Halsetown Inn, Nr. St Ives

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Halsetown is a village 1.5 miles from St Ives in Cornwall. It was built in the 1830s and was planned by the solicitor and local mining adventurer, James Halse and was described as ‘England’s first garden city’.

The village was developed to house the workers in the nearby tin mine and in this way Halse made sure of his miners’ votes, and regained his seat as MP for St.Ives. The village has a population of 200 people.

Morag Robertson has been at the Halsetown Inn for around 12 months now as a leaseholder with Punch Taverns. Her aim is to bring the pub back to being a local community venue whilst making the pub viable in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. Morag uses low carbon electricity, recycles packaging and oils and sources supplies from local producers.

In July 2017 she also helped to run the Halsetown Village Fete and Beer Festival on the pub’s field.

Project Summary:

With the lack of facilities to hold meeting in Halsetown and after a survey of local views, a disused room on the first floor of the pub has now been refurbished and converted into a cosy but functional meeting space.

With Pub is The Hub’s support they have also installed some state of the art audio visual equipment to support presentations and films for local groups, meetings and entertainment.

Outcomes so far:

  • One full-time job and one part-time job has been created.
  • Enquires are already coming in to use the meeting room following a general pub refurbishment.

Lessons to Learn:

With a modest grant funding and the licensee’s grasp of the big picture for their local community can deliver a really good local service and enhance the pub’s business.

Project Costs:
Total Project Costs £3,800
Contribution from Licensee    £800
CSF Grant (if applicable) £3,000