Community-run Furness pub wins national award (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Community-run Furness pub wins national award

2:47pm Tuesday 23rd February 2010

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A LOCAL community who saved the village pub through hard work and endeavour has been named best Traditional Business in Britain.

The Greyhound Inn, at Grizebeck, took top honours at the fifth Countryside Alliance (CA) Awards, nicknamed the Rural Oscars, held at the House of Lords, beating strong competition from a record 2,500 nominations from across Britain.

The Awards run across four categories: local food; village shop/ Post Office; enterprise and traditional business, and The Greyhound was announced as the regional winner back in December.

Among those on the judging panel were famous TV chef Clarissa Dickson Wright and CA chief Executive Simon Hart, who explained why The Greyhound raced ahead of the competition.

“A unique initiative, this is a community-run pub which I think can provide a model for other struggling village pubs. Rather than see their local pub falter, Grizebeck’s locals pulled together and saved it.

“This is especially impressive when you consider how many local pubs are closing every month.

"Initially run totally by volunteers, it is now once again a thriving traditional village pub which forms the centre of the community, running events such as quiz and music nights and serving local produce.

“Saving the Greyhound has brought together people from different parts of the local area to work with a common focus, and in doing so they have saved something which, if lost, may never have been revived.”

In collecting their award, committee member Ian Carruthers said the committee hoped to buy the pub this year and donations to the cause would be welcome.

The committee is meeting at The Greyhound on Saturday (February 27) at 7.30pm to discuss the way forward for the pub and to assess the will to purchase it for the community.

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