A local family’s long association with an Otley inn was toasted at a celebratory lunch.

The Layburn family’s links to The Fleece stretch back to the 1840s to John Layburn and his son William and there was a direct involvement by the family for some 100 years.

Cousins Bryan Kitching, of Menston, and 91-year-old Harry Layburn, of Emsworth, Hampshire, were joined at the pub on Monday by second cousin Wilf Layburn, from Wellington, New Zealand, who is on holiday in the UK.

Wilf’s father, Ernest Thomas Layburn, was a convalescing New Zealand soldier when he celebrated his 24th birthday at The Fleece in July, 1918, while Harry celebrated his 21st birthday at the inn in 1943.