12
Jun
Rural community seeks tenant for the village pub it saved
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Villagers who raised money to buy their historic local pub for the community last year have launched a search for a tenant to run it.
The Black Lion pub in Skelton-on-Ure, between Ripon and Boroughbridge, was shut by former owner Admiral Taverns in 2019, but was saved after locals had it listed as an Asset of Community Value in 2022 and raised around £480,000 to buy it in March 2024.
The Skelton-on-Ure community took ownership of the Black Lion pub in 2024.
About £240,000 came from the community and a similar amount came from the government's Community Ownership Fund.
Since then, a small army of volunteers has transformed the neglected premises into a fully refurbished pub, café and shop.
The café is already up and running and is open from 10am to 2pm at weekends.
The café.
But the pub – which will remain a free house – needs a tenant to run it, so the community is on the hunt for one.
Committee chair Jane Mosley told the Stray Ferret:
We’ve tried to make it easy for any new tenant – we've done as much as we can for them. There’s a brand-new pub with commercial kitchen, beer garden and large car-park – all they have to do is sort out a brewery, move in and start pumping beer.
There’s so much potential. There’s the café, a tiny shop, and an acre of campsite with five or six pitches. One of the bedrooms upstairs can be shut off too, so there’s even potential for an Airbnb. Money can be made from all these things.
The refurbished bar.
Although the 30-odd core volunteers are looking forward to the day when someone else will take over the running of the place, they are also keen that the right person should be offered the five-year lease.
Asked who her ideal tenant would be, Ms Mosley said:
It might be a bit much for one person, so maybe a couple. They'd need to be forward-thinking, full of ideas, and fun!
They'd need to understand rural life, because we’re very rural here, and if they’ve got a bit of experience in the business, that’d be great.
Anyone interested in taking up the lease should contact Mike Ramshaw at recruitment@skeltonblacklion.com.
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