Rural Pubs

Cornwall pub receives framed apology from Vogue magazine

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Well just to prove that rural settings are at the cutting edge of fashion this article tells how:

A village pub has received a framed apology from the publishers of one of the world’s biggest fashion magazines.

The Star Inn at Vogue pub in Cornwall had been asked to change its name by Vogue magazine’s publishers as it might “cause problems”.

Publishers Conde Nast later apologised and the pub has now received a framed version of the apology.

The parcel included a handwritten note that said: “From one Vogue to another – please accept our apologies.”

Pub landlord Mark Graham said the response to the story has been “absolutely mind-blowing”.

“It’s gone worldwide. I was speaking to the Washington Post last night, and Australian TV for their ‘Have I Got News for You’ type show over there this morning.”

The programme offered him 500 Australian dollars to donate to a charity of his choice.

“To be honest I don’t think they [Vogue Magazine] have done too badly out of this mistake either. We are all friends now.

“But we still have some ideas to poke a bit of fun at them.”

The remote Northumberland village that asked the world to help save its beloved pub

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An inspirational story of a community enterprise campaign. This article tells us:

Having lost its post office, shop, petrol station and garage, the beautifully remote Northumberland village of Ridsdale has a paid a price for the isolation that comes with such sweeping views. But now the community is following a national trend and banding together to save the one thing it has left: the pub.

Determined to prevent the Gun Inn from closing after its owners decided to sell up, Ridsdale locals have formed a group with the goal of achieving a community buyout and offering people the chance to become shareholders in the venture.

The problem is that the villagers need to raise a large sum of money by a planning deadline of 22 December – and there aren’t very many of them. 

“Momentum is building, but we’re only 80 houses here and we need to raise £200,000 very quickly,” said John Bassett, 74, who chairs the group and has lived in Ridsdale for decades.

So far the village is a long way short of this target, but if it is hopeful of its chances, it is perhaps because the phenomenon of the community pub is growing. 

There are about 95 across the UK, according to the Plunkett Foundation, which specialises in helping community businesses, and that number grew by 13% in 2018. The foundation says there is currently a 100% survival rate for the community pubs it knows of, with not a single one ceasing to trade – in stark contrast to the high numbers of conventional pubs closing every year.

Shares in the Gun are being offered at £1 each, with a minimum purchase of £500. The project was given a welcome boost when the crime writer Ann Cleeves retweeted the campaign and the locals suddenly received donations from as far afield as New York, Kansas and Michigan.

Beer drinkers abandon pubs as supermarket sales dominate for the first time

With all the plaudits offered to community pubs and celebration around the work of the agencies who have saved rural services this story shows there work is likely to remain unfinished for a number of years yet! It tells us:

More beer is being sold in supermarkets than pubs for the first time, as a trend for home-delivered restaurant food is encouraging middle-aged drinkers to abandon nights out.

Figures from the British Beer and Pub Association show the balance has shifted dramatically since 1980, when pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels accounted for 87 per cent of all bitter and lager sold.

Later, in 1990 pubs and other venues still held on to an 80 per cent share of the market. But now their share of sales has slipped to 49 per cent, as the amount sold in supermarkets and off-licences has grown to 51 per cent, overtaking it for the first time since records began.

Experts said the tipping point had come amid a growing trend for restaurant food being delivered to people’s homes, encouraging them to choose nights in over trips to pubs and restaurants.