Addendum:  We will be open again in 2023, find out more here

Sadly, our pub and campsite has closed for a while, probably into next year or maybe even beyond. This is a difficult and extremely sad decision for us, our staff, and our customers.

For Denise and I we are struggling with our business demands which, in normal circumstances, would mean recruiting people to help us. Sadly, for us, our customers, the economy and the county we are tied up in the mess of our country whereby we cannot commit to staff because we cannot afford the potential souring energy bills around the corner and government has embarked on endless inaction and dither.

Our business, like many whose energy contracts are expiring, will be completely reliant on government energy subsidies to keep the cost of doing business even slightly sane.  Thus far government versions Johnson, Truss or Sunak have proven themselves incapable of giving any degree of certainty and security over future energy prices beyond winter.  We need to be able to make decisions and plan which effect the future of our business and our employees and sadly for us, time has run out and things are starting to fall apart so rather than haemorrhage money fast, we have chosen to close for the winter and haemorrhage money slightly slower with the aim of getting going again for Easter or earlier hopefully.  

Energy security is necessary for our business to figure out how to operate, if we can at all. Without support we are faced with enormous bills amounting to 5-6 times what we pay now, effectively adding upwards of £80,000 to our operating costs. It’s simply impossible.

Our customers are wishing to book holidays for next year which we are gut wrenchingly declining as we have no idea if our pub or business can exist next year. We have no idea if an electric hook-up on the campsite will cost £7 or £42 per night, or a pint will costs £6 or £20 and even in the best case, we realise these prices are close to untenable, pathetically expensive in most people’s eyes as inflation rips through the value of cash.

Until such a point where we have some stability and conditions to run a business, we have no ability to recruit, cost, sell and therefore trade. The whole of the hospitality industry is badgering Government to make some decisions (and then stick by them) because each week of perpetual dither is more businesses lost, no VAT taken, jobs lost and economic collapse.

Thank you to you all, from colleagues to customers, who have been so kind and supportive, turning our pub business into a very successful one. Closing a hitherto success story of a rural pub makes this decision extremely painful but I am hopeful we will be back again.