FROM bank to bar – Robert Smith’s career has straddled the very different worlds of City finance and village local.

Robert and his wife Susan took over the Shepherd and Dog pub in September.

The hostelry has been a landmark at the top of Crays Hill, the village just outside Basildon, for centuries.

Robert, 52, had spent the whole of his previous career working for NatWest in the City. He rose to a senior managerial position.

He says: “To be honest, I was ready for a change and was quietly glad when I was paid off early.”

Robert and Susan had no particular plans to go into the licensed trade. Yet now they have found a vocation and a mission.

Susan says: “We were simply customers at the Shepherd. We were living in Wickford and coming to the Shepherd and Dog for the quiz nights.

“We liked the atmosphere at the pub, the sense of a proper village local. Then the pub came on the market.”

The Shepherd and Dog had been a community pub throughout its history, but it now risked losing that character forever.

Robert says: “Too many traditional pubs have been converted into restaurants, or just closed altogether. We wanted to preserve and build on all the good things at the Shepherd.”

There was another consideration.

Robert and Susan’s sons were both working in the pub industry, Michael, as a chef, and Ian as a bar manager.

Susan says: “Ian and Michael have both worked in the industry long enough to know they want to make their careers in pubs.

“The Shepherd and Dog is an investment in our boys’ future.”

Robert and Susan say they have made the transition smoothly.

Robert says: “We did a course with the brewery and we have been able to pick up the basics pretty quickly. My experience in finance has obviously been an asset in running the business side.”

The family see the pub’s past as its future.

Robert says: “It is a village community pub, and it should stay that way. It is very important to the life of the village.”

The Shepherd and Dog is quite unusual in the fact that it retains a public bar. Local tradesmen congregate there on Friday evenings.

“It’s a sort of informal business networking venue,” Robert says.

However, the old pub is also popular with outsiders. TheSmith family have already hosted two vintage car rallies.

It is also introducing charity events, starting with a 1940s’ night in aid of Help for Heroes.

With Ian running the bar, and Michael organising the kitchen, the Shepherd and Dog is very much a family career opportunity.

Another member has also embraced his career change with confidence. Reggie the family dog is now a regular presence in the bar.

Susan says: “As a pub dog, he’s a natural.”