Locals pull off buyout to save Swan Inn

A 600-year-old Cheshire pub has been saved from closure after regulars staged a buyout last week.

Former owner Ian Edmonson had planned to convert the Swan Inn in Kettleshulme into a family home and closed the former coaching inn in Sep-tember last year.

However, local residents who had seen their local shop and Post Office disappear from the village in previous years formed a 21-strong consortium, the Swan Kettleshulme, in a bid to save the pub.

Although the consortium raised the required £425,000, Edmonson refused to sell at first but later changed his mind much to the delight of villagers.

"It is a massive part of village life, really central to it," Swan Inn regular and consortium member Matthew Barnes told the Macclesfield Express. "We were determined that the owner, who had been in the village for four years, shouldn't turn this well-respected pub into a house."

John Adamson, former licensee of the Swan for 20 years until 2000, has been reinstated by the consortium on a temporary basis until a permanent manager can be found. The pub is expected to re-open in early March.