Action for Market Towns Awards 2010: Hudswell Community Pub, North Yorkshire
By Katie Fewings • Jan 7th, 2011 • Category: AwardsPutting the pub back into Hudswell
The local pub has traditionally been at the heart of the community. But they are closing at the rate of hundreds a year. Is there a role for local community action when the last pub in your town or village is threatened with closure?
The villagers of Hudswell thought so when their local, the George and Dragon, closed its doors in 2008. Now it is open again, thanks to the efforts of eighty villagers and ninety other friends and supporters who joined Hudswell Community Pub Ltd, the co-operative that has bought and renovated the village local.
Hudswell Community Pub Ltd is an Industrial and Provident Society for Community Benefit. Each member has to be a shareholder, with shares costing £1 each. The minimum shareholding is 500.
The funds to purchase the George and Dragon were raised from 150 individual shareholders, half of whom are from the village, and a fair proportion from the nearby town of Richmond. There is one major institutional shareholder, the Key Fund Yorkshire which invested £20,000.
More than just a pub
This enterprise is now managed by a board of 11 directors, all of whom are Hudswell residents. The new George and Dragon is not just a pub – it offers a far wider range of services than most public houses including:
- a village shop selling basic supplies
- home baked products and fresh vegetables
- a small library serviced by North Yorkshire County Council
- free internet access
- a village information service
- 6-10 allotments on the land to the rear of the pub
Although it is owned by a co-operative, the George and Dragon is run in a traditional way, with the licensed business let to a tenant who will pay the cooperative an annual rent sufficient to allow the society to pay a reasonable dividend to its members.
Hudswell Community Pub won the Social and Community category of the Yorkshire and Humber Market Town Awards.
What next?
- Join Action for Market Towns for access to our valuable database of case studies (including a detailed study of this Award-winning project and contacts), policy and practice research, and much more (AMT members read the full case study here)
- Find out more about the Action for Market Towns Awards
- Share tips on starting community-owned enterprises in the AMT Forum
Katie Fewings is Katie graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2000 with a BA in Modern Languages (French, Spanish & Portuguese).
She honed her organisational skills over nearly four years as PA to the Director of an internationally renowned firm of architects in London before moving to Brighton and taking up the post of Project Manager at the online ethical travel directory, responsibletravel.com. In this role, she organised the annual Responsible Tourism Awards with partners World Travel Market, The Telegraph, Geographical Magazine and BBC World News, and facilitated a programme to develop and support community based tourism with the Washington NGO, Conservation International.
Katie has a strong interest in issues of sustainability and social responsibility, and has set up her own website, Ethical Weddings (www.ethicalweddings.com) to help couples plan the wedding of their dreams without compromising their values. She also co-founded Our Ethical Network in Brighton to give ethically motivated businesses in the city the chance to meet one another, share common problems and explore business opportunities.
Katie is developing AMT's online presence and helping towns to share knowledge and best practice from their successful initiatives through online networking in the new AMT Forums and other social media.
She works Tuesdays and Thursdays and can be contacted on 07876 701 266 or by email at katie.fewings@towns.org.uk.
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