Landlady's sadness as pub to be turned into homes

Stella Coulthurst spent £700,000 to renovate the derelict pub in 2011

“No-one is sadder than me about the outcome” says a former landlady of a pub set to be converted to housing.

Stella Coulthurst said The White Hart Inn in Hamstead Marshall, Berkshire, was "no longer viable as a public house".

The pub was forced to shut in October 2022 due to soaring energy bills.

It will now be sold and made into four houses after Ms Coulthurst said she had exhausted her personal savings.

'Never made a profit'

She spent £700,000 renovating the derelict pub in 2011.

“I employed experienced general managers to run the largely destination pub,” she explained.

She said they "tried to appeal to locals" and ran a quiz night but "financially it was a disaster" and "never made a profit".

She closed the business from 2015 to 2019 before trying to reopen again.

“Post Covid, with a dearth of staff, I moved to front of house and put on one of the best breakfasts in Berkshire," Ms Coulthurst said.

Despite this, she said, the business still struggled financially.

The former landlady said government’s recent decision to scale back support for businesses meant she has had to sell up.

Pubs were given 100% business rates relief in response to the Covid-19 pandemic but this was then cut to 75% and will be removed from April.

There were 28 objections to the plans to turn the White Hart into housing.

Five wrote in support of the Hamstead Marshall pub change, saying the landlady had worked more than 12-hour days to attempt to achieve financial viability and that very few local people had supported the pub.