Villagers have taken to the grounds of their now community owned bar and café to mark their first public event since saving the premises.
People in Stoke Ferry came together for a repair café and artist workshop event on Saturday, August 28 to show their support for the newly established Blue Bell Bar-Café, after campaigners successfully bought the Blue Bell Inn in June.
A Save the Blue Bell group was set up to prevent the last village pub being lost, which saw them successfully save the premises from being turned into a residential property after 17 months of fundraising and efforts.
The community is working together to see the premises brought back to life as a "pub-café-community hub", and the group held a repair café and artist workshops in collaboration with the Whole Works Repair Collective on Saturday to mark their first public event.
People brought their broken bikes, tools, jewellery, clothing, and ailing plants to be repaired and restored, and local artists including a painter and woodcarver a stone sculptor and a mosaic artist displayed their work.
Carolyn Ash of the Whole Works Repair Collective said local repairers offered their skills for the day which included clothes and leather repairs, hand tool, saw repair and sharpening, bike repair and servicing.
The event was also an opportunity for locals to share their skills to help people "make stuff useful again and keep repairable items out of the local landfill."
Sandra McNeill of The Blue Bell Bar-Café said: “Being in the heart of the lovely village of Stoke Ferry, we are proud to be hosting this repair café and artist workshops in our grounds.
"This is the first public event held on the premises since it was recently purchased by the local community on June, 30."
Earlier this month, staff at UK Power Networks also joined community efforts to 'revive' the premises, which suffered flood damage in February.
Staff from UK Power Networks spent two days on site as part of the company's 'Donate a Day' scheme, helping to clear the ground around the pub and putting in trenches to allow electrical work to take place.
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