Temporary tenants reopen village pub

St Austell Brewery put the Dolphin Inn in Grampound, Cornwall up for sale in March 2025

A pub has reopened after being closed for four months during the summer.

The Dolphin Inn in Grampound, Cornwall was put up for sale by owners St Austell Brewery in March, but the company has now found temporary tenants to keep it open for its local community.

The brewery said it hoped a permanent landlord who reflected the community would be found.

The company said it was working closely with the community to understand what it could do to help the pub thrive as a welcoming village hub.

St Austell Brewery put the pub up for sale for £415,000 and was looking to pass the ownership of the "much-loved" venue on to someone else.

Melanie Fielder from the Grampound Community Pub Committee said residents refused to lose their local pub.

She said: "We are still determined that if the brewery can't come up with the tenants, then we will go forward because we are not going to lose our pub."

Talking about the challenges around running a pub, Morgan Schondelmeier from the British Beer and Pub Association said the average publican made 12p for every pint sold.

"No matter how busy a pub is, you always have to think about how much they are having to pay just to open the doors so when you've got £1 in every £3 spent at the pub going straight back out in tax, it is a really challenging business environment," he said.