Property

How I plan to restore my local to its former glories

By Liam Coleman

- Last updated on GMT

Render: The new owners plan on doing a full outside render of the site
Render: The new owners plan on doing a full outside render of the site

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In despair at seeing the downward spiral of the pub in the village where he grew up - the White Lion, in Rempton, Nottinghamshire - Russell Pytches and three other locals decided to fight back and buy the freehold. He tells The Morning Advertiser about his plans for the site.

I used to live in the village and still live nearby, while the other three still live in Rempton itself. There is no shop or post office there; really the pub is the last facility left and we had just watched it go down hill.

It used to be a thriving pub that people would come into after work as a social hub for the community. Yet without the pub, the village hasn’t got a heart anymore.

Having bought it freehold, the site now needs doing up. We obviously can’t afford to do the whole thing in one go. While we also don’t want to lose its character as a traditional, cosy, drinking pub.

We plan on doing an outside render, the ladies & gents toilets, a full internal repaint and redo the seating.

The White Lion 3

All the beer lines are then coming out and we plan on putting brand new lines in because if your cellar is not right nobody is going to come in. When that is done we plan on having a drink offer of three bitters, a premium lager, a standard lager, Guinness and a cider on tap. The trouble is that you can’t start off with a huge range of beers because you have got to sell them.

When we open it in December, we want to make an impact. We don’t want people to think the pub has lost its character; we just want to make it look like a traditional pub that the community can be proud of.

We are all enthusiastic, we just hope we can make it work. Buying it is one thing, running it is something else.

  • The Morning Advertiser​ will be regularly checking in with the locals' restoration journey over the coming months.

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