Gilsland villagers raising money to save Samson Inn

Jane McDaid is optimistic that the Samson Inn will reopen its doors

A rural community could be on the verge of buying its own pub.

The village of Gilsland, which straddles the Cumbria-Northumberland border, saw the Samson Inn close in October 2022.

It left the community with just one pub and nowhere serving food in the evenings.

The asking price for the pub is £295,000 and the Save Our Samson campaign has raised more than £130,000 in share pledges.

The Gilsland Community Benefit Society was set up and and a share offer launched in December 2023.

Along with the money pledged by more than 300 people, campaigners hope that the rest will come from the government's Department for Levelling Up and its Community Ownership Fund.

The government is providing £150m over four years to support community groups in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets and amenities, including pubs, at risk of being lost.

Jane McDaid is the chair of the management committee behind the project. She is optimistic that the Samson will reopen given the public support.

"We started off on 7 December," she said. "Within three days we had £30,000 and now we have £132,500 and even more still coming in which allows to make a really good Community Ownership Fund grant bid."

'Keep Gilsland viable'

Now 15 months since the Samson Inn closed, the impact on the village, which sits on the Hadrian's Wall National Trail and gets thousands of visitors every year, has been profound.

Clare Hawkins has had to adapt her bed and breakfast business to meet the demand for food. She says offering evening meals at Dacre House is a short-term fix and not a long-term solution.

"Tourism is a main employer in the village, with 40,000 visitors a year," said Clare. "So, all of those need somewhere to be fed and watered.

"And we need to keep Gilsland as a viable location that's one of the major stops on Hadrian's Wall, and we need to have the capacity to serve all of those visitors, otherwise people go elsewhere."

Sheep farmer John Woodmass-Calvert is trying to bring together a "diverse mix" of people to buy back the pub

John Woodmass-Calvert is Gilsland born and bred and he manages the family sheep farm. He is on the Save our Samson committee and believes the response to the share offer bodes well for the future.

"When people invest money in something, they want something back," he said.

"They want to partake in it. The way we've structured our whole business, it's trying to bring people in.

"It's been inclusive; it's trying to get a diverse mix of people out the village. We've set the share price relatively low compared to most other community pubs in the country.

"We've set it at a £1 a share with the minimum purchase price of 25 shares."

'Nowhere else to eat'

Andi Keen owns and runs the House of Meg Tea Rooms in the village. He once worked at the Samson and is backing plans to reopen it as a community owned pub.

"You see I'm open during the day I close early afternoon and then between then there's nowhere else to eat," explained Andi.

"Getting the Samson reopened will be really good for locals coming in and visitors from overseas."

According to the Campaign For Real Ale, there are now 192 community-owned pubs across the UK.

If Gilsland's application for Community Ownership Funding is successful, they aim to recruit a tenant and reopen the Samson Inn this the summer.