US couple spend $75k visiting UK pub

An American couple have become so enamoured with a British pub that they have spent $75,000 flying 8,700 miles from their home in Indiana every six weeks since 2011 to visit.

Dolores and Matthew Lawrence outside their favourite pub

Dolores and Matthew Lawrence regularly fly from the US to visit The Plough in Shustoke, near Birmingham, which they say is different to American bars because you can start talking to people without “looking crazy”, the couple told the Coventry Telegraph. 

The couple discovered the pub on their first trip to Britain in 2011 visiting for a second time just three months later, and every six to eight weeks thereafter, spending US$75,000 (£48,000) so far.

“We love The Plough”, said Dolores. “It’s everything that we imagined an English pub should be.”

“People here are so friendly”, she said. “You would never go into a bar and star talking to people (in the US.) – if you did, everyone would think you were crazy. It’s totally different here. We love the place.”

The couple are now making plans to move to Birmingham permanently, which she describes as “heaven”.

Both are now looking to secure jobs in the UK while their 18-year-old son Achilles has secured a place at nearby Coventry University.

“The English weather is what we prefer”, she said. “And it’s a slower lifestyle too. Everyone is in a rush in America – they are constantly on the go.”

“We’re just an average American family who are going for our dream to live in the UK for good. Birmingham is heaven to us!”