A landlady who may claim to be Falmouth's longest serving licensee has called time after more than three decades behind the bar.

Pat Harding, who ran Rumours wine bar for 31 years, retired recently at the age of 83, ahead of the venue's planned takeover by new owners.

She told the Packet: "It feels quite sad in a way, I thought I'd never leave it. But I had an accident two years ago, so I couldn't really run it behind the bar.

"I was hoping I'd end up being carried out in a body bag, but it didn't happen."

Pat said all her memories of the decades running the bar were good one, with no regrets at all, but she added that the town has changed, with people "trying to make it quiet, which is a shame.

She said: "People moan in the middle of town about the noise, which is a shame.

"I live in Swanpool Street, and I've got students all around, but it's better than old people like me. I'm usually one of the noisy ones.

"I think if people buy flats around areas where there are bars, they should expect some noise.

"Like when they closed Shades, about four or five years ago: that should never have been closed down.

"It was sad. I was hoping somebody would take it on and open as a pole dancing club but they would never have agreed to that. Now it's a tattoo parlour."

Rumours saw all sorts of customers, said Pat, both old and young, including football and rugby teams, but she never had any trouble.

"I use to say 'my tongue is sharper than your brain, so shut up,'" she said. "And they did. We never had any problems."

"Years ago we used to get a lot more navy ships, which we don't get any more. The navy divers used to come her all year round, for their deep work ups. That all ended."

Asked what she would miss above all, Pat said it would definitely be the people.

"But they keep saying 'where are you going to be drinking?'

"It's still a bit of a shock [to be leaving], I'm going to be just another old lady instead of the landlady. A little old lady, not a quiet old lady."

Pat was born in Mullion, and brought up in Sussex, then came back to Cornwall when her father left the RAF in 1946.

She worked in The Grapes for 10 years, but left "when they opened it up and made it one big room."

She said: "I'm really, really grateful to all the people that have supported me all these years."

And she added: "I'm still around, I'm not dead yet."