Villagers win grant to save Wiltshire pub

[Josher]

People outside pub with cheque

 

Villagers win grant to save Wiltshire pub BBC News.

 

The 200-year-old pub was up for sale and at risk of closure

 

Residents of a Wiltshire village have won a grant of more than £270,000 to save their local pub.

 

Villagers from Honeystreet, near Pewsey, applied for the funds to the Village SOS project, run jointly by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.

 

The money will be used to buy the lease of the 200-year-old Barge Inn, which was up for sale and at risk of closure.

 

It will be operated as a community business and the venture will also help support local tourism.

 

The village is known for crop circles and its canal system.

 

Terry Kemp, a member of the Barge Inn Community Project steering group, said: "We're absolutely delighted. The project was conceived around the kitchen table by two individuals concerned about the pub's future.

 

"What we've got now is a successful project that will answer the needs of the village and secure the future of an important community hub."

 

Five other villages in the UK also won grants. The villagers' journey will be screened as part of a six-part series on BBC One next year.

[cotswoldsman]

Villagers win grant to save Wiltshire pub BBC News.

 

The 200-year-old pub was up for sale and at risk of closure

 

Residents of a Wiltshire village have won a grant of more than £270,000 to save their local pub.

 

Villagers from Honeystreet, near Pewsey, applied for the funds to the Village SOS project, run jointly by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.

 

The money will be used to buy the lease of the 200-year-old Barge Inn, which was up for sale and at risk of closure.

 

It will be operated as a community business and the venture will also help support local tourism.

 

The village is known for crop circles and its canal system.

 

Terry Kemp, a member of the Barge Inn Community Project steering group, said: "We're absolutely delighted. The project was conceived around the kitchen table by two individuals concerned about the pub's future.

 

"What we've got now is a successful project that will answer the needs of the village and secure the future of an important community hub."

 

Five other villages in the UK also won grants. The villagers' journey will be screened as part of a six-part series on BBC One next year.

 

Good luck to them running a community business is very difficult.

[GSer]

They will certainly get my support next time i'm passing, Honeystreet is not even a 'two horse' town, it's tiny, with very few chimney pots in the immediate area, they'll need all the help they can get

[luctor et emergo]

Canal system?

 

Anyway, They will indeed need all the help they can get, although if they run it on a community basis, without the need to pay extortionate rent to, or be tied to extortionate prices from, a brewery, they may be able to do it. I pass it almost every other day, unless I go via Wilcot, but unfortunately I can't stop by for a 'swift one'. But once I get the boat down that way, I certainly will stop by.

[Hairy-Neil]

Nothing new in community owned pubs. The Plough at Horbling, Lincs has been owned by the parish council for 20 years that I know of.

[Athy]

I'm surprised that it needs baling out. It's a famous pub amongst boaters (of whom there are many on the K&A) and last time I was in there it was bustling. Who is selling it, Wadworth's?

[Laurie Booth]

Always been busy when I went there, good pub by the way.

[Serendipity]

I'm surprised that it needs baling out. It's a famous pub amongst boaters (of whom there are many on the K&A) and last time I was in there it was bustling. Who is selling it, Wadworth's?

 

No not Wadworths, I think it's Ushers. It's always busy, but the present incumbents have been there for decades and want to retire. There is a very large two storey timber structure attached, which has been held together by scaffolding for many years. My guess is that this is 'protected', and renovation would be a money pit, hence no commercial takers. Only a guess though.

[the grinch]

greedy Pubco is the reason a pub is unprofitable. they expect far too much in rent.

Wadworths aren't the worst but still charge huge mark ups on barrelage.

i do know the pub as i spent a lot of my time in Devizes 20 years ago, and although it may be busy in the summer whats it like in the winter when all the visitors have gone away - very quiet i expect but still the bills come in!

[J R]

People outside pub with cheque

 

Villagers win grant to save Wiltshire pub BBC News.

 

The 200-year-old pub was up for sale and at risk of closure

 

Residents of a Wiltshire village have won a grant of more than £270,000 to save their local pub.

 

Villagers from Honeystreet, near Pewsey, applied for the funds to the Village SOS project, run jointly by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.

 

The money will be used to buy the lease of the 200-year-old Barge Inn, which was up for sale and at risk of closure.

 

It will be operated as a community business and the venture will also help support local tourism.

 

The village is known for crop circles and its canal system.

 

Terry Kemp, a member of the Barge Inn Community Project steering group, said: "We're absolutely delighted. The project was conceived around the kitchen table by two individuals concerned about the pub's future.

 

"What we've got now is a successful project that will answer the needs of the village and secure the future of an important community hub."

 

Five other villages in the UK also won grants. The villagers' journey will be screened as part of a six-part series on BBC One next year.

 

Good luck to them. Sounds an interesting project. It has been on the market for quite sometime now so lets hope that the community owners make a good go of it. Its one our favourite stops on the K & A when we are out cruising. Know that there has been a divide between the villagers over the years on how the pub operated with the music etc. Hope that it does not change too much and turn into one of those dreadful gentrified gastro pubs. Alot will depend on who they get in to manage the place. Front of house friendly and well trained staff are as important as the quality of the beer. Think that it is an old Ushers/Enterprise lease, but what they can buy out of tie largely depends on how the lease is negotiated. They are also hoping to have a village shop in the pub, which did have donkeys years ago. Know that times move on, as had the history of this lovely old place; lets hope that the main character of the pub remains. Time, as they say, will tell.

[Josher]

Whatever next?

 

Glowing beer for controversial music festival near Pewsey

 

8:20am Tuesday 12th April 2011 This is Wiltshire

 

A music festival which has split a community near Pewsey has sold out even before it gets started this weekend. People living near the Barge Inn at Honeystreet tried to get Honeyfest stopped by complaining about its licence but last month Wiltshire Council agreed it could go ahead, Now a new beer has been brewed in its honour and the green brew is said to glow in the dark. For years the pub has been regarded as the headquarters of the “croppies”, the hundreds of people who visit the area each year for its crop circles which were once just a local phenomenon but now attract visitors from all over the world.

 

In 2010 a campaign to buy the Barge as a community owned pub won a massive National Lottery windfall of £430,000 which, together with other grants enabled the Barge Inn Community Project to buy its leasehold when Adrian and June Potts who had run the pub for 17 years retired and put it on the market. The canal side pub has been closed for the past few weeks to enable a major refurbishment to take place and it will re-open with a bang on Saturday with the music festival which was an instant success with all 1,250 tickets being sold within hours of being advertised.

 

Sandra Bhatia who has spearheaded the community buy-out and the refurbishment had planned to hold the Honeyfest in December but had to postpone it because ice and snow would have prevented many people reaching the venue. So it’s taking place on Saturday in the field next to the pub with an open air stage and some international and nationally known acts. Heading the bill is the American singer/songwriter Damien Rice together with the Indie-pop band The Magic Numbers; folk star and 2011 BRIT award winner Laura Marling;Marthas and Arthurs who have been making a name for themselves on the British festival scene and the all-male five-man group Dry The River. Local acts will be the bands Slagerij who won a recent Battle of the Bands contest at the barge together with Matthew Kilford, a Swindon singer/songwriter. Sandra Bhatia said the organisers’ hope that the festival would be a success was confirmed when all 1,250 £35 tickets were sold out. She said: “It would have been a sell-out three times over if we could have made the tickets available. As it is we have a massive waiting list and we have even had begging letters from people who are desperate to attend. From the inquiries we have been getting it seems the whole country has been looking for tickets,” she said adding that the newly refurbished pub complete with a enlarged bar, new oak floor and redecoration throughout by Pewsey building company AG.

 

Because of the pub’s connection with the crop-circle enthusiast its owner Ian McIvor has commissioned a special beer to mark the event called appropriately Alien Abduction which, said Ms Bhatia, is green in colour “and is said to glow”. There has been concern from local residents about the size of the event but Ms Bhatia said it was definitely a one-off to launch the re-vamped pub and she had given an assurance it would not be repeated.

[Proper Job]

............ she had given an assurance it would not be repeated.

Unless it's really successful and brings in a big cash impetus that help the pub through the leaner times

[Mick_B]

For years we've been listening to Irish sports men and women being described as "British". But I like Damien Rice. His music is top class and one thing I will not let pass is him being described as "American". He is from Celbridge in County Kildare 2 miles from where I moor. HE IS NOT AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Rant over.

[Laurie Booth]

For years we've been listening to Irish sports men and women being described as "British". But I like Damien Rice. His music is top class and one thing I will not let pass is him being described as "American". He is from Celbridge in County Kildare 2 miles from where I moor. HE IS NOT AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Rant over.

O'rish then

[Mick_B]

O'rish then

Oh Yes....