A long-running Kent restaurant that once boasted a Michelin star for 20 straight years is to shut at the end of the month after almost half a century.

The owners of Read’s in Faversham say they have taken the decision to close with “a hint of trepidation” as “Father Time” has caught up with them.

David and Rona Pitchford launched the restaurant in Painters Forstal in 1977 before moving it to Macknade Manor, off Canterbury Road, in 2000.

During its 47-year run it has scooped a number of awards and accolades, but none more prestigious than the Michelin star it secured in 1993 and held for two decades.

“We have genuinely been dreading this day for some time,” the couple said.

“We have been blessed with the most wonderful and unbelievably loyal staff over the years.

“To see our current brilliant team broken up is incredibly sad. If it were not for the perils of age, we would continue for another 47 years.

“It is not only our staff who have been incredibly loyal over the years but our customers too, many of whom have become friends.”

David and Rona’s decision to close comes more than a year after they put the site up for sale for £3 million, though the pair now say they will hold onto the Georgian manor house to live in.

“We’re a bit apprehensive about it, but looking forward to it as well,” David told KentOnline.

“We’re mid-seventies, so it wasn’t so much us choosing [the decision] as it choosing us.

“One slows down and it’s an industry where it’s total commitment and people expect to see you there all the time.

“It’s not something that Rona and I wanted to do in part - we either do it or we don’t.

“We’ve spent our lives with our customers, we’ve been involved with their anniversaries, their weddings, their birthdays, their retirements.

“They’re sending us pictures of 20, 30, 40 years ago; it’s become very personal and very emotional.

“At the end of the day it comes down to pleasing customers and having a full diary.”

A former BBC chef, David won the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Chef of the Year award in 1986 and a year later was invited to join the Academie Culinaire de France.

Rona, meanwhile, shared her culinary knowledge with others while lecturing in professional cookery at Westminster Hotel School.

In 1993, Read’s - which also offers six guest rooms - won its Michelin star, and in 1998 David became vice-chairman of the Academy of Culinary Arts.

Alongside the coveted star, Read’s won many other accolades for its food, including being named among the 10 best restaurants with rooms in the UK by the Daily Telegraph.

The publication praised the establishment for its “sublime, consistent cooking” and “luxurious and traditional” rooms.

The restaurant lost its star in 2012 but has retained its position in the Michelin Guide to this day.

David admits they had never set out to achieve a star and offered an insight into the perils of chasing one.

“I suppose some young guys do set out to win the Michelin star but we never did - it was a by-product of what we did,” he said.

“People try and do what they think the Michelin Guide likes rather than doing what they like, and what their customers like, and doing it well. Consequently, they end up not pleasing anybody because they’re not pleasing themselves.

“The Guide likes good food and good service. It can be all sorts of different varieties of good food and good service, it just has to be done well, that’s all.

“For us, the greatest pride is to have seen so many of our young protégés, both chefs and front of house, go on to achieve such success in their future careers.”

Currently operating as a 60-cover restaurant with accommodation, planning permission for 17 extra bedrooms was granted in 2022.

But the couple say they have no intention of pushing forward with the development and instead plan to focus on maintaining the building, which has required a lot of work to bring it up to modern standards since the turn of the century.

The sprawling property sits on almost three acres of park-like gardens, including a cottage garden for growing produce and a paved terrace.

“Most people think about downsizing at our time of life, whereas we’re sort of upsizing really,” David said.

“But we love the house so much - we want to keep it in good order and good shape. We rescued it from a really bad situation when we took it over.

“It’s OK being an old house, but it can’t have old plumbing and old heating and drafty bits and bobs. It’s been a constant battle over the years to keep it in good shape.

“We’ve come to love the house because we’ve spent so much time, not to say money, on it and so we thought that, for our final few years, we’d like to just simply live there and enjoy it.”