A VILLAGE pub that was saved from developers after residents came together to purchase and transform it has served its first pint after reopening.

It all started off when Micheldever saw the closure of its shop and the community began to search for a place to open the village staple.

Charles Holden, who has been involved in the pub project, said: “The village has not had a shop for probably three years now and many avenues had been persued, all of which proved fraught with difficulties and non-viable. We reached the stage where we weren’t going to have community shop.”

And then pub chain Green King put the Half Moon and Spread Eagle up for sale in September 2018 and two residents, who wish to remain anonymous, came together to buy the pub.

“We were worrying about a shop and then this pub came up. It was quite a challenge to see it come on the market,” Charles said.

“Two gentlemen in the village could see the potential and were keen to see that it wasn’t sold to developers and stepped forward and put in an offer.”

The pub’s rescue was made possible after the parish council applied for the building to be listed as an asset of community value.

A community benefit society was set up and around 40 local people spent hours volunteering to transform the pub from repairing furniture, to painting walls and cleaning.

“It has been amazing. It is very clear that the village wants a pub and they want to make it happen. It has proved the value of what we are trying to achieve, we haven’t just got a community pub but a community hub to bring people together that haven’t had the opportunity to have social intercourse.”

And Richard Veeracott, who has also spearheaded the drive, said: “It is for the village by the village.

“We never expected to end up with a pub and the pub is going to let us have a shop.”

Plans are already being drawn up to create a space within the footprint of the site to open a shop, with villagers discussing the venture.