RESIDENTS of Shoscombe and neighbouring villages are being asked to dig deep to help save their local pub.

The Apple Tree Inn is up for sale and the Shoscombe Community Benefit Society has been formed to secure its future for the community - but time is running out.

The pretty, grade II listed public house nestled in the Shoscombe valley has served the community for almost 150 years, says Emma Savage, one of the management committee who are desperately raising funds to save the pub which has been registered as asset of community value.

On the market for more than a year, the team has been given an opportunity to safeguard the public house for community use.

The group undertook a large-scale survey to find out is there was local appetite for such a project and the response was a resounding yes.

Suggestions for how the space could be used were varied but essentially, it was for the pub to become a real hub for the whole community.

Emma explained: “The pub needs to become what’s called a third space; a space between home and work.

“A place that you can go and connect with people. So that's the vision - that it's got to be so much more than a pub.”

The quest to take on the public house has turned out to be a game changer.

Through fundraisers, members have come to realise that the project is able to bring two parts of the Shoscombe community that are separated by the valley, together.

An option for local people to buy shares to secure the pub for community use closes on August 31.
An option for local people to buy shares to secure the pub for community use closes on August 31. (Shoscombe Community Benefit Society)

“We've had a curry night and a Mexican night as fundraisers and people have said, it's the first time I've met somebody having lived in the village for 30 years,” Emma explained.

“And it's until you start doing community things together that actually people get an opportunity to meet each other.”

The group are looking at some quite substantial sums to buy the pub and undertake its refurbishment. Government grants that have previously enabled communities to purchase pubs in the past are no longer available, so the team have had to be resourceful.

Emma added: “We are asking for members of the community to buy community shares, and become a shareholder in The Apple Tree Inn.”

The committee are exploring all avenues to raise the funds needed working alongside Plunkett UK, a charitable organisation that helps rural communities create and run community-owned businesses.

Emma added: “We've still got a long way to go to raise that amount of money, we're busily applying for lots of grants as well.”

With some great local examples of communities saving their local, such as The Waldegrave Arms in the Chew Valley, hopes are high they will succeed.

But the clock is ticking.

“When an asset of community value is placed on a property, you have a finite amount of time, which is six months to raise the money to bid to buy the property,” Emma added.

The community has until August 31 to buy shares with all the details on the Shoscombe Community Benefit Society website.