A VILLAGE pub has been given a new lease of life by a couple who have undergone a career change.Ray and Gill Whiffin have swapped jobs involving huge annual mileages for the attraction of running the Shepherd and Dog in Hollesley.

A VILLAGE pub has been given a new lease of life by a couple who have undergone a career change.

Ray and Gill Whiffin have swapped jobs involving huge annual mileages for the attraction of running the Shepherd and Dog in Hollesley.

The couple are joined by their children, Dan, 20, a student at Durham University, and Nicky, 18, who will read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University.

Mr and Mrs Whiffin took on their first job in the pub trade when they became tenants at the end of July.

Mr Whiffin, 55, was in an information technology support group for a large German software company and driving 30,000 miles a year.

Mrs Whiffin was the UK membership manager for the Chartered Management Institute and she was also spending too much time on the country's motorways.

They did think of buying a tearoom and then they decided that the combination of their skills was suited to a pub. The couple, married for 29 years, knew the area through sailing from Levington.

Mr Whiffin said: “We are trying to make it a community pub which does food - but we do not want to be a food-led pub. Word is getting around that things have changed here.”

Mrs Whiffin, who is the cook, said: “We get all sorts of good comments about the toilets which have been nicely refurbished and we keep them clean because that is especially important when you do food.”