Woman drinks at more than 600 Red Lion pubs

Personal trainer Cathy Price started her pub crawl back in April 2011 after learning that Red Lion was the most common pub name and has visited 656 pubs along the way.

Price said: "It has taken me to 656 places most of which I would never have gone or thought about going, beautiful English villages, the valleys in Wales which has over 50 Red Lions and as far north as the Scottish highlands and everywhere in between.I counted the other day and there are 37 on the coast."

The pub crawl also gave Price a unique insight in to the UK pub industry.

"I have noticed how the recession has hit the trade hard and how thankfully and all too late laws are slowly changing to stop a pub being bought one day and demolished the next.

They are our British heritage and I have been in Red Lions as old as 1173.I have seen more community run pubs like the very first one which is Red Lion Preston, Hitchin since 1983.

I have noticed how badly run some pubs are and little or no effort would be needed to improve them. I could sense some which would inevitably close for that  reason. I have managed a function suite in a hotel so I can’t believe the indifference and sloppiness of some. On the other hand, I have seen many more marvellous Red Lions. I chose my final one for the fact that it is also a community owned pub for just over a year now and their enthusiasm about being my final one was brilliant."

She finished the mammoth journey, which took four-and-a-half years and 90,000 miles, at the Red Lion Northmoor. The journey is set to be turned into a book and Price admits that she will miss the quest.

"I feel very odd at the moment because it has been my life for 4 and a half years and when I have not actually been Red Lioning I have been plotting them or writing up my notes or checking opening times!"

The Red Lion mission has now gone global as Price has visited 11 Red Lions overseas, including ones in Australia, Dubai and New York.