Sending out an SOS for more Yorkshire enterprise

Think back to 1972. It is Saturday morning in a village. Playing on the radio is Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken and all is well with your world. When lunchtime comes you will decamp to the pub for a leisurely pint.

But with the rate of national pub closures running at 16 a week there may not be one left in your village which, like all the others, will have been experiencing unprecedented change in the past 40 years.

Few have managed to hang onto their skilled tradesmen, butchers, greengrocers, newsagents, post offices and schools as well.

But there are moves afoot to do something about this and it is the villagers themselves who are being encouraged to take control.

Carlton, a tiny village in North Yorkshire’s “forgotten dale” – Coverdale – is a good case in point. It’s a handsome place and it seems relatively prosperous. But it has almost nothing in the way of facilities. A walk down the main street yields a selection of smart name plates on characterful stone-built dwellings that reveal their original purpose as a forge or whatever in days when this was a self-sufficient village rather than a dormitory community.

The doors of its only pub closed for what appeared to be the final time in the early part of last year. They do have a village hall, but that is not a comparable amenity, and to many the loss of the historic Foresters Arms was just too much.

More than 80 residents attended a meeting in the village hall and the result was the formation of a management committee which promised that by Christmas they would bring back to life the 300 year-old hostelry.

In the course of nine months they raised more than £340,000 from villagers and others who have been sympathetic to their cause, including the MP, William Hague.

Everyone who has pledged support is now a stakeholder in Coverdale Community Pub Ltd, which is designated as a community benefit society, a co-operative.

This has enabled them to purchase the pub and undertake refurbishment of the pub, restaurant facilities, kitchen and three letting rooms.

Right on cue, the Foresters Arms re-opened for business a few weeks ago on Christmas Eve with new tenants, Kimberley and Allan Brereton from Doncaster, who are also stakeholders.

“It’s getting back to what a pub is about,” says Kimberley.

“The Foresters is a real community pub. It’s all about people knowing each other. We first got involved when we went to Leyburn Food Festival.

“We had spent quite a bit of time holidaying around here and we got talking with some of the committee trying to raise the funds to get the pub back open.

“We pledged along with many others. Afterwards, the more we thought about it we believed we could run this pub. We’ve both been in the trade for a number of years, we love walking and we love this area. It all seemed right.”

The stakeholders are informed in the community pub’s literature that “it will be a profitable business and will represent a fair investment opportunity that we expect will offer modest returns to the members of the co-operative”. But how can they be sure?

Allan, who is also a paramedic now working out of Harrogate, believes that community involvement is the key to the Foresters’ future.

“We feel that once the restaurant is opened and the letting rooms are available – and both are due to be that way by mid-March – the pub will provide a reasonable income and should match what the committee has said.

“We have seen the return of the dominoes team, the ladies darts team, functions and local shooting parties in the past month and a half.

“The one major advantage we feel the pub has now is that everyone is behind it. The village has shown how much it wants its own pub and hopefully that will continue to be the case.

“We would certainly like to be a part of that for a long time.”

The Foresters Arms’ other big plus is its location. It attracts walkers and tourists of all kinds. When the doors were closed there was a knock-on effect among numerous bed and breakfast establishments and holiday cottages whose proprietors saw a reduction in bookings with no pub in the village.

Carlton might take some encouragement from the success of the George and Dragon in Hudswell, near Richmond.

The doors were reopened there in June 2010 following a tremendous effort by the community which formed a co-operative.

Its 152 members, including again MP William Hague, raised £224,000 from a community share issue to purchase the premises. They have also started a small library within the pub which is proving popular and have since reopened a separate room as a village shop.

You could say that Yorkshire is showing the country how to make this form of self-help practicable. Another pub in Hebden Bridge, the Fox and Goose, may also go down the community route if the locals can get their act together when the landlady sells up for health reasons.

A more systematic national programme of support might be expected soon from Village SOS, a body set up last year by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.

It aims to launch a rural revival by inspiring people to start community businesses and is holding its first national conference in Birmingham in just over a week’s time.

Last week saw the closing date in a competition run by the Big Lottery, in conjunction with the Plunkett Foundation, where rural communities entered their suggestions for new businesses.

Their reward could be anywhere between £10,000 to £30,000 towards their idea, as well as professional help. A number of Yorkshire villages waiting with bated breath to hear whether they have been successful in bidding for funds to help bring ideas to fruition.

Peter Ainsworth, UK chairman of the Big Lottery Fund and chairman for the conference, says: “Every year hundreds of local amenities such as shops and pubs close down in rural areas.

“The effects of this, along with limited transport options, rural isolation and lack of employment opportunities for young people can all strike at the heart of village life.”

The Plunkett Foundation is the main player in the Village SOS project, including the national conference and a nationwide tour of a roadshow which will come to Skipton in April.

Making the perfect pub

What is the main element that makes a good community pub? Invited to vote on this at the Forester’s Arms, the locals’ poll revealed good company (44.1 per cent) as the clear winner. Good beer was second (27.7 per cent) followed by good food (18.8 per cent) and lock-ins (5.4 per cent).

The Village SOS helpline (0845 434 9123) has worked with more than 1,000 rural communities across the UK.

Almost 3,000 people have signed up for the Village SOS online community (www.villagesos.org.uk)