager for the Foreign Office at nearby Hanslope Park in Milton Keynes. The Fox & Hounds became his local and he jumped at the chance to run it, firstly as manager in 1993, and then as owner two years later. Being a blues and folk devotee, he introduced live music, as well as real ales and a lunch-time food menu, while retaining the "friendly local" atmosphere with skittles and darts teams. At the age of 58, Daniels is now looking forward to retiring and travelling abroad. The Fox & Hounds features a lounge bar, a public bar with darts area and skittles alley, and a function room. The public bar has a Public Entertainment Licence for 80 people. There is also two-bedroom owner's accommodation, an enclosed rear garden (licensed for occasional outdoor events) and a car park for 15 vehicles. Stony Stratford's High Street was a major staging post in years gone by. Many of the town's inns have an interesting history. The uncrowned Edward V and his younger brother, the famous "Princes in the Tower", were abducted from the former Rose & Crown at the top of the High Street in 1485. Two Stony Stratford inns, the Cock & the Bull, gave rise to the phrase "cock and bull story" as, during the great coaching era, rivalry sprang up between them as to who could pass on the most incredible tales brought in by travellers and then exaggerated. The Fox & Hounds itself dates from 1742 and was originally called the Hare & Hound. It reputedly has its own ghost ­ a headless lady. Christie & Co's Milton Keynes office is seeking £115,000 for the remaining six years of the current lease.