Villagers raise £1m to save 15th-century pub

PEOPLE power has saved a historic Grade-ii listed pub after villagers raised £1m to keep it from developers.

The 15th-century Packhorse Inn in South Stoke, Somerset, closed its doors six years ago and was sold with plans to turn it into flats.

But locals were able to stop the development going ahead by using the 2011 Localism Act to turn the pub into a “community asset of value”, so its buyers had to sell it.

Villagers managed to raise £1,025,000 through 470 investors – paying as little as £50 each – and they bought it themselves.

It was finally reopened yesterday by Brian Perkins, 87, who was born in the pub when it was owned by his family.

He said: “I was very sad when the pub closed a few years ago. I would go to the pub every Sunday up until then.

“It was an honour to be asked to pour the first pint – a last bit of fame in my old age.”

The village pub is surrounded by a mix of Georgian homes and thatched cottages and would attract ramblers from the surrounding valleys. According to the carved stone above the door, the current building has stood since 1674 – but historians say the hostelry dates back to 1498.

In March 2012, it was put up for sale by then-owners Punch Taverns and sold to the highest bidder. Plans were revealed to turn it into flats, forcing the village to form a committee with the aim of buying it back.

The pub’s rescue has been partly down to the Conservatives’ 2011 Localism Act, which meant it was listed on Bath & North East Somerset’s Assets of Community Value list in February 2013. The council can approve it if it is found the building “furthers the social well-being or social interests of the local community”.

Volunteers spent an estimated 1,000 hours sorting out the pub’s garden and 25 skips of rubbish were removed during renovations – with 15 tons of earth shifted by hand.

James Dixon, 36, the new landlord, said: “It’s fantastic… everyone bunched together and got behind the project. It’s a pub born from love. Everyone has the pub’s best interests at heart.

“This is a fine example of what happens when a pub is adored.”