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Locals raise £750,000 in attempt to save Norfolk pub
After it closed in May, The Hunworth Bell near Holt, North Norfolk has been at the centre of a dispute between its owner and local residents.
Also known as ‘The Hunny Bell’, which has a history dating back to the 1700s, the pub closed earlier this year when its publicans, Ben and Sarah Handley, left after holding the lease for seven years.
In July it was reported by the East Anglian Daily Press that the freehold’s owner, Stody Estate, had plans to make the pub operation smaller and convert part of the site into housing.
A letter announcing the change said that the new approach would see The Hunny Bell have a “much-reduced food offer”, in the hope that it would become “a smaller, less risky operation focused primarily on serving locals”. The letter also claimed that Stody Estate had been “heavily subsiding” the pub for many years.
Charlie McNichol, a director at Stody Estate, said that the changes were “entirely about trying to save the pub”: “We don’t want to close it, I can’t be clearer than that. We want to remodel it, to make it much more sustainable.”
The proposals were met with uproar by locals – 80 of whom attended a North Norfolk District Council meeting on 8 July to vote for the pub to be made an Asset of Community Value (ACV).
McNichol said of the backlash: “A hornet’s nest has been stirred up, people have been wound up with misinformation and false assumptions.”
Reportedly, around 140 locals raised £750,000 between them to buy the pub, with hopes of having it designated as an ACV, but Stody Estate said that it was not up for sale.
Stody Estate, which owns several other properties in the area, said in a statement, as reported by BBC News: “We have listened and our plans have evolved, including keeping the larger food offering as it is now and giving the pub some overnight guest accommodation, ahead of it reopening.”
It is understood that The Hunny Bell will reopen, with these alterations, this autumn.
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