Less than a year ago, the almost 200-year-old Falcon Inn in Hinstock in Shropshire was empty, abandoned by its tenants and seriously damaged by flooding. The ceiling had caved in and the beer cellar was full of water after a leaking pipe had gone undetected for weeks.
“The owner didn’t seem to think it was a viable business any more. They didn’t see there was the local support for it. And we thought this could be it, we’re going to lose it for good,” said Hinstock resident Sean Kinson, 58.
But eight months on, people in the Shropshire village are abuzz with excitement as the pub is to reopen on Saturday – and this time, they’re in charge.
Over the past year, residents have rallied together to get the pub listed as an asset of community value, and formed an unincorporated community group to take over the lease.
Villagers can buy shares in the pub to become a member of the community benefit society which runs it, with a team of volunteers lined up to man the bar until enough money starts coming in to hire paid staff – and all profits will be funnelled back into the community.
The core team is led by Kinson, a retired police officer; Richard Parrish, 73, a retired doctor; Mike Thomason, 68, who worked in the food industry; and Ian Walker, 42, who runs an engineering firm. None of them have any experience of running a pub.
“The pub we inherited was seriously depressing. You would look at it and think, I have no idea how to get this back on its feet,” said Thomason. “It’s been a monumental effort to get this far.”
“It’s been a steep learning curve. I had never even been in a pub cellar before,” added Kinson. Villagers have chipped in, contributing their skills in everything from construction to graphic design to get the pub functional again.
The village is one of a growing number to take over their local pub as they disappear around England and Wales at a rapid rate – 383 pubs, or more than two a day, closed in the first six months of this year.
In the neighbouring county of Staffordshire, the Crooked House pub was burnt down and then demolished in August, causing a public outcry and calls for better protection for the UK’s historic buildings. The famously wonky building was more than 250 years old but unlisted.
There were once four pubs in the Hinstock area but the Falcon Inn, which has been a pub since at least 1836, is the last remaining. Its new managers say in rural areas like Hinstock, pubs are a lifeline for people who might otherwise have nowhere to go to socialise.
“People have said they haven’t met anybody since the pub closed. It sounds absurd but it’s true. It feels like lockdown all of a sudden,” said Parrish. “People would come in and you’d hear things and get to know people, and that has been very much missing.”
The pub had always been popular in the village, although its fortunes had fluctuated over the years as it changed hands between independent owners and pub groups.
So keen are people to have it back that the pub already has a packed calendar of planned events including a baby shower, Christmas wreath-making classes, a dominos club night, folk music sessions and “Hinstoktoberfest”.
“We don’t want people to think of its as ours – its ours as a village. We’ve had people passing by and asking if they can come and look around and we say: ‘Well it’s your pub just as much as ours,’” said Kinson.
Thomason added: “We’ll just be elated on Saturday when it’s finally back open and people are enjoying it as it should be. And we hope our journey shows people that it can be done when the public support is there.”
