Licensee Rhiannon Metters from the Halfway in Tal-y-Coed, Wales, visited 10 Downing Street to talk with prime minister Sir Kier Starmer to highlight the vital role pubs play in supporting communities.
The Halfway joined five other artisan food producers and retailers for a Christmas market-style showcase hosted by the PM ahead of Small Business Saturday. The event was celebrating small firms, frontline workers and community champions and included the Christmas lights switch-on.
Metters, along with her son Ben, hosted a Christmas stall inside the PM’s residence showcasing the activities that the pub hosts to bring people together in this isolated rural community.
She chatted with him highlighting the impact the pub has on community cohesion and helping people to overcome loneliness and social isolation.
As the hub of this rural area, where many residents, including farmers, live and work alone, the Halfway provides essential opportunities for social interaction. With support from Pub is The Hub, the pub has opened a store and a community marquee.
The store has proved so popular that its range of products have been expanded to support more than 15 other local businesses that supply items such as flowers, butter and chocolate all from within 10 miles of the pub.
The marquee has become a space for social connection, hosting creative workshops such as chunky knitting, lino printing, wreath-making, and even CPR and defibrillator training to ensure locals can use the pub’s life-saving equipment.
Metters said: “From a pint by the fire to wreath making in the marquee, from the village shop to live music and shared skills, everything we do is about bringing people together, tackling loneliness and social isolation, supporting local makers and giving our little corner of Monmouthshire a place to gather, laugh, learn and belong.”
Pictured: Rhiannon Metters (left) presents Sir Kier Starmer with a Pub is The Hub apron
