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Victorian pub reopens after battle for survival

BBC A man wearing a brown gilet and mottled grey jumper leaning on a brown wooden bar with a second man behind the bar holding on to a brass-topped, wooden handled beer pump.BBC
Graham Marshall, left, the new owner of The Volunteers, with landlord Sam Fisher

One of the oldest pubs in a West Yorkshire town, which had faced the threat of permanent closure, has been reopened after campaigners won their battle to get it listed as a community asset.

The Volunteers pub in Keighley was originally opened by the Timothy Taylor's brewery in 1859 and its back room was once used as a place where men could sign up to join the Army.

Its future was threatened after it closed earlier this year, but it was listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) after a campaign supported by Keighley Civic Society.

Graham Marshall, the pub's new owner, said: "I'm sure the people of Keighley are very, very pleased about it."

A doorway with green wooden framing into the pub which has crumbling whitewashed walls and a sign in gold lettering with a green background spelling out the word 'The Volunteers'.
The pub was faced with permanent closure but has now been listed as a Asset of Community Value

Mr Marshall, who runs a small pub-owning company, said: "The Civic Society helped a great deal by putting the ACV order on it.

"This meant there was only us who was interested in buying it as a pub and keeping it as a pub. That's not how it started - but they played a very important part."

Mr Marshall said that with the pub being The Volunteers Arms, it had been important to get it open in time for Remembrance Sunday in November.

"This was where everyone came to celebrate after visiting the service at the war memorial," he said.

Round and rectangular topped wooden bar tables in the foreground leading to a collection of people enjoying pints of beer standing and sitting around a wooden bar which is to the left side of a long room.
Military memorabilia, owned by Timothy Taylor's Brewery, has been put back on the walls of the pub

Sam Fisher and partner Fiona Greenwood, both 59, landlord and landlady of The Volunteers, have now signed a five-year lease and will live above the pub in purpose-built accommodation.

Mr Fisher said: "I used to drink in here for a lot of years and it's the one pub that me and my missus thought it would be a good little pub to run.

"It's big enough to make money and small enough to run between us. It's just a pleasure to be in here."

The pub's restored open fire was a big hit with customers, Mr Fisher said.

"The open fire is a massive talking point for everybody who walks through the door.

"The amount of people who've come in and said it's such a cosy atmosphere - a lot of them saying it's like you've got a country pub in the middle of town."

Mr Marshall said: "Sam and Fiona will be over-the-moon as it's their business and their livelihood, and also it's now their home.

"It's not really how it feels for me, but how it feels for the people I've done it for."

A silver-haired lady wearing a blue coat and cream, cable-knit jumper sitting next to a man with a silver-grey moustache and wearing a black jacket and dark, navy blue fleece.
Chris Duffey and wife Linda have been regulars at The Volunteers for 30 years

Retired industrial machinery salesman Chris Duffey, 70, said he had been drinking in The Volunteers "on and off" for 30 years.

"It was the first pub I ever came into with a milk machine at the end of the bar for the footballers," he said.

"And it had the first ever microwave I'd ever seen in a pub which had a pop-up door, as opposed to a swing door, for doing the hot pies.

"It's fantastic it has reopened. It's a little haven for friendship, cosiness, and relaxation."

A smiling, bald-headed man wearing glasses and a green coat and an olive coloured jumper.
Andy Blenkarn says he first drank at The Volunteers pub as a teenager

Meanwhile Andy Blenkarn, 64, who used to work as an enamel sprayer for Trico in Keighley but who retired early, said: "I've been coming here for over 40 years, easily, but not always drinking. I used to be mates with the landlord's son.

"It's a 'home from home' for me, always has been.

"It's great - fantastic - that it has reopened. It's part of Keighley."

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