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Country pubs are closing despite Prince Charles's efforts with the Pub is the Hub campaign. But one family reveal success is as much about personality as economics. Chris Berry reports.
AT Cherry Burton, near Beverley, the ducks move at leisurely speed on the village pond, reinforcing the impression that this is the kind of place where nothing much happens.
But it has had its fair share of tribulation in the recent past, including floods in 2007 when the village was cut off for some time. Last year it was cut off in a different sense when it lost its only pub, the Bay Horse.
In November, a mother and son team, Tracy and James Marritt, were offered the opportunity to take it on, even though they were, and still are, running another village pub, the White Hart, in North Cave.
Tracy understands only too well the parlous state of the public house industry. But she isn't downbeat and feels that village pubs can still play an important role.
"The number of pubs closing throughout the country has gone from 45 a month to 60 in the past year," she says. "Most villages that had two or three pubs in
the past are down to just one or two.
"But you can tell just how much we mean to those who live in this village. We didn't know anyone when we came here but within days of our arrival we had people, total strangers, coming up to us, shaking our hands and welcoming us.
"It really is a village pub, for the villagers, and the locals are backing us tremendously, using our facilities for all kinds of events. They had a taste of it being shut and I think that has probably made them more keen than ever to support it."
Several of Tracy's family have been involved in the licensed trade over the years, mainly around Hull, where she comes from. Rural pubs, she says, are different.
"It's all more personal out here in Cherry Burton or over at North Cave. You really do get to know your locals. Everyone likes it when they are able to talk like real friends and neighbours with questions like 'How's your mam?' or 'Is her leg any better?'
"You get to know each other more and start looking out for people in the village. If someone hasn't been seen for a while and you start talking about it, then often as not someone will go around to take a look at their house just to make sure they are OK.
"Everyone looks out for everyone else, whatever their age. If some of the young ones see one of our really older ones struggling to get in they will go and give them a hand. You get that kind of rapport at a local village pub. I've made some great friends in the short time we've been at both the White Hart in North Cave and here at the Bay Horse."
Cherry Burton isn't short of activities, organisations and facilities. It has a village shop, which also acts as a post office. There's a vibrant, high-achieving primary school, a village hall that hosts nationally acclaimed musicians through the popular Cherry Burton Arts group, a well-attended church and a variety of very active sports clubs – cricket, football, tennis and rounders.
The village is also one of only two in the country to have achieved Fairtrade Village status, for promoting fairtrade and local produce.
"In both of our pubs we are very conscious of utilising local produce from local farmers and food companies. We use Good & Fresh here at Cherry Burton and we are able to tell our customers exactly where our pork has come from at the White Hart.
"In fact, we could take them to the farm itself while they were waiting for their meal as it's only a short distance away. Wherever we can we use local staff too. We appoint people from Cherry Burton to work at the Bay Horse and people from North Cave to work at the White Hart. It's all part of keeping the community alive."
One of the main problems for the previous tenant was coping with really high overheads. The Marritts have negotiated a lower rent with the brewery (Marstons) and one that Tracy now feels is viable. But it's not all about high overheads. James believes the difference between buying a pint in a pub, and buying beer from a supermarket is the real problem.
"Supermarket sales have made a massive change to the pub business. You come into a pub, particularly your village pub, for the ambience and the rest of it.
"But if you're looking at your weekly take-home and you've only 20-30 to spare, you might be more than tempted to spend 10 on a crate of beer rather than four pints at 2.50 in a pub, even though it's a better atmosphere here.
"Recently we've found that in both villages there are now such a lot of people who have lost their jobs or have been put on short-time that they have even less spare money.
"While they are, largely, still coming to the pub, some are now trying to make a pint
last a bit longer rather than having four or five because they can't afford it.
"In the House of Commons they have been talking about drinks such as White Lightning being made more expensive, so that there aren't as many binge drinkers. I think they want to look at lowering the price of normal beer that people like us sell in pubs – but with an across-the-board minimum price.
"The price at which supermarkets are selling two or three cases, we couldn't even buy it at. If there was any way the Government could help by reducing the tax on beer I am sure that would bring more people out and keep more pubs alive."
The Marritts appear to have brought back the real family spirit to their two pubs. Tracy's daughter, Charlotte, and husband, Glen, are also involved, and the whole family go out of their way to entertain their customers.
"For St Patrick's Day we reduced all our prices on anything with an Irish connection – Guinness, Irish whiskey, Baileys. We brought down the prices on fruit juices for drivers too, and made it a good night out. We will lose money on all the offers but we're trying to give people a good time."
One thing they weren't expecting, and a useful spin-off from running the two pubs, was the coming together of the locals from both villages. They are only about 10 minutes apart, but by no means neighbours. Yet it seems the Marritt family link has now also become a village link.
"When we took on the Bay Horse, the locals from the White Hart helped us with a good spring clean of the place in readiness for opening it back up again.
"Now what we're finding is that the locals at each pub really get on and each pub is organising minibuses to ferry each other to the other pub for the occasional night.
"It's becoming a real inter-village thing and we're just about to start regular darts matches between the two pubs. We're also all going to Beverley Races together this year 40 of us in all, with 25 from here and the rest from the White Hart. We're here to stay."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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