Villagers form group to rescue pub
VILLAGERS battling to save a 300-year-old pub that has stood empty for eight months have formed a steering group to accelerate plans to buy it.
More than 45 people turned out for a public meeting on Monday and pledged their support to co-operatively run The Plough, in Fadmoor, near Kirkbymoorside.
Bob Ibbotson, who chaired the meeting, said: “We are going to form a committee, which will include people from the parish and further afield, and we are going to get an independent valuation. We will then probably put an offer in, but our preferred option is for someone to buy it independently.”
The Plough is being sold for more than £450,000 by owner Peter Wilkinson, one of the UK’s richest men. He said losses of £25,000 a year forced January’s closure.