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Your Host
...
... at The Fox Inn
is Peter Kidd - with a lot of uncredited help
 from his wife, Jenny.
"The
Fox Inn has been a part of my life for over fifteen years now, although I only
bought the pub from the previous landlord,
Larry Hammans, in March
2004.
"My first
visit to the pub was in 1992, when I was living at Milton Heights at the
top of Steventon Hill - easy
walking distance at 7.30 in the evening, not-so-easy at 11pm!
Within weeks, Larry had recruited me to work behind the bar, and for
six years I served beer to the Fox customers little knowing that one day
I would be hiring bar staff for the Fox myself.
"I came
into the world on Sunday 27 August 1961, born at the Radcliffe hospital
in Oxford. My mother, Kim, breast-fed me - I always preferred
draft to bottles! - while my father, Ken, was out at work earning a
crust as a parachute training instructor in the Royal Air Force.
It's a small world; now, years later, many of his ex-colleagues are
customers at The Fox.
"Quickly
skipping over a very modest performance at John Mason School in
Abingdon, I worked variously as a barman at The Nags Head pub built on
an island in the River Thames at Abingdon, bar manager at The Upper
Reaches Hotel, also on the Thames in Abingdon, assistant manager at The Caversham Bridge Hotel on the Thames in Reading, and as manager of a
wine bar in Reading, the wine bar built -
 you guessed it - on an island
in the River Thames. It seems I like to take a little water with
it!
"I left the
licensed trade in 1986 when I joined the
United Kingdom Atomic Energy
Authority at Harwell. Working in the IT department, I rose through
help desk, customer support and PC support management, ending my career
as the Authority's IT project manager responsible for the deployment of new
computer hardware and software systems at six sites in England and
Scotland. For the last four years of my IT career I worked at the
Authority's
Dounreay site on
the very north coast of Scotland, and made
many visits back to
Harwell - and many visits and overnight stays at The Fox Inn.
"After 18
years with UKAEA I mortgaged my life away and bought The Fox.
I hope that my years in hotel management and my
many experiences as a customer at The Fox mean I understand what makes a
good pub and what can make The Fox
great. If I have an aim for The Fox, it is to make it the
most popular pub within five miles of
Harwell International Business Centre
and
Milton Park. From what I
have been told so far, we are well on
the way to meeting that aim, and the fact
 that we were named
Best
Newcomer for the Central region in 2006 only confirms that
the team I have here at The Fox is one of the best around.
"In May 2007 I
married Jenny Burton, who now refers to the main bar as her
front room, and woe betide anyone who drops crumbs on her
front room carpet!
"In my spare
time (cue the sound of hysterical laughter!) my interests
are films and the history of American cinema, reading and
writing fiction, and playing cricket and golf.
"That's a
bit about me; I'm looking forward learning a little bit about you at the bar.
"Cheers!"
Peter
Kidd
Landlord, The Fox Inn
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