Where now for the Shoulder of Mutton

It is a shame that the local village pub is fast going the way of many other local pubs in Britain, where people no longer use what was once the hub of all village activity. I would hate to see the Fulford pub (the Shoulder of Mutton) disappear and be replaced by more houses, following the fate of the post office and the local shops.

Can a community survive with only its church and village hall? Not exactly the places to take friends and family out when they come to visit! However, the less people that use it, the more difficult it is to afford to run the pub, particularly when it is a tied house and not free to purchase its beers and spirits on the open market.

The Best Kept Village committee, as small as it is, is trying to breath life back into the pub - a small questionnaire was distributed to the houses in the area (around 1000 properties), asking what people would like to do to try and save the pub and what facilities could be brought in. Alas with only 20 responses, you have to wonder what impetus there is in the village, if anything to saving it.

However, some of the feedback was very positive, with the main ideas being based around the need for the pub to provide food on a weekend - however, with the current state of the kitchens, that requires capital expenditure by the landlords, Enterprise Inns - who will only realistically spend money if they can see sufficient support from the locals.

Other ideas would be for the village to purchase the pub and run it as a community enterprise venture, which is similar to a charity but can make profits. However, the issue there is the need to raise sufficient capital - ideally to purchase the pub outright, so that it can become a free house and build on its reputation for real ales and promote the fact that the cellar at the Shoulder of Mutton is in fact an underground cave which keeps beer at the right temperature naturally without the need for expensive cooling.

Around £400,000 would need to be raised to purchase the pub and set it up as a community pub - this has been done elsewhere in the UK successfully, but it needs celebrity backing, a real draw to get people visiting and using the pub, and who knows, maybe even some American investors wanted to keep a bit of old blighty by investing in a traditional English Country Pub.

It will be interesting to see where this goes - SAVE OUR PUB - and if you live in Fulford, USE IT!