Serving the community 'remains at the core' of The Thorold pub in Marston after organisers cope with lockdowns and other challenges during first three years
A village pub ran by volunteers has celebrated three years of serving the community.
The Thorold Pub in Marston was reopened by a group of villagers on November 30, 2019 after raising over £250,000 to buy the pub and refurbish it.
Since then, The Thorold has cemented itself into the Marston community, by helping to support the village through the Covid-19 pandemic and providing people with a place to meet, eat and drink.
The pub originally closed in July 2015 and, later that year, a group was formed to try and reopen the pub.
By 2018, enough money had been raised to buy The Thorold, thanks to 247 shareholders, comprised of villagers, family and friends, as well as people living abroad.
Sandra Allen, secretary and treasurer, moved to Marston eight years ago. She said that one of the reasons for doing so was that there was a pub in the village.
Sandra said: "I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”
After buying The Thorold, the group completed a refurbishment of the pub, including a revamp of the B&B rooms and the addition of a village store.
“It was a very different place. We have transformed it,” added Sandra.
On Wednesdays, The Thorold runs an outreach post office thanks to Harlaxton Post Office, as well as a coffee morning.
Chris Stephens, part of one of the sub-committees that helps with running the pub, said: "The first three years have been very interesting and I think it’s fair to say that the community based committee running the pub have learnt quite an amount.
"It’s only when a project such as The Thorold gets up and running that the actual nuts and bolts of what needs to be done can be truly seen.
"It is difficult to say whether it has gone as expected as I’m not sure what our expectation was. I suspect we would take "still here after three years” as a starter though!"
"From health and safety policies to staff inductions, from keeping the beer pipes clean to dealing with wasps who had kindly availed themselves of a cosy roof space, an extensive range of the everyday had to be overcome.
Chris explained that the pandemic dealt the pub a "fairly heavy body blow", with the first lockdown coming just four months after reopening, "stalling any momentum" that had been built up at The Thorold.
"However, the shop, which is an integral part of the pub, remained open and was a lifeline to many villagers and helped cement us into the community," added Chris.
Another challenge presented to those running The Thorold is recruiting and retaining staff.
Chris said: "The way we close any gaps in the rota is to call upon volunteers. I’m sure that I speak for the majority of folk when I say that volunteering can be both challenging and rewarding in equal measure.
"One of our key learnings has been to put on events and promote them better.
"This has definitely taken a huge upswing over the past three months. To make no bones about it, this was driven by financial forces. We needed to up our game, cut costs and bring in more customers.
"Having said that, serving our local community remains our core principle.
"To this end and flying in the face of the recession we see going on all around us, we are extending our opening hours, improving and expanding our food offering and putting more events on."
On a monthly basis, the pub hosts a book club, lunch club and quiz, as well as culinary specials, music and private events.
Chris added: "We are fortunate on the energy front as we have a large solar panel installation which insulates us to a certain degree, against the market."
To mark their third anniversary, the pub's beer supplier, Batemans, kindly donated some beer and wine, allowing people a free drink to toast the Thorold.