Community volunteers help restore Leicestershire pub

The renovation of a 400-year-old village pub is under way after locals raised £500,000 to buy it.

The Black Horse in Grimston, Leicestershire, was described as the "heart of the community" before it closed in 2020.

Villagers bought the pub after developers failed twice to get permission to turn it into flats.

Volunteers have been giving up their time to restore the building in the hope of it reopening later this year.

The Black Horse Community Group was able to collect just over £250,000 in share capital and donations to buy the pub on 9 May.

The remaining £250,000 came from the government's Community Ownership Fund.

The pub is undergoing restoration work both inside and out.

Carol Davis, the secretary of the group, said: "The community has been really good at volunteering to come and help.

"We've had groups of people pulling out shrubs and trees and demolishing things that are rotten.

"We've got painting parties, we've got cleaning parties.

"We've got local tradespeople some of them have given labour for free and others have given mates-rates, which has been terrific."

Russell Arthurton, 82, a keen decorator and one of those volunteering, said: "We are a community, I feel part of that community and very happy to do my bit."

While the building might be ready for the pub's planned reopening in November, the community group still has one problem.

"None of us have run a pub before, we're used to standing the other side of the bar," said Ms Davis.

"We need somebody with experience, we need a tenant to run it for us.

"So we're trying to get the pub to look as nice as possible so prospective tenants can see what this pub is like."

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