Potential saviours have come forward to save a historic village pub and restore a raft of community facilities.
Tessa and Julian Blundy hope to bring a wealth of experience with them if their offer for Marshwood’s Bottle Inn is accepted.
Tessa, 66, is a conservation architect and ideally placed to pull the building back from wrack and ruin.
Julian, 65, is a retired carpenter who has worked on many a pub in the past.
Between them, they have been instrumental in saving two other pubs from being turned into homes and they are passionate about retaining old fashioned boozers for the community, alongside offering the facilities desperately needed by village communities.
Their plan, if Bottle Inn owner Pauline Brooks accepts their offer, is to restore the pub, make the function room available for village events and re-establish the shop.
Tessa said: “We are both retired now, and have been planning to move in that direction for quite some time.
“I have first cousins in Marshwood and spent lot of time there as child and went to the Marshwood village school for a short time.
“I am very concerned about the Bottle Inn. Pubs are being lost all the time and we have fought through the planning system in the past to retain two pubs where developers were trying to get change of use for housing – it’s something we’re passionate about.
“We would not open the Bottle as a gastropub – we are trying to retain an old fashioned pub as a community hub.”
She added: “There’s a huge amount of work to do to put the building back together. It would start as a simple ale house. We would liaise with Camra, Historic England and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings during the restoration.
“Most importantly for Marshwood, the Bottle Inn would evolve in response to the needs of the village community.
“We have got skills and enthusiasm to get the Bottle back, and we have made a formal bid to Pauline Brookes, who appreciates our intention to reinstate her pub.”