Kay said the pub was important to Horncliffe’s 403 residents.<\/p>\n
Before the pub closed in 2021, the village had just lost its post office and shop.<\/p>\n
“The village is a dead end, so there’s no street traffic or anything and we’ve got a fantastic village hall, but obviously that’s organised events, whereas the pub’s just spontaneous,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There’s always somebody to talk to.”<\/p>\n
Some of the volunteers had been working 14-hour days to keep the venue open.<\/p>\n
Villagers aged in their 80s were even taking on short shifts, Kay said.<\/p>\n
The volunteers have offered the new tenants one month of free volunteering to get them settled in, then Kay said: “It’s entirely up to them what they do.”<\/p>\n
The official takeover happened on 8 July and was attended by the Mayor of Berwick and local Labour MP David Smith.<\/p>\n
“So hopefully once the word gets out there that there’s food back on and it’s open most of the time, we’ll get the business built up again,” Kay said.<\/p>\n
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