Nigel Kerton writing in The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald today reports that the Barge Inn at Honeystreet (near Avebury) was closing -
“Sources told the Gazette this morning there were rumours the pub owed as much as £100,000 in unpaid VAT to Revenue and Customs because it had not registered for VAT since villagers took over running the pub.
“No reason has been given for the closure and John Brewin, chairman of the community buy-out committee, said this morning: “I cannot say anything until later on today; I can’t make any comment until late afternoon because there are procedures to be followed.”
“The Barge Inn Community Project took over the pub in August 2010 after its previous landlords June and Adrian Potts retired after running the pub for 17 years. It closed for six weeks from February last year and re-opened in April after a major refit financed by the Big Lottery’s Village SOS fund with more than £430,000 being poured into refurbishing the building and with plans to eventually have a village shop – the last one closed 20 years ago – as part of the project. The shop has never materialised.”
Just 15-20 minutes from Avebury, The Barge Inn is/was a great alternative to The Red Lion and a venue for summer rock concerts and crop circle enthusiasts. They’d been working on a restoration and major transformation of the old barn site, constructing a beautiful new visual and performing arts space, ‘The Barefoot’, right next to the Barge Inn is/was to provide an exciting and inspirational new arts space.
More here.
