The end of Muker Show, which has been held in the Dales for over 100 years, is traditionally marked with a rendition of the Swaledale Song outside the village pub, The Farmers Arms.

But in recent years there have been fears that, like so many other pubs, it was doomed for closure.

Now though, the village is celebrating after residents have successfully secured the future of the pub under the community benefit scheme.

Some 500 residents and visitors to Muker have become shareholders in the pub - and having announced Claire and Craig Morris as its new tenants, the future looks secure.

Local residents Richard Walls, Louise Jupp, Louise Metcalfe and Rick Miles, part of the group hoping to take overThe Farmers Arms in Muker

placeholder image — Local residents Richard Walls, Louise Jupp, Louise Metcalfe and Rick Miles, part of the group hoping to take overThe Farmers Arms in Muker

The campaign for the community to buy the Farmers Arms was backed by former Prime Minister and Richmond MP Rishi Sunak.

And he isn’t the only well-known face to be a fan of the pub - it once welcomed King Charles, then Prince of Wales, who played a game of dominoes with a regular.

Louise Metcalfe of Muker Community Benefit Society said: “We’re hoping it’s going to bring back a buzz into Muker.

“We seemed to have lost that place everyone seems to go to - and now we’ve got it back.

Locals and visitors at The Farmers Arms in Muker on Muker Show day

“We opened it for show day and the atmosphere was unbelievable, even though we were running it ourselves and winging it.

“Now the new tenants have moved in, they’ll be getting it back to being a friendly and welcoming local pub.”

Shareholders in the pub are from as far flung places as the USA and New Zealand, showing its popularity with visitors to the National Park from across the globe.

“I think just knowing that you’ve got a part of Muker - it is such a lovely place - people just like knowing they own a part of a pub and are helping it get back to how it used to be,” said Ms Metcalfe.

“It’s brought the community back together. It’s done the village a world of good.”

Sir Mike Richards, chairman of the Muker Community Benefit Society, said: “It will be almost a year to the day when the idea of a community pub was first raised.

“To get to this point has taken a huge amount of effort and we’re immensely grateful for the support, both financial and non-financial, we have received from the people of Upper Swaledale, the wider Farmers Arms community and the membership.

“The appointment of Claire & Craig is the last piece in restoring the Farmers Arms to the iconic Dales village pub it has traditionally been and putting it right back at the heart of the community”.

Muker is a village and civil parish at the western end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire.

The parish includes the hamlets and villages of Angram, Keld, Thwaite, West Stonesdale and Birkdale, as well as the Tan Hill Inn, the highest in England. At the 2001 census the civil parish had a population of 309, reducing to 249 at the 2011 census