Renovating a pub, or two

Do you know the names of the old pubs. Love pubs me.

Not at all suggesting you get into shared ownership, but this has galvanised a local village near me White House but might win some wars for you.
To save you googling

I don’t think people fear that anymore as for the past few weeks I’ve stressed the plans to everybody and answered any questions etc, I think its more about me taking ownership of what is viewed as belonging to the village due to the long history and the changes I’m making. It’s not there’s but it’s viewed as there’s. Hopefully it will blow over in a year or so, but until then things will likely be difficult, few people like change and around here they really don’t.
 
I think I know it now you mention the names, might be wrong but they are literally connected? Travel a lot around that area if I’m right so have passed many times

Should it ever be renovated expect me in for a swift one

Good luck with it all, looking forward to seeing the progress

Edit, and you have confirmed with that post, on the a458 between Shrewsbury and welshpool
 
How on earth did that manage to close on a busy road like that with good views and a massive car park??
 
Its too far out for a developer for houses etc, and the brewery just wanted shot. With the drug dealing, Brothel, enforcement order, security fees, string of bad managers etc who can blame them and for the same reason who would want to buy it!

I just came in with a stupidly low offer (40% under asking) and said don’t worry about the issues as I’ll buy it as is, but I won’t no clauses about you needing money if I do reopen it as a pub etc, Brewery snapped my hand off and means that they are now freehold pubs

Also it’s listed as a building of community asset, in short if you are after a quick buck its way too much hassle and if your after a pub to run there are no shortage with far less hassle involved
 
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I think I know it now you mention the names, might be wrong but they are literally connected? Travel a lot around that area if I’m right so have passed many times

Should it ever be renovated expect me in for a swift one

Good luck with it all, looking forward to seeing the progress

Edit, and you have confirmed with that post, on the a458 between Shrewsbury and welshpool
Flip in heck :laugh: even the folks on avforums have heard of the place!
Ps more than welcome for a drink or two when it does reopen :)
 
Lol

I travel all over the country, live up near Chester so if I drive south I always take the roads to Shrewsbury. Sometimes divert due to traffic so taken that route many times
 
That's really interesting. Looking forward to seeing the progress. I know the area, as my grandmother lived there for 30 years - up until her 103rd birthday. She's now moved into a nursing home a bit further away, but we still get up there from time to time.
 
Big thing running a pub. If you do decide to do it, wish you luck.

I don’t, but I do plan on trying to make the pub as profitable (legally) as possible. My dad will be running it to begin with, but if it gets too much for him I want it so as the business can be leased out (or whatever the correct term is), in short they pay us a fixed amount and anything else is there’s to keep. More profitable the pub better the people interested etc.

Locals will be happy either way as should the council. As the pub has a small 2.5 acre field I would like to do something with it to bring business in whilst maintaining privacy in my part, say Sunday market’s, put in a village football and rugby pitch, something like that. It all needs to be worked out yet, planning granted, historical Britain sign off on etc, but that’s the current plan.

whether I will get any of it remains to be seen.
 
After a bit of advice with architects if anyone has any? Dealing with them the right way around is causing me some problems as I'm not sure what is acceptable behaviour or not. :confused:

The reason I ask is that the architect sent over his 1st plans about 10 days or so back at the hight of the troubles and let's just say I could have handled it better :(. In short, I told him that I would fire him and get a replacement if he ever submitted such a bad design again to me, whilst he needed to know that I didn't like the design, the way I went about telling him was not the best... I did apologies for the manner a few hours later when he called.

Roll on to the next design or rather 4 designs as he sent over 4 different variations on the main design. There 90% there but I have still made some changes that I have sent back over to him (changed wc place, remove wall here, leave door there etc). Is that normal stuff when dealing with an architect or do they really not like there designs being altered? Trying to move on from bad starts whilst still getting what I'm after (pending approval etc).
 
An update on the Architect
For the past 2 weeks or so we have been frustrating the heck out of each other as we are currently on design 8 :( but I have finally found the issue and it's my fault

We haven't fallen out over any of it thankfully, but we were just going around in circles. I kept saying I wanted this layout with no explanation why, architect kept on trying to improve the design (came up with good layouts that in a different setup would be brilliant) that I would immediately reject. Frustrating as hell for both of us!

As this is at heart an AV site I hope you can all understand this, but there is an old barn that is just perfect for a home cinema, it's detached from the rest of the building on 3 sides and is at the furthest point from the rest of the building, there is no floor above and it allows me to have a 4m high ceiling (atoms speakers should sound so good) and basically I can make as much noise as I want and no one will care :laugh: it also lacks windows which in this case is good. It's not the biggest of rooms 3 x 6m, but is the best possible room to date I have had to use for my setup. As a result, the rest of the house layout was being designed around this within the allowance of it being a listed building.

However I explained none of this to the Architect, I just said living room here! The architect would say how about if we move the lounge to here which would give more light, better layout etc, then kitchen here and so on and I would within a few seconds reject his plan with no explanation!

Ah, the power of speech, I'm so used to just drawing things out on a piece of paper and then doing it, that it never dawned on me to explain why to Saturday :facepalm:, wow just wow, after I spent an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted certain things in a certain way, Architect got it immediately and has now come up with ways to further improve rather than completely change. Sorted out more in 2 days than had in 2 weeks. Dare I say it, but I think the Architect might be excited about the plans now, I don't think he has ever dealt with a keen home cinema person before and is really enjoying it now :)

You lot were right with the steep learning curve of listed buildings :laugh: really really happy at the moment :)
 
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Well, lots have happened since my last update, but very little has happened in regards to the pubs! Whilst I knew things would move slowly, I badly underestimated just how slowly :(. Given that we plan to take one pub (officially) out of action which councils generally don't like, it has been decided that the best route is to submit one set of plans/application so as we can say, yes you're losing this pub but your bring this pub back into action and gaining community features here etc. Better shot with planning/historic Britain etc, but means that everything has to be worked out 1st.

The Seven Stars (my part) was worked out about a month back, but the Halfway House Inn plans have only just been finished, which now leaves the outside site plans. Working out where to put a playground, eating area, a path through to football field, changing rooms, allow for classic car shows, etc takes a surprising amount of time, as a result, I cant see work starting on the buildings to November/December now at the earliest.

On the upside, as all the energy has instead been going into clearing the grounds (which we can work on), and we have discovered that we have more land than 1st thought, clearing back 20 plus years of plant growth has revealed a shocking amount of land that had become lost in the bushes etc, at least 2 to 3 average garden sizes patches of land!

The other bit of good news is that I now have a truce (not peace) with the neighbours, things didn't get better, they actually got worse, so bad that I looked into whether I have the legal right to set up an overnight lorry car park on the pub car park (I do).

Getting the cars to stop parking on the land was pretty easy to deal with, but the blasted dog walkers were far harder (hence walk around parked lorries etc), thankfully I didn't need to go that far as I caught a dog walker red-handed and had strong words, so strong that he wasn't happy! Turns out that it was the best thing that could have happened. :rolleyes:

The man I had words with has lived in the area for 40 plus years (probably longer), is highly respected and knows everyone, my parents have also lived in the area for 40 plus years so he naturally contacted them to complain about what I had said to him. He wasn't happy about me but he was equally shocked about what I had been having to put up with (5 official complaints/visits) as a result he understood why I had turned so unfriendly and a truce has been called as a result.

Since then I have found out who was behind most of the reporting which as I had been very kind to her really hacked me off, so the "war" continues with her, but as the rest of the community has also found out now what she has done they are equally not getting involved and view it as you caused all the problems in the first place, so not peace, but an understanding.

In case anyone is wondering I haven't threatened her or anything like that, all I have done is banned her kids from playing on the land which I gave them permission to do when I took over the place, its why it hacked me off so much, I let your kids play on my land (which puts me in a dangerous situation liability wise if something happens) and you say thank you by reporting me! I do feel sorry for the impact on the kids as it isn't there fault but actions have to have consequences and as she is a single mum with no garden to speak off this is the most effective way and removes the liability risk I had.
 
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Thanks for the update. Just be cautious about what's posted here as you've included the pub names so it'll be very easy for someone, particularly those feeling aggrieved, to Google and read up what your thoughts are.
 
Thanks for the warning @jassco however people in the area already know, everything that I have posted on here I have already said in person to some of the locals and word spreads. It's no secret what I want to do with the place and I have made my feelings very plain to people, so they are welcome to log on and read the thread :)
 
Seven Stars is a popular name for a pub, don’t know why?
Final found the answer, its another name for the Plough you can see in the stars at night, historic Britain explain it to me, only took 6 months or so to post back :rotfl:
 
@Cocksure

how this project going?
Well I'm famous now :laugh: In 2 papers :p



I'm also right back to square 1 as I badly underestimated just how well know and loved the Seven Stars Inn is and missed other things.


Thanks to the objections/Feedback on the planning website, I realised I had missed a lot of things, people weren't objecting to them as such (on the whole), it was more about where they were going/how they would be changed. Conservation had concerns about some of the alterations, Highways others, the listed goes on.

As a result of all the feedback, I have withdrawn the application, and fresh plans are to be drawn up. This time around though I have displayed a crude map of the current thinking to the entrance of the Halfway House Inn Car Park for locals to see, been in contact with Conservation to find solutions that they are happy with, factoring in Highways Concerns and I'm in contact with CAMRA (local branch). All welcoming the new change in direction, but naturally, want to see the detailed plans before anyone says for sure.

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All I can think of is this for the last picture:

 

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