The day Game of Thrones star fed beer to '˜babies'

Peter Vaughan, the actor who played Maester Aemon, had no such qualms when he came to Crawley in 1979.

Perhaps he had had a premonition about the horrible things to come in George RR Martin’s books. Perhaps he was channelling his inner Grouty, the scary inmate he played in the BBC comedy Porridge.

Or perhaps he was joining the fun during a charity pram push pub crawl.

These pictures were published in the Crawley & District Observer in 1979 and show a merry trail of baby boozers having a jolly old time as they raised money for the British Kidney Patients’ Association.

The report read: “Nine prams with a ‘mum’, a ‘dad’ and a ‘baby’ trailed from Queens Square and called in to the Brewery Shades, The Crown, The Swan and The Apple Tree before finishing at the Pelham Buckle.”

Peter and his wife, actress Lilias Walker, gave out prizes for the best pram and the race winners.

While one picture shows Peter holding a bottle 
of suspiciously dark liquid 
in a ‘baby’s’ mouth, health, safety and common sense were strictly observed - apparently.

Paddy Bryan, manager of the Pelham Buckle and organiser of the race, told the Observer: “We said they must only have half a pint at each pub but I have no idea what the ‘babies’ were drinking out of their bottles.

“But I can guarantee it was not milk.”

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