National award for pub
A VILLAGE pub on Anglesey has been named the best in Wales just five years after it was almost demolished.
The Iorwerth Arms, Bryngwran, was one of six winners in the 2019 Countryside Alliance Wales awards, known as the Rural Oscars.
Judges were impressed not just by how the community rallied to save the pub from closure but also the way it has since become a hub for local services. So successful has the pub been that the community enterprise that runs it, Bryngwran Cymunedol, is hoping to convert an on-site outbuilding into a village store. A hairdressers and butchers shop may follow.
“This would completely rejuvenate the village,” said Alliance director for Wales, Rachel Evans.
Almost 18,000 nominations were made for this year’s Alliance awards in Wales, with the awards handed out in Cardiff Bay by Llanfairfechan’s TV farmer Gareth Wyn Jones.
The Iorwerth Arms was nominated by Ynys Môn AM Rhun ap Iorwerth (“not just because the pub has a fantastic name!”).
Put up for sale by Punch Taverns in 2014, developers were keen to build houses on the site. Villagers had other ideas but, with too little time to issue shares, they instead secured a £125,000 loan from the Wales Council for Voluntary Action.
Since then it has evolved into a social hub.
“Like many other smaller villages in the last 20 years, we have lost all our local facilities,” said Neville Evans, chairman of the non-forprofit venture. “There used to be three village stores and a Post Office here. The pub was the only thing left, which is why we fought so hard to keep it.”
A key facility is a covered music stage in what used to be a smoking shelter. Last July this hosted the inaugural Philfest, a two-day gig in which 25 bands performed free to raise money for Ysbyty Gwynedd’s dialysis unit.
It was named in hour of Phil Blake, a pub volunteer and neighbour who has his own dialysis unit at home.
“Phil’s been here since the start,” said Neville. “He does many of the odd jobs, from opening up for beer deliveries to helping behind the bar.
“He never wants paying. However he told us that if we really wanted to thank him, we should raise money for Ysbyty Gwynedd.”
To open a village store in an adjacent outbuilding – planning consent is in place – the community will need to raise another £145,000. However, hopes are high. “Our Countryside Alliance award was entirely unexpected but it’s put us in good heart as we move forward with our future plans,” said Neville.
This year’s Philfest is on July 19-20. Tickets £6 per night. Just 60 of Saturday’s 500 tickets remain unsold.
The Welsh champions will now advance to the British finals at the House of Lords on June 19.