01-Feb-2006 Waitrose - Raising The Bar
Kindly published with the permission of Waitrose - original article here - please also find attached a PDF of the original printed article.
The traditional village inn is under threat. Economic pressures are tempting landlords to sell up and these important centres of the community are in danger of disappearing. But all is not lost: the villagers are fighting to save them, helped by an initiative set up by Prince Charles. Bibi Van Der Zee finds out more.
On New Year's Day three years ago, in a small village in Somerset, the Easton Inn did not open. For weeks, everyone had known there was something in the air. The pub had been going downhill rapidly, there had been arguments with regulars (one had even been banned for wearing sandals), and opening hours had become erratic. But no one had expected it to shut down. A few days later, the landlord applied to the council to develop the site, and all became clear: he wanted to demolish the 50-year-old pub and build nine houses in its place.
The only other amenity in this village of 180 houses is a post office, open one morning a week for two hours. To reach another pub, you have to go by car, or walk along a busy road with no pavement. So the residents formed a campaign group to save it: SOPHIE (Save Our Pub Here In Easton). But the council passed the owner's application to knock the inn down.
Today, all that's left of the Easton Inn is a heap of rubble, now covered by Virginia creeper. "It's an eyesore," says local resident Tony Potter. "Everything has been stripped away. Most of the site is just tarmac and rubble, and ragwort has got into the old garden, which used to be lovely – it had a wonderful view of the Somerset countryside. But we just couldn't stop it."
At Pub is the Hub, the campaign to keep rural pubs alive, coordinator John Longden says that this story is not uncommon. About 26 pubs close down each month, even though the idea of running a village pub is one of the top British fantasy job changes, along with writing a novel, moving to Spain, or making a mint in property development. But the reality is hard work, long hours, and not very much money. The fact that the building in which a pub is housed is worth, on average, 50 per cent more as a private residence, opens an escape route for a greedy landlord.
"What can happen is that the owner lets the business run down, stops investing in his pub, then goes to the council with an application for change of use, claiming that the business is not viable," explains Longden. "He can even shut it down and take those figures to the council. Obviously, he's then going to be able to put forward a stronger case."
HRH the Prince of Wales, with his interest in rural affairs, provided the initial idea for Pub is the Hub, in his role as President of Business in the Community, and, as he tells WFI, it's a project he keeps a keen eye on. "Since I started the initiative, four years ago, I have been immensely impressed by the tenacity and vision of so many people throughout this country," he says. "They have battled to ensure that their pubs remain the hubs of their communities, despite the pressures. I have been fortunate to visit a number of successful examples, and the ingenuity shown by so many to keep pubs alive by providing essential local services has been remarkable.'
Pub is the Hub is sponsored by big names such as The Countryside Agency, Post Office, drinks company Diageo, and publicans, with support from CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale). It advises communities on how to save their pub and shows struggling publicans how to boost business. One beneficiary of Pub is the Hub is the village of Reach in Cambridgeshire. In 1997, Dyke's End, known then as The Kings, was faced with closure: its owner shut the doors abruptly and applied for change of use. But here the villagers had better luck. Bryan Pearson, who lived next door, took advice from Pub is the Hub and started a campaign. The sympathetic council forced the landlord to put the property on the market as a pub, rather than a residential dwelling, and the villagers raised £130,000 to buy it through individual pledges. They redecorated, found a good landlord, and got the place open.
When they sold the pub on, a couple of years later, business was booming and the villagers had made a healthy profit on their original pledges. Now, in winter, the pub is hung with fairy lights and the inside is filled with the heady smell of a wood fire. In summer, the garden is hedged with lavender and young crab-apple trees and a basket in the porch contains picnic blankets for those who wish to sit outside. There's a pub dog called Banger, a menu with homemade delights such as seabass with samphire and strawberry cheesecake, and regular events keep the locals interested.
Services that have been falling away in rural areas can be restored through the pub: this is what Pub is the Hub tries to get publicans to understand. The Pint and Post in St Giles on the Heath in Devon is, as its name suggests, both pub and post office in one building (and a tea room, too): "It's extremely busy," says landlady Linda Longford. 'There's never a dull moment here, I can tell you."
"You've got to use your imagination," says Sandra Jeffries of The Fighting Cocks in Shropshire. She's just finished converting an outbuilding next door into a shop, after lots of requests from customers about where she got the ingredients for her menu. Now the shelves are piled with fresh local fruit and vegetables, Sandra's locally renowned pies ('my steak and kidney pie always seems to go very fast') and cakes and preserves. "The ast shop in the village closed down 14 years ago," she says. "This has breathed new life into the village and it's been incredibly rewarding."
The lovely Cock Inn at Combe in Oxfordshire, meanwhile, offers an unusual service: instead of having to travel three miles to the next village, pensioners can have their repeat prescriptions dropped off here. "The bus service is rubbish," explains landlord Paul Downer. "I'm not sure it brings up our trade much, but it's a service, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?" And, at the Weir Hotel in Weir, Lancashire, they felt the same way when the vicar asked to hold services there after the chapel was demolished. "We mostly sold soft drinks to the congregation to be honest," says landlord John Walmsey. "Some of them would stay behind for lunch sometimes – I'm not sure how much trade we got out of it. But it was so successful that the congregation outgrew us, and had to relocate again."
Back in Easton, the landlord has appealed against the council's decision to turn down his latest application to build eight houses on the site of the old inn. Pub is the Hub put resident, Tony Potter, in touch with Bryan Pearson of Dyke's End for help and advice: the villagers still hope they can force the landlord to include a pub in the plans, or sell the land to them so they can do it themselves. "But he wants nothing to do with us," says Potter. "We negotiate and negotiate, but there's only so much we can do. And I'm afraid some people are beginning to drive to nearby pubs. The loss of the inn has left a gaping hole in the village."
But, for communities hoping for better luck, Pub is the Hub provides a vital support system. "I hope it offers a valuable service for many years to come," says Prince Charles, "and that it continues to help those who want to find a way to protect their pub and to reinvigorate their villages and communities by offering them much-needed help and advice."
To find out more about the work of Pub is the Hub, log on to pubisthehub.org.uk.
This article was first published on Waitrose.com in February 2006
PITH Waitrose 20060200.pdf