'We raised over £100k to save our local pub - then Government pulled vital scheme'

Villagers face a race against time to , after missing out on a potential government grant by a day.

The community of Ireby, in Cumbria, on the edge of the , has raised more than £100,000 to put towards the cost of buying the Black Lion . They had hoped to get another £256,000 from the government’s Community Ownership Fund, to help reach their target. But just as they were due to submit their application, after having to spent ages collating all the necessary information, the scheme was pulled without notice when last year’s was called, and was never restarted.

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With the pub up for sale, villagers fear what will happen if it sold and potentially turned into housing. Locals say it would have a huge impact, given it is the only pub left in picturesque Ireby, which dates back to 1236. The pub is said to have been visited by poet John Keats in 1818, and authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins in 1857.

Broadcaster Lord Bragg, who lives locally, says: “I had scores of terrific nights drinking in the Black Lion with friends. It was the perfect pub for many years. Truly local, classless, and always welcoming.”

Ray Mumberson, who is born and bred in Ireby, said: “Back then there was a local butcher, tailor, and that had been a few pubs. Not it’s just the one. We can’t stress how important it is.”

Among the pub’s roles, as in so many communities, is to bring people together. In the case Ireby, as in countless other rural locations, it is made more important given it has lost its local bus service.

Malcolm Boswell, secretary of the Black Lion Community Group, which is co-ordinating the fund raising drive, said they got through to the preferred status of the Community Ownership Fund process. But they were left devastated after the fund was suspended, and then ultimately dropped. “We must have put in our application a day later,” says Ms Boswell. “It takes such a long time to pull together. We were just unlucky.” He went on: “The pub is up for sale so it is a race against time before it is potentially sold.”

Mr Mumberson says: “It is a typical Cumbrian village pub, and the next nearest is five or six miles away.” Mr Boswell adds: “People are moving out of the village. We need to look after this rural community and saving the pub is one way of doing that.”

To find out more about the community's fundraising efforts,

The is highlighting the threat to locals with its . Among our demands are a fighting fund for pubs and for measures to make it easier for communities to save their at-risk watering hole.

To hammer home the threat to pubs, new figures have revealed locals have closed at a rate of more than three a day since the start of the year.

. A further 46 have been converted into other uses. It comes as Camra also confirmed that 1,062 pubs were left empty last year after closing. And 210 have been turned into uses, typically shops or housing.