A VILLAGE pub saved from closure after a community campaign has been included in the latest Good Beer Guide.
Around 15 months ago, The King’s Head in Chitterne reopened after a fundraising effort by villagers saw it bought and refurbished.
They raised a six-figure sum to secure the premises and bring it back into use as the village local.
Now, it been included in the prestigious Good Beer Guide 2027, published today (September 24) by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
The pub, which sits on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, is one of just 19 across the whole of the south of the county to get into the Guide, and comes after it was endorsed by members of the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Branch of CAMRA.
A spokesperson said the inclusion was recognition of the hard work put in by landlords Nick and Jo White and members of The Chitterne
Community Pub Group (CCPG), which raised the money to buy the pub from its freehold owner after it had been closed for five years.
“Real ale is important to us,” said Nick as he was presented with his Good Beer Guide certificate by Keith Foster, Guide co-ordinator for Salisbury & South Wiltshire CAMRA.
“It is very good to get into the Guide. When you run a pub you try your best to keep good beer and that is what we do.
“We have got quite a strict regime in the cellar to keep the beer nice and fresh and alive. A lot of people don’t realise that it is a living thing that needs looking after.”
Keith added: “The King’s Head is a tremendous example of a community reviving a lost village pub.
“Entry into the Good Beer Guide just 15 months after reopening is a well deserved reflection of the commitment and dedication of the new licensees in establishing a thriving local pub serving well kept, quality real ales.”
Nick and Jo arrived at the King’s Head having been managers of a pub in Bath for the previous decade, and before that ran a Gloucestershire inn that was chosen as Rural Pub of the Year by the local branch of CAMRA.
But before getting to the stage of selecting landlords, campaigners in Chitterne, which has a population of just 300, had to raise much of the sale price of £315,000 through a share issue
with the rest being provided by a loan from an anonymous private investor.
More than 100 people came forward, many from the village but some from further afield, to secure the funding.
Once the purchase price had been raised, a hard core of 30 CCPG volunteers put in hundreds of hours of work cleaning, scraping, disposing of rubbish, clearing the garden and making curtains and cushions, while building work was also carried out.
Despite the volunteer input, the work cost more than £60,000 of which £25,000 came from a grant from Wiltshire Council’s Community Hub Fund.
Mike Neve, of the CCPG, said: “There were many applications to run the pub and we were delighted to secure Nick and Jo as our tenants.
“Our vision was that the pub would be a typical country pub offering good ale, food and a warm welcome. Without doubt this has been achieved and the entry into the CAMRA guide is proof that good ale can be found in Chitterne as well as a warm welcome and good food. We are delighted for Nick and Jo.”
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