Pub landlords 'so happy' to be back open after crash

A young couple who got the keys to run a pub the day before a car crashed into it said they were "so grateful" after hundreds of people attended the pub's reopening.

Will Roberts and Abbie Josling, both 21, have spent the last nine months restoring the Strangers Home in Bradfield, Essex, after the accident last September.

"We think we have had more than 1,000 customers through the door. We were not expecting that and we are so grateful," Ms Josling said.

The couple, who live in Chelmsford, had spent the night before the accident cleaning the bar after getting the keys.

They got a phone call the next morning to say a car had crashed through the front of the pub.

"I didn't even know what to think. I was so stressed, I couldn't even speak, I didn't think we could come back from it because the building is so old," she said.

"It has been very hard, and there have been so many things that have gone wrong, like leaks. It didn't feel like it was meant to be but we have done it."

The couple, who are engaged to be married, had never managed a pub before. Ms Josling had been going to the pub's adjoining campsite for holidays for years and jumped at the opportunity to run the pub when she heard about it.

"We're so happy. I thought this day would never come and it has been even more amazing than I thought it would be.

"It has made all the stress and hard work worth it," she added.

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