THE UK’s longest running pub under community ownership, The Beauchamp Arms in Dymock, is set to celebrate its twentieth anniversary in public hands, this Saturday (July 1)

There will be a village party when glasses will be raised to a local success story, two decades after the pub was threatened with closure.

A spokesman said: "The parish council took the then unusual step of applying for a loan from the Public Works Loan Board to purchase and renovate the pub for around £160,000, where rental paid by tenants would be enough to cover the monthly repayments.

"Following approval by the recently appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, John Prescott, the Parish Council took over ownership of The Beauchamp Arms in May 1997 working with a management company running the pub. Much of the refurbishment work was done by the local community donating their time, skills and resources at the time."

The spokesman added: "The present tenants of the pub, John and Linda Griffiths have been running The Beauchamp Arms for fifteen years with great success."

That success, said Mr Griffiths, is down to the Parish Council operating at arm’s length and letting the couple run the pub as they see fit, even when it comes to making tough decisions.

He said: “We have a meeting with the Parish Council once a year to discuss maintenance issues and future plans but otherwise they have given us space to run the business ourselves.”

In May this year, Cllr Terry Ball the current Chairman of Dymock Parish Council, could announce the final repayment of the loan.

The council and community are now in the enviable position of working out to spend the rental income from the pub.

Cllr Ball added: “We are having a meeting soon but future income will go towards general upkeep for the building and towards other community projects in Dymock.”

While the loan was being repaid, ‘Friends of the Beauchamp Arms’ (FOBA) was set up as the pub’s financial safety net, raising funds through village events to support the maintenance, repairs and small building projects at the pub.

Ian Brown, who heads the group said: “We hold at least four big village events each year with the proceeds of three of them going towards the pub and the fourth is given to charity. The last major job we paid for was replacing the bar.”

Ian added: “The purchase and running of the pub has been entirely supported by the community throughout the twenty years. Situated, as it is by the village green and flanked by the church and parish hall it has become the spiritual, economic and social hub of the village. I have to take my hat off to the Parish Council, it was an inspired idea.”