A CROWDFUNDER has been set up to help get a South Hams pub back up and running.

The Pickwick Inn near Kingsbridge early this year because of financial pressures as well as the pandemic.

The pub is owned by the former Director General of the BBC and Chairman of the FA Greg Dyke.

The pub is a listed building and contains the vaulted roof of the original 15th Century St Ann’s Chapel. As a pub has had many names including Cottage of Comfort, The Three Horseshoes, The Hare and Hounds and in 1926 the name Pickwick Inn was adopted. The pub briefly became the Old Chapel Inn in the 1990s.

The owner through High Court action had the lease discharged from the then management company that closed the pub. The concern of the village was that the pub might be converted into private housing therefore Cllr Stuart Watts on behalf of Bigbury Parish Council applied for the pub to be designated as an Asset of Community Value. Cllr Watts has received over 200 letters of support.

The Pickwick was the only pub in the parish (excluding the Pilchard on Burgh Island).

A couple of months ago Ashley Collins, landlord of the Loddiswell Inn began discussions with owner about reinstating the pub. Internal decoration and renovations are in progress and Ashley hopes to open the pub as landlord before Christmas.

The Crowdfunder called Rescue the Pickwick Inn has a target of £5,000 and at the time of writing (November 15) the fund stood at £2,670.

The pub has a unique history, is of major asset of community value and in the present economic climate needs help to get the pub up and running again. The crowd target is modest and just to help with the renovation.

If you would like to chip in you can log on to:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rescue-the-pickwick-inn