Out with the old and inn with new as couple fulfil dream

Stephen Knight lost his engineering job with international construction company Caterpillar last year but it was a subsequent visit to the village of Danby Wiske, near Northallerton, with his wife Gillian that changed their lives forever.

They had fallen in love with the local pub, the White Swan, some 20 years earlier, while undertaking Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk, and were shocked to discover their favourite watering hole had closed.

The couple had wanted to return to North Yorkshire, where they were married in 1992 in Northallerton and had lived until the late 1990s, and suddenly fate presented them with the ideal chance.

Mr Knight said: "We always loved the pub after our time living in Northallerton and had long wanted to return to North Yorkshire.

"I was a victim of the credit crunch. I was an engineer designing new machines for Caterpillar but the bottom just fell out of the construction industry and the company cut its development budget by half.

"We were travelling back from the North East to where we were living in Leicestershire and wanted to pop to the pub but found it had been shut for over a year.

"Strangely we had said to each other what if the pub was for sale during the journey, and as soon as we saw that it was closed we contacted the agent, took my redundancy money and bought it."

Mr Knight, 55, said he his wife, 61, a retired teacher, had worked round the clock after moving in September to get the pub ready to open in April and now business is flowing.

"It was certainly a risk – and we are working very long hours – but we are enjoying it so much and the local people have been absolutely wonderful welcoming us.

"Everyone is so happy to have their village pub back.

"We are now looking to expand the business and convert some of the outbuildings into accommodation and we hope to be doing evening meals soon."

The pub is on the Coast to Coast route and is passed by around 15,000 walkers a year.

Michael Hughes, of York property agents Sidney Phillips, who sold the pub, said the sale was a "wonderful" boost for the community.

He said: "With so many pubs closing, it proves that there are people out there who realise the importance of the local pub to the community.

"Not only will the opening of the pub breathe new life into the village of Danby Wiske, but with bed and breakfast, camping and evening meal facilities, it will prove an invaluable service to the community of walkers who will pass the front door every year."

The opening comes after another North Yorkshire pub, The George and Dragon in Hudswell, near Richmond, was also given a new lease of life after it had been closed for a year.

Villagers managed to raise 220,000 to buy it and it was helped by a 100,000 scheme by North Yorkshire County Council to preserve library services by offering them in the same building.

The library scheme is run by a group of volunteers in The George and Dragon. It will have about 300 books and the library service will also help to support a Hudswell book club.

Mr Hughes said: "If the community that use a pub really want it open, there are a number of grants available to help.

"Non-profit making financial institutions are also eager to support sustainable community ventures.

"What could be more deserving than a public house operated by the people who need it, for the benefit of those who use it."