Our pub was closed down so we showed
WHEN the owners of the Lamarsh Lion pub in the ancient Essex village of Lamarsh closed it down one Friday in May, 2016, they did so with a plan in mind.
On the following Monday they applied for permission to turn it into a private home.
But they had reckoned without the community spirit of the tiny village (population 200) and the importance they placed on their local, which has a history dating back more than 700 years to 1305.
Persistence
Within a week a public meeting had been organised and Braintree District Council found itself bombarded with complaints. In all 129 people opposed the planning application and just one letter was written in its support.
The owners knew a lost cause when they saw one and withdrew their application before it went in front of the relevant committee.
A group of locals led by Robert Erith, a former High Sheriff of Essex, then got together to raise the £495,000 required to buy the pub and this Saturday it will host its official opening party, with a hog roast and no fewer than four live acts including a blues band called Raising Cain.
As we chat over pints of Ruddles bitter sitting in the sun at a pub table outside the newly-renovated Lamarsh Lion, Mr Erith – a tall, patrician man in a panama trilby, red trousers and open-toed sandals – tells a story of hard work, persistence and, above all, public spiritedness.
For a start, the owners of the pub refused to budge on their selling price and so Mr Erith and his fellow volunteers had an intimidating total to raise. They duly set up Lamarsh Lion Community Pub Ltd and set about finding backers.
Shares were sold at £50 apiece and no fewer than 400 investors came on board, mostly locals keen to preserve their village hostelry.
One generous businessman offered a “soft loan” of £100,000 and the Plunkett Foundation, which helps rural communities buy shops and pubs, offered another £100,000 in the form of grants and a loan. The Lion has always been more than a common or garden local.
For a start the view of rolling fields that stretches as far as the eye can see across the road from the pub inspired two of Britain’s greatest landscape painters.
John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough both spent time in the area and painted views visible from the bar of the Lion.
Rotting
But while it enjoyed an idyllic setting, inside the pub it was a different story. “It was in an awful condition,” says Mr Erith. Apart from rewiring and replumbing, the pub needed a new kitchen and a new floor and rotting window frames had to be replaced.
Fortunately, local barrister Andrew Marsden, who specialises in property cases, managed to persuade property developer Nigel Aulton to come on board as project manager after “two very nice bottles of wine”.
Mr Aulton worked in all weathers to make sure the build stayed on