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Video: Two of the
villagers who invested talk about the deal

by Sarah Marshall

A pub in Mersham has new owners -
80 of them! Villagers, saddened by losing their local, the Farriers
Arms, have come together and saved it by buying it.

The pub - which has a 400 year
history and boasts a trout river at the bottom of the garden -
declined in recent years and finally closed about six months ago.
But the new owners have already started work to restore it to its
former glory.

The new company, with over 80
shareholders, finalised the purchase from Punch Taverns Ltd on
Friday lunchtime and started a mass clean-up the same
afternoon.

The time, money and elbow grease is
being invested in order to restore the pub to how it was in its hey
day when it was central to village life.

The plan to buy the pub started
about three months ago with local businessman Richard Bishop.

More than 80 people have now
stumped up £430,000 between them for the purchase of the pub, plus
an additional £200,000 to pay for the renovation. The minimum any
single investor has put in is £1,000.

And with each owner comes ideas.
They include turning an out-building into micro-brewery, developing
the knowledge of two amateur brewers who are among the
investors.

The investors get some tax
advantages through the Government's Enterprise Investment Scheme
(EIS) but after working on the figures believe it will be a viable
business.

They will employ a proven pub
manager to run the free house and hope to get the Farriers Arms
open no later than November this year.