Thanks to long-term Great Shefford resident Roy Bailey for sharing his article about the village pub:
Like other residents of Great Shefford, I am concerned at the doubtful future of our local pub.
Firstly, let us dispense with this ‘The Great Shefford’ nonsense. Renaming The Swan Inn as such was an attempt by the previous landlord, Joshua Khan, to be ‘on trend’. Similar examples of this latest pretentious fashion can now be seen at the former Bell at Boxford and The Five Bells at Woodspeen.
The fact that a local Facebook poll produced a majority in favour of the change in Great Shefford suggests that many of the voters had no sense of history or tradition. A name like The Swan is very appropriate for a riverside pub, even though that noble bird has never been seen on the River Lambourn. In any case, most official documents still list the pub under its original name.
Our local owes its existence to the fact that the ancient highway from Oxford to Salisbury crosses both the road from Newbury to Lambourn and the River Lambourn at this point. According to the Berkshire Family History Society, The Swan has operated as a pub since at least 1752, but it would have been in the coaching era that it came into its own.
Although never a coaching inn like The Bear in Wantage and The Three Swans in Hungerford, it operated as a posting house where the coach horses were exchanged for fresh ones. An early twentieth century photo shows the range of stables at the front where the bus stop now stands, as do the early Ordnance Survey maps. After the demise of the stagecoaches in the mid-19th century, the publican ran a substantial racehorse training yard from the premises.
When I moved into Great Shefford with my family in the late 1960s, The Swan was a vibrant village inn owned by Courage Brewery of Reading and run by Ken and Rita Davies. My aged father Harry often played cribbage there, and a number of games with an American visitor called Earl Sissons led to an all-expenses-paid invitation to visit him and his family in Maryland. This Harry did at the age of 85. It was that sort of pub – a real social centre for all.
After Courage was forced by law to divest themselves of most of their pubs, The Swan was leased by Eldridge Pope of Dorchester and run by a very sociable young couple called Kevin and Sue. This was probably the pub’s zenith; from then on it went downhill with frequent changes of owners and licensees.
After being badly flooded again in 2007, it was closed for something like 18 months while the tenant tried to renovate it himself – without success.
Much later, Joshua Khan, who also ran two other local pubs, spent a lot of money turning it into a gastropub, and although he was very community minded, especially at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, his tenure unfortunately coincided with the Covid pandemic.
The Swan closed in October 2023 when Joshua’s company which leased it went into administration, and it is now on the market freehold for £650,000 plus VAT.
There are fears among local people that the premises could be either converted into a private dwelling or demolished. This latter fear is unfounded; The Swan was declared a Grade II listed building in 1951. However, conversion into a private house or flats could well happen unless the community gets its act together.
As well as being Grade II, The Swan was also listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) some years ago, but the parish council appears to have allowed this to lapse.
At the annual parish meeting in May some of us lobbied the council to apply to West Berkshire Council for this listing to be renewed, but so far there has been no announcement as to progress.
An ACV listing imposes a pause on a sale for up to six months to allow the local community a chance to raise funds and submit an offer to purchase the property.
A building the size of The Swan would make a splendid small hotel. I have never been on the second floor, but I imagine that there would be plenty of space for letting accommodation. The Tally Ho at Hungerford Newtown is a smaller building, but this has three en-suite rooms on the upper floor. And being a hotel would not preclude The Swan from acting as a local pub.
There are plenty of such places in the country; Annabel and I recently spent a night in the Half Moon Hotel in the centre of Sherborne. Although it has a number of rooms for bed and breakfast accommodation, there is no better indication that it is a genuine local boozer that the fact that, being Euros final night, the bar and dining room, like every other pub in the town, was absolutely jam-packed with football supporters!
Our pub’s position at a crossroads on a main north/south route and close to a motorway junction is (or should be) a godsend, and as a hotel it would attract more business than as just a pub, which would be beneficial to the village and the surrounding area.
When The Tally Ho was sold to property developers in 2012 and threatened with conversion to housing, the locals got together, lobbied the planners to reject the application, formed a company, raised the money, bought the pub and re-opened it. I purchased a share and helped with the refurbishment – I am prepared to do the same again here.
What about the rest of the community?
© Roy Bailey 2024
Photo credits: Roy Bailey and Great Shefford Remembered
One Response
Perhaps Penny Post should add a poll to gauge interest for a community pub