Police put an end to a village pub’s St George’s Day celebrations after a reveller took his horse inside the premises.

Officers were called to the George pub in The Street, Bethersden, to help move on a large group of about 50 drinkers who became rowdy at the venue’s annual beer festival on Saturday.

The landlords called the police after some of the group refused to leave and someone rode a horse into the beer tent and then walked it into the building at 7.30pm.

Steve Blackford, 53, of Godfrey Walk, Ashford, said: “Me and a friend went up there for the St George’s Day beer festival.

“We had only just arrived and the landlady came out and said 'That’s it, you’ve all got to get out’.

“There were a lot of travellers there who had been there all day and she obviously felt they had had enough.

“However they felt they were being discriminated against and one of them went off and got his horse from a field nearby.

“He rode it through the beer tent and then took it into the pub. Everyone was laughing. It was all good-natured from what I could see.”

A Bethersden resident, who did not want to be named, added: “The whole thing was quite unbelievable. You had the travellers arguing because they didn’t want to go, there was a horse in the bar and the morris men dancing in the street.

“It was just a bizarre situation. You couldn’t make it up.”

Police officers who arrived on the scene helped to clear drinkers from the pub and everything was closed down by 9pm. Scheduled performances by a jazz band and morris dancers were also cancelled.

Mr Blackford, an unemployed kitchen fitter, said: “There were about 15 officers, a couple of vans and some cars.

“It never looked like it would blow out into anything. There was one guy who didn’t like the police officers trying to move him on but it seemed to calm down quite quickly.

“Everyone was moved on after that. I think some people, including the morris dancers, went off towards the pub in Woodchurch.”

Kent police spokesman Rosy Alexander confirmed that the man on horseback had been the 'trigger’ for the police being called.

She said: “There was a large gathering of people who became a little bit rowdy. The police were called and the landlady took the decision to close the pub because she felt the problem might escalate.

“There were no arrests. Police helped clear the premises but there were no further incidents.”

Landlady Jo Underdown said: “It’s been blown out proportion. It wasn’t really anything that major. We just want to put it behind us.”