The Pub Saving Award recognises people that have come together to save a pub that would have otherwise been demolished or converted to another use. It aims to secure publicity for pub-saving campaigns to encourage others to save their local.
The Rising Sun in the village of Woodcroft, Chepstow appears on OS maps from 1870 and was brewery-owned in 2011 until high rents and inflated beer costs caused its doors to close.
This led to an epic community-led campaign to buy the pub. Started by a few locals in early 2013, the campaign finally reached fruition with the Rising Sun opening its doors again to the community in October 2022.
Within one month of the Community Share option being launched, £350,000 had been raised from 240 different investors. The group were one of only two pubs in England to be successful in obtaining a grant from the Community Ownership Fund of £175,000.
Once given the keys to the Rising Sun, the community then made a herculean effort to clean, repair and refurbish the pub. With an amazing team of local tradespeople, a volunteer project manager and more than 120 volunteers all pitching in, the doors of the Rising Sun could open once again.
Being the last remaining pub in the village of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, the community rallied together to ensure the White Horse was safe from developers intent on turning it into housing. The Stonesfield Community Pub Limited was formed (as a Community Benefit Society CBS) to try to buy the pub into community ownership.
Needing to raise almost £400,000, the community embarked upon a fundraising crusade, from cake and t-shirt sales to virtual pub quizzes and Saturday morning car washing.
As well as capturing the imagination of the village, the pub’s campaign garnered international attention, making headlines in the New York Times, ABC News and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with funding coming from California and Connecticut as well as support from the local area.