Great News!

We’ve got some great news at last – that the bid to buy the freehold of the Swan in Clewer has been accepted by Wellington Pub Company. It wouldn’t have been possible to do this without all of you who have become involved in our mission – by contributing funding and by helping in so many ways since our first public meeting back in early March. It also wouldn’t be possible without the mortgage offer from our supportive bank. If all goes well, they plan to complete the purchase in time to be able to start work on site from early in the New Year with a view to opening the door about 3 months later. As you know their funding extends just to doing sufficient restoration to be able to open at that point, followed by at least 5 years of hard work to renovate the site at the rate that they can afford it, until we’ve regenerated the Swan as a pub and much broader hub that the community feels proud of. We make this point because the building is now so dilapidated after 3 years dereliction, that we need to manage expectations of what it will be like in the early days.