The villagers now turning a profit after buying shares in their local pub to raise £300,000 and stop it being turned into housing development

Villagers who bought £300,000 worth of shares to save their local pub from demolition and a new housing project are now turning a profit.

Residents of Orleton in Herefordshire banded together to raise enough money to buy The Boot Inn when it was at risk of demolition in January 2019.

About 300 of them invested their hard-earned cash and money during that period; these funds were used to renovate the historic pub in the leafy village.

After investors were offered an attractive 3 per cent interest on their shares, shareholders claim their share of the bar is more profitable than leaving the money in the current account.

Regular David Harrison, 63, says he is getting a better return on his investment than his bank after earning £600 a year in interest – the equivalent of 109 pints at the bar which would have cost him around £430.

The retired aerospace engineer, who lives four minutes from the event, said: ‘We’ve invested over £10,000 in shares here and it’s definitely more profitable than a standard bank account.

‘You’re lucky if you get a third of that, we get 3 per cent and the bar stays open; This is a win for us.

‘The dividend is a nice bonus that we reinvest into our portfolio each year. ‘We get £300 twice a year, which is fantastic.’

The Community Boot Inn, a charity set up to save the pub, has offered investors a minimum share value of £250 – or five shares – to give the opportunity to a wide range of locals.

A £1,000 investment would net £30 for the year at an interest rate of 3 per cent, while the same lump sum in a Santander current account at 1.98 per cent would earn just £19.80 per year.

Mr Harrison said: ‘Ultimately the pub is very important to me and the village. It’s a place where you meet people, sit and chat. ‘We used it when we owned it before and they wanted to tear it down to build a house.’

He was among those involved with the group from the beginning and helped renovate the interior after they ‘eventually managed to secure the place’.

Mr Harrison added: ‘This was the first and only time I went to a bar without beer.

‘For me it was very important that the village had a usable pub and I felt an obligation to invest a reasonable amount of money into it and help bring it back up to a usable standard.

‘The benefits of being a shareholder are that you get personally involved and also receive a reasonable dividend.

‘We are very happy; ‘This is a success story supported by the local community.’

Celebrating the bar’s success are shareholders including (left to right) Dave Harrison, John Alderman and Terry Tandler.

The Boot Inn was under threat of demolition before being saved; Pictured from left to right are Terry Tandler, John Alderman, Chris Thorpe, Guy Holmes-Henderson and Dave Harrison.

He described what a ‘friendly community and pub’ it was and that he visited three times a week.

Investor Guy Holmes-Henderson, 58, a semi-retired landscape gardener, moved to the area around the time the pub reopened in August 2019.

He said: ‘One of the main reasons we moved here was that a community bar like The Boot had just opened.

‘It’s well supported by locals, drinkers and eaters and is a great place to come.’

He became a shareholder about a year ago and added: ‘I used to support the pub as is my tradition, but now I am supporting and helping to keep the pub going.

‘I get some interest, which is nice. It’s much better than a standard account that gives you nothing when you add it.

‘You get bricks and mortar. ‘I’m a pub gardener, so I take pride in doing the garden, knowing I’m a shareholder.’

Local Terry Tandler, 74, a retired mechanic, added: ‘It’s so much better than keeping your money in the bank – and we’re helping the taxman out, he’s struggling.

The previously threatened pub is located in the village of Orleton in Herefordshire

Community Boot Inn, a community benefit society set up to save the pub, offered a minimum value of £250, or five shares, for investors.

‘We’ll also have extra beer. We attract attention but we also keep the bar open, have a pint and enjoy the singing and music. ‘I come at least once a week, maybe more.’

Under the plan, shares are non-transferable and their value does not change, but they can be withdrawn.

John Alderman, 68, chairman of the Community Boot Inn, said: ‘This is a tempting offer.

‘We bought it in January 2019, then had a six-month redevelopment, then a six-month trading period before Covid hit.

‘The bar was closed in June 2017 after the man who owned it wanted to develop it as a plot of land.

‘He closed it down and put it into liquidation; We were worried he would use it to pay off debts and then buy it back.

‘The minimum bid was five shares of £50 each. I’ll be damned if I have to pay more bank fees than interest; so we set it at £250.

‘We started paying interest after two years, at first we were thinking of three years. After two years we were paying 2 percent.

‘We increased it to 3 percent in 2025, then everything went crazy. As an association, we recommend that members vote on this issue at the General Assembly.

‘When we started paying interest the current accounts were 0.1 percent. We were at 2 percent. Currently better than current account.

Landlord Chris Thorpe, who started working there in his first job at the age of 18, now runs the bar.

He recalled: ‘I developed myself to become the manager of the original owner, who unfortunately had different views on what it should be turned into.

‘The community saved it and I came back and my wife and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to run our own business – but with the support of it being community owned.’