The Marquis of Granby, Granby, opened the Dragon Street store and coffee shop to support people living in Granby and the surrounding villages due to it being a 9-mile round trip to the nearest supermarket and limited transport links in the area.
Licensee Sara Barton, who also run the Brewster’s Brewery at Grantham with husband Sean McArdle, said: “It has been such a challenging time for local people and the village store and coffee shop is proving to be such a lifeline.
“It is great to see members of the community come together for a coffee or tea and to socialise at the weekends.
“We have had such great support and positive feedback from local residents to the shop. The brilliant thing is that we also have lots of customers coming into the shop from the neighbouring villages who are also without any local shop.”
Diversification
The shop, which opens during the pub hours in the week of 4pm to 9pm and 10am to 10pm at weekends, offers a range of essentials such as bread, milk, cheese as well as its own Brewster’s Brewery beers.
While the coffee shop currently opens at weekends between 10am to 4pm offering coffee from local roaster 200 Degrees and cakes from Bristol-based baker Cakesmiths.
This is not the first time the not-for-profit organisation has helped a rural pub diversify to serve the local area.
During the various lockdowns in 2021, Pub is The Hub helped open some 20 village stores on pub premises and in January 2022, the organisation helped the Royal Oak Hotel in Beckermet, Cumbria to do the same.
Supporting locals
Pub is The Hub regional advisor Nigel Williams said: “Both the grocery store and coffee shop are much needed in [Granby] which has very limited local amenities.
“The village store has been great in helping to support those living locally and the coffee shop is really key in proving an opportunity for local people to connect and socialise.
“The pub is proving to be a hub for the local area and not just the village of Granby.”
