The Castle

A 'warts & all' account of the transformation of a run-down pub in Bradford-On-Avon into a 'proper' Inn (food pub with rooms). Written by Alex Reilley & Pierre Woodford

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The inside





The photo's above show the pubs main trading area




Seen above is the wall between the old office & the ladies toilet. The toilet block was added in the 60's & you can see the old window opening that was blocked up. Astonishingly the door to the right was behind the modern panelling in the room - it opens onto a brick wall.







The photo above & 4 below show the ground floor trading area to the back of the pub, that comprises of a room that was used as an office, the ladies toilet, & a room that used to house the pool table. Our intention is to relocate the ladies loo & join the 3 rooms up to create an L-shaped trading area.






At what point do we stop?

With all the stuff left over in the pub in the back of a rubbish clearance van (including ever last utensil & bit of kitchen equipment) we discuss how much further we should go in terms of removing carpets, en-suite's in the rooms etc. We've wary that with no listed buildings consent we need to be careful. We decide to remove what we feel is not of historic interest, i.e. all modern fixtures & fittings in order that we can see exactly what we have just spanked £1/2million on. The wiring, which we hoped could be in part usable, will all need to come out.

The clear up operation


We get the keys, move Kevin's piano for him, agree a price for the remaining stock, & check of the inventory (we note that the dart board has disappeared). The pub is full to the brim with stuff, including a mouldy sausage in a pan on the kitchen stove! We decide that nothing is worth keeping & we immediately set about clearing the place out.

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