Local family buy and relaunch historic Worcestershire pub

Published by

Nicky Godding

An early 19^th century rural pub in Worcestershire has been bought and relaunched by a local family.

Partners Gareth Clowes and Luise Middleton have bought The Bell Inn at Pensax, a village in north-west Worcestershire.

The venue has been a traditional pub since the early 1800s and the new owners, who already live in Pensax, took over from the retiring landlord to ensure it remained a community local rather than a chain franchise.

Gareth and Luise are assisted in running the business by their daughters, initially Lauren and now Primrose on a full-time basis.

The Bell Inn now serves over 20 home-brewed ales and employs seven part-time local staff, plus an apprentice chef who is just 17 years old.

Thursfields Solicitors helped the family secure their new business. Gareth said: “We’re determined to keep the traditional feel of the pub by not ripping out the character, serving a traditional menu and a selection of real ales.

“It will be family run and at the heart of the local community, although we’re also keen to move with the times and are already hosting regular live music nights and other events.”

Emma Hughes, an Associate Solicitor in Commercial Property department at Thursfields’ Worcester office, handled the purchase transaction for The Bell Inn.

She said: “This is a lovely pub and it was great to work with such a passionate local family who are determined to run it as a community business.

The Bell Inn regularly supports members of the community and local charities, and recently raised money for a charity that supported a customer who had a bone marrow transport.

On 20 March, they are also running an event which will raise money for Endometriosis UK which has affected several people in the local community.

The pub will also host a summer beer festival which takes place on the last weekend in June.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.