So it takes a certain boldness to enter the fray with no hospitality experience but a vision to revive all that is good about the quintessential English pub.

Philip Turner did just that back in 2013 when he decided to save his own local - The Packhorse Inn at Moulton, near Newmarket.

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Accommodation at The Packhorse, Moulton(Image: Lucy Taylor)

It could have been a disaster. Yet somehow it wasn't. The Chestnut Group was born, and within a short time it was growing - strongly.

Philip spent 20 years at senior level in the financial services industry before bringing his experience to bear on an area which he admits was alien territory.

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But his financial acumen turned out to be a skillset that has served him well.

He knew what he liked and loved in pubs. While living in the West Country he was struck with how idyllic some of the hostelries he visited were.

Philip Turner inside The Packhorse(Image: Lucy Taylor)

Back in East Anglia - the place where he grew up - good experiences were harder to find.

"Why did I do what I did? I had spent the majority of my life away from East Anglia and I came back in 2007 and was commuting into London.

"I had always felt that people had overlooked the East as a destination - as a place to live. It was inaccessible other than if you were going to it. It was flat, featureless and full of space," he explains.

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