A heartwarming community restoration project has sparked new life into this idyllic country inn, complete with a thoughtful, local produce-driven menu
If I tell you the story of the villagers of South Stoke, near Bath, saving The Packhorse Inn and turning it into a “community pub”, you may think it an excellent premise for a six-part BBC One Sunday-night drama. Martin Clunes and Anne Reid would be absolute shoo-ins.
A hulking, ramshackle boozer is up for sale in a part of the country so beautiful, it makes city dwellers like me stop the car to gawp at the bucolic landscape. Property developers circle, eyeing up the ancient building and the overgrown land surrounding it, hoping to turn it into a luxury home and so stripping the village of a pub that has worked as social glue for at least 150 years. At this point, in episode one of The Packhorse, Aidan Turner, formerly of Poldark, appears with his top off, carrying a scythe and chopping moodily yet with great purpose through knotweed. He’s going to save the pub.
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