Farming Today This Week

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Farming Today: Farming Today This Week: Rural services (in a pub)

Farming Today This Week: Rural services (in a pub)

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Farming Today This Week: Rural services (in a pub)

Charlotte Smith finds out how a pub in Wiltshire serves as a community hub.

Charlotte Smith heads to the village of Winterbourne Bassett to find out how a community group who have bought and renovated their local pub have made it into a community hub.

Charlotte Smith abandons her muddy wellies and heads to The Winterbourne pub in Winterbourne Bassett which was bought in 2018 by a group of community owners who wanted to put the pub back into the heart of the community.  Winterbourne Bassett comprises of some 60 houses and has no banks, no post office or any bus service, and Howard Witt from the community group says that when the original pub shut down in 2017 the village became dead.  He and the committee raised over £300,000 to buy and renovate the pub.  Reg Clarke from the organisation Pub is the Hub talks about how he helped with advice and finding grant funding, and the importance of finding professional licensees, and Reg and Howard explain why the services of an I.T. hub and a children's playground that is available for all to use were the appropriate starting point for this new venture.  Emie Hawkshaw, who runs the pub with her husband Roger, tells Charlotte why they decided to take the pub on, how they cope without a bank nearby, and what they hope to do in the future. 

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Toby Field

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