A pub is closing for two months while it is refurbished.
The White Horse in Church Street, Baston is owned by Thetford Farm Estate, which farms land near the village and runs a wedding venue called The Barn.
A statement on the pub’s website, signed off by estate owner Jo-Anne Richardson, managing director Trina Britton, and hospitality manager Germaine Stribling, says the pub closed today (Thursday, January 2), and will remain shut for eight weeks during refurbishment.
The White Horse in Baston is being refurbished. Photo: Google
When it reopens at the start of March it will have “more of a lounge vibe, providing the community with a contemporary, relaxed place to be and giving our corporate and wedding clients a lovely complementary space adding to their experience at the barn”.
The pub will be open from 10am until 10pm, Wednesday until Sunday each week.
The statement adds that food served at the pub will match the menu at The Barn, and will be available through bookings rather than for walk-ins.
It continues: “We will be hosting all our usual community events and are looking forward to playing our part in making these a continued success.”
Jo-Anne, Trina and Germaine invite anyone with questions about the changes to get in touch with them by emailing info@thetfordfarmestate.co.uk
The White Horse, next to St John’s Church, was built in the 1700s and is painted ‘Baston blue’. It used to be called The Spinning Wheel, and was bought in 2012 by the Richardson family, third-generation local arable farmers.
Thetford Farm Estate has ruffled feathers in Baston by allowing cement and concrete firm Cemex to apply to Lincolnshire County Council to extract sand and gravel from land it owns near Baston.
The application seeks to extract 2.4 million tonnes of sand and gravel over a period of eight to 10 years, with the site progressively restored to agriculture and wildlife habitat. Access to the site would be via a new or enlarged access onto the A15, to the west of the site.
As a result of the application, Baston resident Robin Jones announced at a packed public meeting that he would boycott The White Horse pub in protest.
People can still comment on the application at tinyurl.com/BastonCemex