The Plough Inn, Fadmoor: Villagers win £300,000 government grant to buy Yorkshire pub that has been closed since 2011

The Plough at Fadmoor, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park, has been at the centre of a long and complex planning row since it ceased trading in 2011.

Its owner, dotcom millionaire Peter Wilkinson, closed the pub after claiming it was unviable, and later submitted a planning application to convert the 18th-century building into two rental homes and four holiday lets. Its condition has deteriorated and it has been described as an ‘eyesore’.

Although Ryedale Council listed the pub, which dates back to 1782, as an Asset of Community Value in 2013, meaning local residents prepared to buy and run the pub themselves would be given first refusal, the Wilkinson family initially rejected the Fadmoor Community Pub Ltd’s £350,000 offer as ‘not remotely sensible’.

However, consent for the housing conversion was refused by the National Park Authority, and though Mr Wilkinson’s company HOLF Leisure submitted an appeal to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, they failed to overturn their decision – despite planners later indicating that they would support the proposal because the pub needed to be brought back into use.

In dismissing Mr Wilkinson's appeal, the inspector stated that although they agreed the pub had been loss-making in 2011, the data on trade could not be considered relevant because over a decade had passed. They also expressed concerns at the differences in the valuation of the site given by the owners and the National Park Authority, noting that the figure provided by the former in 2021 was only slightly less than the 2011 valuation despite the building’s derelict state.

Terms for the pub’s sale to the society were finally agreed in August 2022, but there have been few updates since then and The Plough has not re-opened.

However, on Friday it was confirmed that the society’s members had won a £297,120 grant from the government’s Community Ownership Fund to go towards the purchase of the building.

They have already collected over £253,000 in investment from supporters who have been awarded ‘shares’ in the business once it begins trading.

Also successful in the latest round of Community Ownership Fund grants were the Hudswell Community Charity, who have been given £250,000 towards the cost of converting the disused St Michael’s Church in the Dales village into a walkers’ hostel; and the Bronte Birthplace Ltd, who have been awarded £240,000 to renovate the house in Thornton, Bradford where the Bronte sisters lived as children for use as a visitor centre.

The parish councils of Anston and Wickersley, both villages near Rotherham, won grants. Anston’s will use the £272,803 to restore The Old Library and in Wickersley the £264,000 pot will go towards the redevelopment of Winthrop Gardens.

Courtside Hubs CIC received the largest grant of £522,000 for a new multi-use sports facility, including floodlit tennis courts, at Hillsborough Park in Sheffield.