For campaigners like us, who are fighting to rescue their village pub, Sam Wollaston’s article about the The Hare and Hounds in Bowland Bridge, Cumbria, could hardly be more depressing (‘Now the village is dead. It’s awful’: why was one of Britain’s best pubs forced to close?, 7 May). Wollaston is, of course, quite right about the long list of challenges that are putting pubs out of business. Yet despite the odds being stacked against us, there are groups like ours all over the country that are refusing to give up – and a good many are succeeding.

We are trying to buy the Somerset Arms, which closed three years ago, leaving the Wiltshire village of Semington without a pub. We have tremendous support from the community and we take great encouragement from pubs like the Hop Pole Inn in nearby Limpley Stoke. It also stood empty for many months but has recently been named Camra’s pub of the year. I have seen for myself what a huge impact it has had on the life of the village. The Somerset Arms will rise again. We hope that the Hare and Hounds will too.
Ian Williamson
Chair, Semington Community Benefit Society, Wiltshire

Sam Wollaston’s article is timely in many ways, not least to highlight that a community asset resulting in local cohesiveness is hugely important. Our village saw its last pub, the Punch Bowl, sold to the community in 2025, since which time a local workforce has restored the building, reopening the business last December. We now have a convivial social space, for which we are all grateful.

This community has invested in its facilities: the village shop was bought in 2005, the village hall has been refurbished with the help of the same local workforce, and Broadband for the Rural North has been installed. Residents are rightly proud of all they have achieved.

It’s a pity that private equity funds don’t “get” community, seeing only pound signs on a spreadsheet, not the people behind it.
Susan Gregory
Burton in Lonsdale, North Yorkshire