Ponsanooth Community Benefit Society (PCBS) – the volunteer group leading the campaign to buy back the village’s last pub through a community share offer – has taken over the Stag Hunt Inn for the whole of April, opening Wednesday to Sunday to show what a community owned pub could look like in practice, with the takeover finishing with a Beer Festival on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April to raise vital funds towards purchasing the pub’s freehold.
The community led initiative aims to raise at least £300,000 to buy the Stag Hunt Inn and safeguard its future as a welcoming, traditional village hub for generations to come.
So far this month, the team has trained local volunteers and young people in licence compliance, cellar management and bar work, giving them a first step into Cornwall’s vital hospitality industry; re-established the pub as a community hub, hosting the village book club, a police drop in, games afternoons, bingo, poker nights, live music and free pool for young people on Wednesdays; and reintroduced a simple food offer, including a family friendly pancake brunch, homemade soup and bread, cakes and hot drinks.
The Stag Hunt Inn Beer Festival will feature beers from local breweries Treen’s, Dynamite Valley, Skinners (with Betty Stogs herself in attendance) and Verdant, alongside live shanty performances from The Lemonaire Shanty Singers, family friendly activities and food, with all profits going directly back into the campaign to buy the pub for the community.
Sam Fitch, Chair of PCBS, said: “The response has been incredible. Old regulars and new faces are back in the pub, and it already feels once again like the heart of a thriving village. Since opening for the April takeover we’ve seen a significant uplift in support and have now raised almost £125,000 from over 100 community investors towards our £300,000 minimum target to bring the pub into community ownership, and we’re encouraging local residents and supporters to visit the Stag Hunt Inn during the April takeover, attend the Beer Festival weekend, and consider investing in the community share offer to help secure the pub’s long term future in community hands.”
