A ‘legendary’ pub has been saved after locals raised more than £550,000 to purchase it for community ownership.
The Drewe Arms in Devonshire shut around a year and a half ago before the residents launched a Crowdfunding campaign.
The pub’s best-known character was ‘Auntie’ Mabel Mudge, who is said to hold the record as Britain’s longest-serving landlord.
Mabel navigated black-outs, recessions, World War Two and personal tragedies at the ‘exceptional’ Drewe Arms in Devon.
The teetotaller’s legacy now stands to be continued by locals rallying behind the campaign to save the rural pub on the fringes of Dartmoor.
The Drewe’s future was thrown into doubt when it shut in 2022 following a trading history dating back to at least 1756.
The main online campaign ended with the appeal and direct investments combined raising £552,875, enough to cover the purchase and begin work to open it as a community pub in the spring.
Imogen Clements, who is on the steering group behind the campaign, told Metro.co.uk: ‘We’re absolutely thrilled and truly overwhelmed by the level of support we’ve received, it shows how important pubs like this are.
‘The Drewe is a quirky, thatched Dartmoor pub, full of character and history that has clearly touched the hearts of many – not just locals who’ve known the pub through generations, but people who would come here as children on family holidays, walkers and visitors to Devon who have stopped by the village only to find the pub closed, to those who simply believed in our campaign to save the pub for the community and wanted to help.’
The locals plan to get the taps flowing once more as well as establishing a café, social hub and community kitchen with a ‘meals on wheels’ service at the Grade II-listed building in Drewsteignton village square.
Idiosyncrasies at the Drewe include drinks being ordered through a little hatch, behind which lies a tap room where ale is poured from the cask.
After donations poured in, the main appeal closed on November 12 just short of its £600,000 target — but with enough funds to forge ahead with the plans. Donations are still being accepted on another page.
Stonegate, the pub’s owners and the UK’s biggest pub company, have already accepted an offer but the purchase is yet to be finalised.
The community group says that the future will provide a less onerous management model than those involving landlords tied to pubcos and breweries. Imogen said: ‘Contributions have come not just from Devon but from all corners of the UK and beyond: Spain, France, the States, even Australia, and there are literally hundreds of messages of support that have been left on the Crowdfunder’s comments section and on Facebook. It’s been so heart-warming.’
Foremost in the memories that have been invoked by donors and fundraisers is that of Mabel and her husband Ernest, who took on the then Druid Arms in 1919. The licensee is said to have kept up the pub’s trading hours even after Ernest’s sudden death aged in his 50s.
Mabel retired at the age of 99, after which the villagers ran the pub for nearly a year under an agreement with the then owners, Whitbread.
Known affectionately as ‘Auntie Mabel’, she once told how she ‘only ever had a drop of lemonade’.
She added: ‘I can’t say I ever smoked much either: course, in my young days the girls didn’t have much smokes anyway.’
Occupying a site dating back to 1646, the Drewe is considered a ‘legend in the annals of historic rural pubs’ by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
The group also describes the Drewe as being among Britain’s ‘timewarp’ pubs which may have no bar counters or features such as untouched interiors, and are considered as having ‘exceptional historic importance’.
Mabel, whose hallmarks in the pub include pictures of her on the wall and ‘Mabel’s Room’ on the ground floor, died aged 101. CAMRA has also said she was England’s oldest licensee at the time she retired from the Drewe.
A spokesperson for Stonegate Pub Partners said: ‘We have accepted the community group’s offer to purchase The Drewe Arms in Devon, and we are currently working together with the group to get the sale finalised.
‘The community group have made a sterling effort in raising the funds through a crowdfunding campaign to not only buy the pub, but also to renovate it, and we wish them well in the future.’
To view the Crowdfunder campaign, click here
MORE : Battle to save ‘timewarp’ pub where landlady pulled pints for 75 years
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