A popular Keswick pub is set to reopen after a change of management and a recruitment drive for new staff.
Last summer the Oddfellows Arms on Main Street was the first of four pubs in the town to receive Section 25 notices from owners Marstons, effectively giving the licencees a year to vacate their hostelries.
The others were the Bank Tavern, the Twa Dogs Inn and the George Hotel.
Speaking to the Reminder last year landlord Carl Maloney, whose father originally took on the Oddfellows lease in 1982, described the decision as “immoral and inhumane”
“We’ve got nothing left. We are both just broken,” he said. “We feel as though the world has just been kicked out from under us.
“Our entire life has been turned upside down just to make a spreadsheet work down in Wolverhampton. It’s inhumane.”
Earlier this year Peter Hardy, who had run the Twa Dogs Inn with his wife Marjory for 23 years, abruptly decided to close his doors for good rather than wait for eviction in July.
Regulars feared the worst when last orders were called for the last time at the Oddfellows last month.
This week, however, a Marstons spokesperson said: “We have appointed a new general manager and we are now in the process of recruiting a team for the pub. We are working hard to be open for Easter.”
Marstons recorded a £105.5 million pre-tax loss in the six months before April 3, 2021.
Carlsberg UK bought a majority stake in the company’s brewing arm last year and the company is now primarily a bricks-and-mortar operation.
