7th February, 2019
Maidenhead Advertiser: “Here’s to The Swan and a group effort” by Kieran Bell on Thursday 7th February, 2019.
Transcription
Here’s to the Swan and a group effort
Clewer: Toast for pub saved by community’s ‘heartening’ work by Kieran Bell, kieranbaylismedia.co.uk
Speed read… Supporters turned out for a Ceremony of the Keys at a pub in Clewer. The Swan has been bought by a community group.
About 150 people toasted the rescue of a pub on Saturday after it was saved by a community group.
The Swan, in Mill Lane, was put up for sale by previous owner the Wellington Pub Company in April last year, but since then an army of campalmers bro take have their local into their own hands. It is now all systems go for The Swan Clewer Community Interest Company (CIC), which has raised more than £190,000 of its $200,000 target to begin refurbishing the pub.The group wants to turn it into a thriving public house and community hub, together with Windsor’s Green Room School, which will provide work experience opportunities for students. Director Richard Allen, executive head at the school, has been working with Willie Calvert, of the Windsor and Eton Brewery, to deliver the project.
The group had an offer accepted in November after months of trying to get a mortgage, and hopes to open ‘with a smile’ in the spring.
It will first start work on the bar before working on other areas of the pub. Richard said: “It has been a long road, but that was just the prologue; we are about to start chapter one.
“If we can open by the end of April then we would be absolutely delighted.
“To start with something that is just an idea, and then for it to gain momentum, everybody there had put something towards it. It’s really heartening.”
Volunteers are helping at the Swan this Saturday and Sunday to get the pub ready before professional contractors are brought in to begin the more complicated work.