Pub runs 'stand-in summer' to keep doors open

Pub directors have called on an army of volunteers to help keep the venue's doors open while they hunt for a new tenant.

The Waldegrave in East Harptree, Somerset, has been in community ownership since 2024, and up until April 2026, was run by a leaseholder.

To keep the site open, the directors are calling on people to "stand in" over the summer to help with pulling pints, admin and gardening while new leaseholders are found.

Chris Fry, one of the pub's directors, said it is "so important that the pub remains open", adding there is "appetite" from locals.

Chrissie Wellington OBE not only helps around the pub, but is also a four-time world champion Ironman athlete.

She describes the venue as an "incredible place" and can often be found painting walls or helping out in the gardens.

"Increasingly, our towns and villages are being kind of stripped of really valuable community assets," she said.

"Myself and my husband feel really, really strongly that the pub is such an important community asset."

Wellington added: "It's a hub - not just a venue where people can come and drink, socialise and buy food. It's so much more than that."

The pub closed for a few weeks after the last leaseholders left, but there was a huge number of people who attended the venue's reopening, Fry added.

"We just did a barbecue and it was the busiest I've ever seen the pub," he said.

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