THE local pub has always been at the heart of the community and our latest pub of the week has certainly proved to be just that, stepping in when locals were hit by adversity.

Adam Young and Jo Stafford from the Trawden Arms Community Pub talk about helping residents when they were out of power following Storm Arwen and the cold snap and snow.

Name of the pub

Trawden Arms Community Pub

Address of the pub:

Church Street

Landlord/landlady name:

Adam Young & Jo Stafford

How long have you been there?

One month

Bar staff and their names:

Nichola, Harry, Sophie-May, Ryan, Abigail

Give us some history about the pub

Trawden Arms was purchased by the Trawden community in October 2021. It has over 400 shareholders and received support from The Plunkett Foundation to secure the pub as a community asset to enable the village to raise half a million pounds to buy the pub. The pub was previously owned by a couple from the village who ran it successfully for eight years but wanted more family time. The pub was likely to be sold to developers, which would mean losing the last pub in the village. The village banded together to save their pub which is a huge asset to the community. The pub is used by everyone and hosts events, workshops, community meetings, charity events, and supports a programme of local music.

Is food served? If so what’s on the menu?

We offer a full menu of traditional pub fare, Wednesday - Friday 5pm - 9pm and Saturday 12pm - 9pm. On a Sunday we have the Sunday Dinner menu which is a choice of three meats or a nut roast with all the trimmings.

Is there a beer garden?

Yes

Most popular drink served is:

Madri

Most memorable moment

Snow Day! The weekend most of the village lost their power, phone lines, internet, and water after Storm Arwen. The pub was full of families sheltering in the warmth, getting a hot meal, and banding together to help each other out.

Do you have an entertainment line-up?

We have folk club /sing-around on a Tuesday night as well as live music scheduled from local artists.

What challenges have you faced within the industry?

We are only a month in and are already seeing the issues facing small businesses with prices for food and drink skyrocketing, supply issues, and staff shortages. As a pub who wants to support small local food suppliers and breweries it is becoming very difficult for them to compete with the prices offered by larger suppliers. We want to get a balance between supporting local while also keeping our business in profit.

The best thing about running a pub is

You get to meet everyone in the area as well as interesting people who are passing through. You see people at their best. When they have finished work, they are sat with a pint in their hand, feeling relaxed, or enjoying some quality time with friends and family. It is not always a bed of roses, but generally we see people with smiles on their faces, and everybody wanting to help out to make the pub and the village a success. What we love particularly about Trawden is that you can walk into the bar at anytime with a request for anything you need, whether it is a plumber or a beef farmer and someone always knows someone in the village or within a short distance who will be in later and they can sort you out!

We do love to keep everything local and the people of Trawden, even the newcomers, have so much pride in being a self-sufficient community of talented and hard -working people.

The worst thing about running a pub is

No sleep, rest or time off. It is constant, and somebody is always calling your name. It is very hard to get any task completed in one go.

The perfect hangover cure is...

Big Tom, extra Tabasco