Lake District residents raise £400k to buy Bampton pub

Villagers have raised £400,000 to buy and reopen a 150-year-old pub.

Residents of Lake District village Bampton hope to complete the purchase of the closed Mardale Inn within weeks.

The Bampton Valley Community Pub group set up an investment scheme for people to buy shares which raised £180,000 in the first week.

Campaigners said the pub would be a draw for both locals and tourists visiting the nearby lakes of Ullswater and Haweswater.

The Mardale Inn, also known as St Patrick's Well or the Bampton Jerry, served the area for more than 150 years before closing in 2018, campaigners said.

Some refurbishment work is required and the group hopes to build an off-street car park with a tenant landlord also to be sought.

India Tuer from the campaign group said 525 people had bought shares and there was now a waiting list for more.

She said investors were a mixture of local residents and people from across the world who heard of the campaign or "had a local connection to the village".

Rich Shave, the campaign group's company secretary, said the village was "beautifully nestled" between the "honey pot" lakes and the "hope and belief" is the pub would be popular with passing tourists as well as locals.

He said previous owners had wanted to move on to "different ventures", adding: "It's not that the pub wasn't thriving but through circumstances the owners decided their business focus had gone elsewhere."

Peter Noble, a hill farmer whose grandparents ran the pub between 1952 and 1977, said it would be the "hub of the community".

Mr Noble said he was "unbelievably impressed" with the campaign, adding: "The amount of money raised in such as short amount of time is unbelievable."

He said the village had already lost its primary school and there was a fight on to keep the shop open, adding: "It would be a sad thing for the village if we lose [the pub].

"It's a real hub of the community."

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