The Sunday Times has taken an interest in our story to preserve our village pub (and Tony Hadley's support). They printed a feature on p3 and online.
How Tony Hadley helped to save a 300-year-old pub
The former Spandau Ballet star promised to sing when his village in Buckinghamshire united to buy their 17th-century inn. Now to find a tenant.
Sunday October 06 2024, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times To walk through the Buckinghamshire village of Ashendon, perched on a hill overlooking miles of green fields and farmland, is to be transported to a simpler time. But for the last two years, one key feature of this bucolic hamlet has been missing: the beloved village pub.
When the Hundred of Ashendon closed in November 2022, locals were left without a boozer for the first time in 300 years. Now, helped by the unlikely trio of Tony Hadley, the former Spandau Ballet heartthrob, Greg Smith, the local Tory MP, and Cherie Blair, barrister and wife of Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister, the community has rallied round and bought the Hundred. They will open it themselves, bucking a national trend in which, according to UK Hospitality, pubs are shutting at the rate of almost 80 a month.
Hadley delivered an impassioned speech in July at Ashendon’s village hall to convince villagers to stump up the necessary cash. Blair and Smith wrote letters supporting the village’s successful application for a £300,000 community ownership grant, from a £150 million pot announced by the Conservative government in 2021 to protect community assets that would otherwise be lost forever.
The village raised £550,000 to purchase the inn and it will be owned by the community, with 190 small shareholders investing anything from £100 to £10,000. The majority of the shareholders live in or near Ashendon, but people as far afield as the US, Spain and Japan have donated to the cause. Hadley, Smith and Blair all live near by.
Hadley, who lives in Thame, Oxfordshire, was so enamoured by the project that he promised to perform at the pub’s launch night should the community bid succeed. He once owned a brewery and is from a family of pub-lovers. “It is at the heart of the community, especially in rural life,” he said.
“I’ve never been a big wine bar person or a big clubber. It’s always been pubs for my family. I remember as a boy I would wait for my dad outside the pub in Islington with a packet of crisps, or speak to my grandad about the pubs on Fleet Street where he worked.”
After Hadley’s speech in July, at a meeting organised by the Ashendon Community Pub Society Limited [ACPS], £250,000 was raised in shares and donations.
“I basically said, ‘if you have got any sense, you will save this pub because it could be great.’,” he said. “They’re quite lucky in this area because they have ordinary people who are putting in a few hundred and then fairly wealthy people who can put in a lot more.
“The fact they’ve managed to save the pub is fantastic and if I was in any way instrumental in getting people to put their hand in their pocket, that’s great.”
Once villagers pick up the keys next week, they will embark on a whirlwind refurbishment operation.
Last week the Hundred’s beer garden was still overrun with weeds, and rotting apples that had fallen from a nearby tree lay in the doorway. Its weatherbeaten sign lay to one side.
Sue Maldonado, a communications manager who led the community takeover, said she was not much of a pub person but saw the project’s value to the community.
“What we have now is a community which is financially and emotionally invested in this pub,” she said, saying a cheery hello to each villager we passed on the walk from the pub to her house. “We had people buying shares for their grandchildren, people buying for friends, buying as gifts for when their children turn 18.”
They also need someone to run it. A new manager will be tasked with opening an old-fashioned pub serving traditional food, rather than reviving its previous incarnation as a fine dining restaurant which appeared in the Michelin guide. The village is planning to rename the pub and is inviting members of the community to offer suggestions.
“For some people it is about legacy, for some people it’s because they love pubs and want to save pubs,” Maldonado said. “Generations of villagers have had their 18th and 21st birthday parties here.”
Liam Cummings, a resident, nods when asked if he chipped in. “The village has been quiet,” he said. “I think it will bring people back together. It will make the village a village again.”
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