A KIDDERMINSTER family have visited all 1,000 Wetherspoon pubs in the UK after their autistic son held them to a "throwaway" comment they made a decade ago.

The Latchfords have spent 10 years touring Britain and Ireland and were first through the door at the chain's latest opening in Somerset last week.

They ticked off 900 in the first six years but were so prolific they have since had to wait for new ones to open.

The only existing bars they haven't been to yet are the two beyond security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 - which they plan to attend the next time they go on holiday.

Their odyssey began with a throwaway promise that mum Sheila, 61, made to son Christy, then 17, which, due to his autism, he took literally and held them to.

Sheila said: "Our daughter Amy works at The Penny Black Wetherspoon in Kidderminster and when she started Christy was not yet 18.

"We wanted to take him in to show her working behind the bar but in those days they had a really strict rule which meant anyone under 18 had to have a meal.

"We had just eaten so left. I said rather foolishly, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, 'don't worry, when you are 18 we will go to all of them.'

"When you say something like that to someone with autism it is taken seriously. The minute he turned 18 he was back in The Penny Black in Kidderminster.

"We were never intending to do them all, but had promised him and he wouldn't let us forget it.

"It didn't occur to us it could be doable until I had to go to Scotland to work. They drove me up and we went to ones in Dundee and Edinburgh and it just went from there."

The chain currently has around 900 pubs open across the UK but some of the ones the Latchford family have previously visited have since closed.

Sheila, husband Keith, 63, and Christy took six years to do the first 900 but in the last four years they have had to wait for new ones to open.

They have been to every corner of the UK and to Ireland three times to do all the Wetherspoon pubs in both Northern and Southern Ireland.

Keith, a full time carer for Christy, now 28, said: "Everyone tends to say that the historical buildings are the best, and that is true.

"There are some beautiful conversions of old premises and some of the newer pubs in particular are fantastic.

"It is a great hobby for us together and Christy loves it."

Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin congratulated the family on their achievement.