SAVING YOUR LOCAL

There has been a lot of talk about the "death of the back-street local" and "what future for the village pub" in recent months - whilst a lot have undoubtedly closed and we genuinely mourn their passing - a growing number of communities in the UK are refusing to just stand by and watch their pub go out of business.

Whilst community buy-outs of local services including shops, bus services and schools have been quietly going on in rural towns and villages for years. Community pub buy-outs are something new. Currently the Plunkett Foundation (a charity that promotes and supports co-operatives and social enterprises in rural communities worldwide) estimates there are about 20.

Now in Suffolk a new initiative has just been undertaken where the opportunity to buy a pub may not be an option. The Hasketon Turks Head has had at least 6 landlords in the last 5 years. Now the pub tenancy has been taken on by a group of locals for the next 5 years. The tenancy is also free of tie. There are 9 equal shareholders, Peter Clements (accountant) Graham Watson (business man) Nigel Butters (engineer) Clive Gregory (engineer) Norman Kerridge (Blacksmith/engineer) Robbie Anderson (plumber) Bob East (retired decorator) Brent Evans (househusband) Andy Thomson (retired antique dealer). They have appointed Darren Scott as a Manager to run the pub and Gareth Bevan as their Chef. They aim to have one main Bitter (currently Wherry), a Mild (varying between 3 or 4 different ones) and one guest, which could be anything. The pub does food from Wednesday to Sunday with lunchtime snacks, full meals and Sunday lunches. Evening meals also include snack or specials from the menu board. No food Monday or Tuesday. Karaoke live music car boot sales & vintage car rallies on the large paddock. Outside Events also can be catered for.

 

Seafood Pub of the Year

The Swan Inn, Barnby, Suffolk, has been named Seafood Pub of the Year at the Seafood Awards 2009. Run by an industry body called Seafish, the pub award is made in association with The Publican.

The Swan Inn and its food operation, the Fisherman's Cove restaurant, has built up a strong reputation among seafood enthusiasts across East Anglia and beyond.

The pub is close to the port of Lowestoft, and owners Donny and Michael Cole have been in the fish industry for more than 50 years, with the family's fish merchant business now in its fourth generation.

The award was presented by John Porter, Food Editor of The Publican, at a ceremony at the Marriott, Grosvenor Square, in London.

 

Ipswich beer festival pub Crawl

Its getting wild in Ipswich this autumn. The local group of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members have already been out and about pub crawling in fancy dress around the town’s pubs to help promote the forthcoming Ipswich Beer Festival.

This year’s festival has a Darwin theme and so some local members have recently been dressing up as a variety of animals together with a re-creation of the great man himself, impersonated by our own local legend, Rae Gardiner. Pubs with names that fit with the theme are especially popular at the moment. Our pub crawl included the Arboretum, the Greyhound, Woolpack, Swan, Golden Lion, Black Horse, Spread Eagle, Grinning Rat and Dove Street Inn.

Darwin became internationally famous because of his work on natural selection and evolution theory and was born just 200 years ago this year. He also died in 1882 – the same year that the Ipswich Corn exchange was built. The Corn Exchange (in King Street) will be hosting the Ipswich beer festival from Wed 23 Sept until Sat 26 Sept 2009 and will be offering a wide selection of British, German and Belgian draught beers. A selection of ciders will also be on offer. Many of the beers being selected for this years festival will also have names that include various references to animals or birds.

As the festival staffing contact, Naomi Drown is also a dab hand at face-painting, the animal faces are likely to keep appearing right up to and even during the event. Naomi also needs more people to volunteer to help during the event - contact her on naomidrown@googlemail.com if you wish to help.

More festival details at www.ipswichcamra.co.uk or contact Nigel Smith: email nigelsmithszoo@btinternet.com

 

Sweffling White Horse

Marie Smith spoke to the Ipswich CAMRA barnch a while ago about their planning application. She and her partner Mark applied for the land and barn attached to the pub to be used as a campsite and holiday cottage. The council has since given permission for the project and Yurts have been erected in the garden. Marie and Mark hope that the income generated by the tourism business will fund the eventual refurbishing and re-opening of the pub.

Both come from an accounts background - neither have run a campsite or a pub before but the White Horse offered us the perfect opportunity. The plan is to eventually have a campsite consisting of 3 yurts, 1 tipi, 1 gypsy caravan, 1 wooden 'hideaway', 1 cob roundhouse and 4 ordinary tent spaces. We also aim to convert a brick barn to a 4 star holiday cottage.

The whole business will be focusing on green issues - renewable energy, recycling & appreciating the environment. The campsite will have no electricity - just solar lighting and very basic facilities. There will also be a compost toilet (as well as the traditional flushing version) and solar powered hot water for showers and washing up. We aim to furnish the units entirely from recycled materials (bought 2nd hand or handmade from recycled materials) and the yurts themselves will be handmade onsite - by us - from locally sourced wood. The site itself will be very natural - pathways through trees and wildflowers, secluded units, ducks & hens wandering freely and a communal fire area.

They have an anticipated timescale of two years - from start (now) to re-opening of the pub (the last stage of the project).

We will let you know when it reopens.

 

Pub Designs - 2009

CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) recently announced the winners of the prestigious Pub Design Awards 2008, in association with English Heritage and the Victorian Society.

In the Awards this year 4 pubs were singled out by the judges. In the ‘Refurbished’ category, the Princess Louise, High Holborn, London was a joint winner with the Castle Inn, Bradford on Avon , Wiltshire. Meanwhile, the White Horse, Overton on Dee, Wrexham, was ‘Highly Commended’ in the category for its outstanding work. In the ‘New Build’ category, Zero Degrees, Reading , Berkshire , was the overall winner.

CAMRA’s Pub Design Awards began in 1983, and over the years has remained dedicated to championing pubs showing vision, imagination and a level of restraint in their design. Full award winners were:

Refurbished category:

Joint winners- Princess Louise, High Holborn, London (WC1V 7BW) and

Castle Inn, Bradford on Avon , Wilts (BA15 1SJ)

Highly Commended- White Horse, Overton on Dee, Wrexham (LL13 0DT)

New Build category

Winner- Zero Degrees, Reading (RG1 2LR)

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