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24
Jan
How a village pub's rebirth can be a beacon of hope for communities everywhere
At a time when UK pubs are closing permanently at a rate of one a day, stories of phoenix-like regeneration are hard to come by. Rebirths of rural pubs are particularly rare, since the economics of village life do not usually run in their favour.
But for every trend, there are the exceptions.
The Black Lion in Skelton-on-Ure, near Ripon, for example, has gone from decaying shell to thriving community hub within two years, and its revival stands as a beacon of hope for communities everywhere that losing your pub need not be permanent: there is a way back.
The Black Lion was shut by former owner Admiral Taverns in 2019 and lay empty until finally it was bought by locals who missed it.
The boarded-up pub for sale.
First, they had it listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) in 2022, and then raised £480,000 to buy it in 2024 – about half from the community and half from the government's Community Ownership Fund.
Thereafter, a small army of volunteers set about transforming the neglected premises into a fully refurbished pub, café and shop.
For a project of such importance to the community, who should run it was a crucial question, and last summer the committee behind the venture advertised for a tenant.
When the Stray Ferret asked committee chair Jane Mosley who her ideal candidate would be, she said at the time:
It might be a bit much for one person, so maybe a couple who are forward-thinking, full of ideas and understand rural life, because we’re very rural here.
If they’ve got a bit of experience in the business, that’d be great. And they need to be fun!
'We weren't just looking for a pub to run'
Step forward Tadgh Barry and Mary Benson. Tadgh (pronounced like ‘tiger’, but without the ‘-er') had 12 years’ experience in the licensed industry, having run a series of pubs in London, one of them an ACV.
Tadgh and Mary.
They had moved from the capital to York in 2021, after London had become a “very un-fun place to live” during covid. By the time the Black Lion was looking for a tenant, they had two small children and had taken a two-year break from the hospitality sector.
Tadgh told us:
I’d started to feel it was time for a new venture. Mary and I weren’t just looking for a pub to run. We wanted something more.
I’d heard about the Black Lion and was really interested. Our dream had been to move somewhere a bit more rural, with clean air and a bit of land, to create something more than just a pub. Something for all seasons and all people. This place was all those things.
Doing things 'brilliantly'
His philosophy of running pubs, he said, is to “do it brilliantly”, and that means getting the heating, decor and lighting right, and offering a wide range of drinks – including non-alcoholic ones.
It also means some things will never been seen in the Black Lion.
He said:
I won’t have fruit machines in my pub. They serve a purpose, just never in the kind of pub I run. The same goes for sport on TV. I like sport, but I’m aware of what it can take from a room. I appreciate that some things work for some places and not others.
He added:
A brilliant pub invites everyone in, no matter their colour, creed, and so on. So we make sure people are well catered for and welcome, and that we have the right products for them.
Nowadays, there’s so much more you can offer to make people feel that parting with their money is worthwhile.
The Black Lion in Skelton-on-Ure.
'I want us to be a pioneer'
Another of those is excellent food, and the Black Lion appears to have belatedly landed on its feet in hiring a chef with truly impressive credentials.
Chris McPhee’s CV includes some seriously high-end establishments. He was headhunted to work at the five-star Bovey Castle in Devon, and from there he was headhunted again to be head chef at Swinton Park, near Masham.
He said:
It was a great place, but I felt working in a hotel was quite limited in terms of creativity. I came here for a bit of individuality.
Coming to a place like this I had no idea what level it would be at. I saw it as a café serving tea and scones, and I had no idea that Tadgh and Mary would come and turn it into what it is.
My ambition here is that the pub should be full all the time. I want us to be a pioneer of the community pub.
Funding to buy the pub came from the community, and shareholders each have their own 'brick' on the pub wall.
'It blew me away'
The community aspect is important to Tadgh and Mary, who is originally from Knaresborough, and the pub’s status as an ACV is a crucial element of that.
Tadgh said:
How applicable this model is to other places will depend on the support they can get from the community.
To hear stories of what happened here to make this work is monumental. The money raised, the thousands of hours of unpaid work – it might have been possible to do it in a different way, but I struggle to see how.
Members of the community have transformed the pub.
One of the people who volunteered to do some of that work is chef Chris. He’s only been in post for three weeks, but was involved in the project earlier on.
He said:
You need to have a real drive to want to do it, but this community made it look really easy. The main ethos was just to get it up and running, and every single person had that drive to get it sorted. It blew me away.
Plans for the future
Not yet three months old, the rejuvenated Black Lion is still very much in its infancy – there is much more to come.
Chris has launched the bar menu and the dinner menu will follow in early March. There’s a pub quiz on Wednesdays, a pianist on Sundays, and Tadgh is planning more live music in the coming months.
With the better weather, there will be outdoor food, a monthly artisans’ market, a midsummer fête, a folk and beer festival – all in the renovated garden.
Just this evening, 60-plus people will sit down for a sold-out Burns Night Supper – the 21st of Chris's career – complete with bagpiper, who happens to live in the village.
Tadgh said:
We wouldn’t exist and couldn’t survive without the local community. The pub is the heart of the community, and the community is the heart of the pub.
But ultimately, in the modern day, businesses like this need more than just the local community.
It’s a shame, but these days pubs like this need to be marketed fiercely. You need to spread the net further and make it a destination venue.
A pint is expensive, so you’ve got to figure out what other things you can offer that make it worth the trip.
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