An American man has made an emotional pilgrimage to the Abergavenny pub where his great grandfather passed away.

Joe Watson was born and bred in Oklahoma but his ancestral home is in the ‘Gateway to Wales’. His great granddad was John Joseph Clarke - the former landlord of Brecon Road’s Station Hotel.

In April 1899, at the age of 57, Mr Clarke passed away in the pub he had given so much of his life too. An inquest into the popular landlord’s death revealed that Mr Clarke put in his last shift on a Thursday night.

He had been pulling pints and conversing with punters from six until 11pm when he called time and locked up shop. He instructed his barmaid Alice Horton to go get him a mutton chop for supper, which she duly did, before retiring for the night.

The next morning, a servant named Mary Ann found Mr Clarke lying unconscious on the floor in the front bar. She called out to the prone publican but received no answer. Mr Clarke was dead. The doctor was called and a verdict of sudden failure of the heart was given.

Mr Clarke, who was married to Mary Clarke (nee Chisman) left behind a daughter, Dora Clarke. By the time she was five Dora was an orphan and went to live with her aunt and uncle who decided to emigrate to Texas when Dora was 10.

Dora was Joe’s grandmother, and the two of them became very close. She would often regale her grandson with exotic tales of a little place in Wales called Abergavenny, and of the pub her father used to run called The Station Hotel.

Such stories lit a fire in Joe’s heart and he vowed when he was old enough he would one day visit this strange sounding town where his family came from.

Earlier this month Joe did exactly that. Accompanied by his wife Laurine, his daughter Elyssa and her husband Brian, Joe enjoyed his first visit to Wales and the pub which had loomed so large in his childhood imagination.

Joe told the Chronicle, “I fell in love with Abergavenny. It’s such a lovely place. It’s strange but it was almost as if a part of me recongised the old town. As for the Station! Wow! What a place. We don’t get pubs like that in the States and it was great to see it still had the same name and pretty much the same look as I imagined it would have in my great grandfather’s time.

Joe added,“I enjoyed a nice pint of Guinness with Mehmet, the current landlord, who is a real nice guy, and I’m sure my grandfather is looking down with approval on how well the old pub is still being run. We also got to visit the rooms above the pub where my great grandparents and grandmother would have once lived. That was an emotional experience. Another thing that struck me during my visit was, I’m currenty 57, the same age my great grandfather was when he passed away. What a simple twist of fate.”

Current landlord Mehmet Muftuoglu said, “It was really interesting to learn more about the history of the pub and great to meet Joe as he saw first-hand where his great grandfather lived and worked.”