Historical artefacts salvaged as pub is demolished

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  1. The Decoy Tavern in Fritton with a blue and grey cherry picker out the front and contractors dressed in orange high visibility clothing removing roof tiles. The building has white uPVC windows with fake diamond leadwork, and a decorative brick entrance at the porch. The roof of the pub, and the neighbouring cottage, are red clay pantiles. The sky is blue. An orange traffic cone and a heap of sand are in the foreground.
    Andrew Turner/BBC

    Contractors said it would take about two weeks to demolish the pub

Andrew Turner
BBC News, Norfolk
Reporting from
Fritton

Historical artefacts are being salvaged from a pub that villagers tried to save, as demolition work begins to allow new houses to be built.

The Decoy Tavern in Fritton near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk closed in 2022 after its owners said the business was unviable.

Roof tiles, bricks and even the bar will be sold, which salvage business operator Andy Warnes said could be used to preserve other buildings and conservation projects.

He said the demolition team were "very good at getting the most out of every building", calling it a very green activity.

Lifting up floorboards in the oldest part of the pub, he added: "These are nice, properly old boards, so we will save every one we can."

Andy Warnes is bent over, with a crowbar in hand, lifting floorboards from the first floor room at the Decoy Tavern in Fritton. He is wearing an orange hard hat, red gloves, a burgundy polo shirt, with a yellow high visibility tabbard over, and brown shorts, and workers safety boots. The room is decorated in blue, with parts of the plaster missing and wallpaper hanging, with carpet rolled up in the corner of the image. A radiator is on the wall beneath the window.Andrew Turner/BBC

Salvage contractor Andy Warnes said many materials, including original floorboards, would be saved

A planning inspector prevented the pub's demolition in 2022 but new plans for three houses were passed by Great Yarmouth Borough Council in January.

Estate agent Mike Drewery said no offers were made to buy the pub in three years.

"It wasn't structurally sound as a building and it wasn't sound as a business, so you have to look at what's viable for the site and that's development," he said.

Kiel Barber standing outside the Decoy Tavern in Fritton. He is wearing a white hard hat and an orange high visibility tee-shirt, with silver stripes on the front. He is standing in front of the pub, which has some of the roof tiles removed as the building is being demolished. It is a cream coloured building with a symmetry of bay windows and first floor windows, and an extension to the right of the image.Andrew Turner/BBC

Kiel Barber said the pub could no longer compete, with better offers of food and views elsewhere

Kiel Barber from demolition firm E.E. Green said: "There's a lot of dry rot, damp where water has come through, you can see where the roof has sagged and it's had a few bodges just to keep the weather out.

"It would have cost a fortune to make it worthy again as a pub.

"Sometimes there comes a time when the easiest and best thing to do is pull it down and start again."

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