Melanie Reid and his Team

 Melanie Reid and his Team

Melanie Reid and his Team

We all chipped in together to buy local pub. Then the world shut down…….

A year ago, on an infectious wave of enthusiasm, about 250 of us bought our local pub. Friends, neighbors, my family, everyone chipped in to what we recognized as a brave bit good hearted scheme. The Scottish land fund backed us. We were all, even the hard nose pragmatists among us, ruelled by optimism. If we fuelled by optimism. If we pulled this off.

In January, our board members were more than faintly star struck when they were approached by the Michelian Starred chef tom kerrigge, asking if we’d like to feature in a three part BBC two series he was making on a reusing Britain’s Pubs. One in four pubs had disappeared since 2008, and 12 more a week were joining the. He wanted to see if they could help us turn things round.

We were immeasurably chuffed our wee pub! Get us, we are going on tally!  To be one of four chosen: cornwall, London Gloucestershire and Scotland. 

 The filming started just as local volunteers got stuck into the refurbishment of our tall, shabby, 300 years old drovers inn, the kind of listed building you could easily sink 30,000 in cash.

The cameras were there again today dave would say. He was wary, knowing the pratfalls that documentary makers live by. Our project worried tom too. With only an agency chef on the payroll, were we up to the hard job of making it a sustainable business? There were lots of stakeholders with dirrerent ideas. Our reliance on volunteer labor made us vulnerable, and to be viable long term, we had to attract customers from a wider area. Tom warned us that good chefs were hard to come by even he struggled, and visitors wouldn’t buy, we are just volunteers, as an excuse for poor service. We had to train staff properly, unpaid or not, and our standards had to be as high anywhere.

Flights were booked for members of our board to go to his pub, the Coach, in marlow, to study the nitty-gritty of success. And the, Bang the world shut down. And every single pub, from Tom’’s Prize ones down. Was fighting for survival together.

 Later in the summer, when it was allowed. He and his film crew returned to see what progress we had made on the refurb. What the volunteers, including Dave and Dougie, had done astonished him. “ Him coming was like a visit from God,” quipped one of the hardest workers. “it did a lot for morale. He was genuinely amazed.” Half the village and our local MSP turned out, spaced round the car park, and cheered when Tom said he was blown away by what we’d achieved. It was very sweet; a simple celebration of community spirit. How little people can make something big. You have put your heart and soul into this and it shows. Said our mentr. Hiding behind a car, I listened, feeling moved and proud, because he spoke as someone who cared, not as celebrity. Then I was ambushed: a couple of friends, who had spent weeks making the bar accessible to wheelchairs, asked me to be famed testing it for the first time. I don’t know if the footage make the cut, but I do know that when harry opened his widened door for me, and I saw inside, my amazement was unbaked. Our small. Dingly bard (Tom’s Verict) was transformed beastly roomier, reorganized, refreshed, with subtle colors and details. Harry did betry me on camera, I really pray this is not included by informing me my wheelchair was the widest in the village, it was very funny. Everyone was a little high. So you are telling me my bum looks bin in this, huh? What a thing to say to a woman.

 The cameras returned one last time in autumn when the six bedrooms and the heritage room were finished. I have only seen pictures of the bedrooms (the budget did not stretch to a lift sadly), but Dougie tells me they are like a boutique hotel. We hope they look good on tally. 

 Judge for yourself when saving bartain’s pubs with Tom kerridge airs on BBC two early in November, 2020. I believe we are in the second and third episodes, but everyone who values pubs should watch the series. By then, we hope the restrictions, which closed our booming restaurant, will be lifted. If not, the bard has other plans. We have flourished against the odds so far, and we are not giving up.

@Mel_ReidTimes

Melanie Reid is tetraplegia after breaking her beck and back in a riding accident in April 2010.