Woodcroft's Rising Sun: Community raises £350k to reopen pub

Neil Bedford (above, right) said the pub would make it easier for people in the village to get to know each other

Work has begun on restoring a derelict village pub to its former glory after a community raised £350,000 to buy it.

The Rising Sun in Woodcroft in the Forest of Dean, closed in 2011 and local residents have been campaigning to reopen it as a community pub.

A government grant of £175,000 is being used to refurbish the site, which it is hoped will reopen in the autumn.

Michelle Hayes, who has helped lead the campaign, said she hoped it would be "a real beating heart of the community".

The Rising Sun was sold to a housing developer in 2011, but planning permission was refused and Forest of Dean District Council served the owners a compulsory purchase order to secure the site in 2019.

The pub was left in a poor condition after years of closure, with a leaking roof and damage from vandalism

A total of 240 local shareholders put up the money to purchase the pub, with their campaign spanning almost ten years.

"Without having somewhere to go, the village and the community becomes a through road," said Ms Hayes.

"You lose the soul of your community," she added.

"Once these places are gone, they are gone forever and I think the community needs places like this more than they need a couple more houses."

Michelle Hayes said she wants the pub to be the "beating heart" of the community

Neil Bedford, who called the first meeting to instigate the campaign, said the pub would enable villagers to get to know each other better.

"At the moment, we don't know people in the village," he said.

"We used to meet people in the pub, get together and talk about what's going on, who had moved here and welcome new people, so it's really a community thing."

The community hope to reopen the pub by October with all future profits going back into the pub.