Stretton residents look into pub proposal

Villagers who recently lost their popular country pub have decided to sound out the community about whether to buy up the venue and open the doors once more.

The Jackson Stops pub in Rookery Lane, Stretton, closed in January after its long serving landlords decided not to renew the lease.

Now a group of locals have decided to sound out the rest of the village about whether the pub can be bought and run as a community venture. Leaflets have been posted through doors and a meeting will be held next week to find out whether the suggestion has support.

The possibility of taking on the pub was the idea of Kate Lou and Liz Foster has been one of the residents who have been meeting to do some research. The stone built pub, which is for sale at £495,000, has been listed as an asset of community value.

She said: “The idea of the meeting is to ask people ‘what do you think to this? We want to sound people out and see what enthusiasm there is. It has been done in other places and so is possible.

“We thought we can’t let it go without a fight.”

However with just 65 homes in the village it could be a tall order. A questionnaire has gone out to each household along with the leaflet which says:

“It is a huge undertaking that will need energy and resources from the community. Raising the funds needed will be a daunting challenge, but there are organisations that can help and across the UK more than 150 similar pubs have beensaved by their communities. Many possibilities need to be explored including bursaries, grants, crowdfunding, raising capital and loans. We will also need to consider whether the current model of fine restaurant dining plus local pub can be sustained.”

Over the years the pub, which is just off the A1, had been commended by Michelin for its food and was also famous for being host to the East Midlands based Nurdlin game, which involves throwing old pennies into a hole in a bench. Each year the pub held the nurdling world championships.

Liz Foster said: “It has been a loss to the village. We had the old fashioned nurdling games and it used to be regularly attended for quizzes. There were a lot of regulars and the Sunday lunches were exceptionally popular.”

The meeting is taking place at the Community hub within St Nicholas Church at 6pm on Wednesday, July 16.