Brewery Tap, Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire

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Furneux Pelham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire. The village is one of the Pelhams, part of an early medieval larger swathe of land known as Pelham including Brent Pelham to the north and Stocking Pelham to the east and north-east.

With a population listed as 553 in the 2011 census, Furneux Pelham has a large pub the Brewery Tap opposite the site of the former Rayments Brewery.

Elizabeth (Ebe) Bonner and her daughter, Lucy, have been running the pub for 18 months and had established a good restaurant and pub trade before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived. They arranged to use their suppliers to sell food to residents when the lockdown started and subsequently secured a grant from Pub is The Hub to acquire equipment to create a shop in the bar area. It was this first project that inspired them to carry out a second project to benefit the community’s children.

Project Summary:

Ebe and Lucy decided to dismantle the old and unsafe play equipment and install new playground equipment to comply with all current safety requirements. The new equipment includes swings, a slide and a climbing frame and is always accessible to anyone from the village, except at night when it will be shut up. Children can use the equipment only with supervision from a parent or carer.

Outcomes so far:

There has been a great deal of public support for the new playground as there is no other facility in the village and it will be a free public feature for residents. Additional funds have been raised locally to pay part of the equipment cost and to prepare the ground and provide a safe surface treatment around the equipment.

Lessons to Learn:

The pub is a great place to site community facilities such as a children’s playground to benefit residents and can also, indirectly, support the pub’s trade.

Project Costs:

Contribution from Licensee £4,306
Community Services Grant from Pub is The Hub £3,000
Total Project Costs £7,306