Former pub set to be turned into couple's home

Richard Boyle and his wife Anthea bought the former Drove Inn at Roweltown, near Brampton, at auction in April.

They have applied to Carlisle City Council for permission to change its use from a public house to a home.

Mr Boyle said the way he sees it, he is saving the building rather than taking away a pub.

He said: "Our stand point is firmly on the place of saving what was almost a local landmark and turning it into something that's useable that we're going to live in hopefully forever."

Mr Boyle, 44, recently left the army and needed somewhere to live.

He considered building a house but when the pub came up for auction it was too good an opportunity to pass by.

He retired 2014 from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and was living at Eskdalemuir, commuting four days a week to Mallsgate Hall, his family's 600 acre farm at Stapelton, where he is now managing partner.

Richard - who soon rejoined the army as major with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry and continues to run the Aryshire Yeomanry, a reserve cavalry rank, two days a week away from his work on the farm - said his intention was never to take it on as a pub but to create a life-long home closer to his work.

The couple tried to buy the Drove Inn when it was up for sale last year but the sale had already closed.

After it fell through the pub was put up for auction as a former pub with development potential pending planning permission.

"Trying to get planning permission [for new builds] in this part of the world is never easy," he said.

"When the Drove became available I thought: That's a perfect solution.

"There's an existing building we can do up, which is looking particularly sad, and it's two miles from the farm, which is perfect commuting distance."

Richard has many memories of the Drove in its heyday.

But he says nowadays there isn't the market for pubs in such remote locations and that he couldn't run it profitably as a business.

"Everyone's had plenty of opportunity to buy it while it's been sitting there getting more and more derelict," he said.

"The Crossings [Inn] is less than a mile down the road and it does a good trade and the village hall has an entertainment licence and that's half a mile down the road.

"It's not as if Stapleton is one of these villages like Walton or Irthington or Dalston.

"It's a series of houses spread over quite a large area. It's not as if you're taking the guts out of the centre of a village.

"Most importantly there's been plenty of opportunity for people to buy it.

"It was on the market for a year and it was on the market as a going concern for two years before that."

Recent fire and flooding damage has left the pub, which closed in 2014, in a dilapidated state.

Richard and Anthea bought it through Auction House Cumbria for £86,000.

But it had become an eyesore, with some of its windows smashed by vandals, and needs about £50,000 work.

This will include re-plastering and rewiring, a new kitchen and bathroom.

"We're actually saving the premises. We will breathe some life back into it and it'll still be there," he added.

It comes as plans to convert the Sportsman Inn at Laversdale into two new homes were approved.

Despite 23 objections against the proposal, councillors agreed unanimously to give the development the go ahead.

The Sportsman Inn has been closed for two years and Cameron Breweries, one of the former owners, cancelled the premises’ licence in April this year.

The new owner, Stephen Komolafe, wants to turn the pub into a three-bedroom house and a two-bedroom house.

In the next village, sealed bids to buy the Salutation Inn - which has been closed since May last year - were submitted this week.

It is thought at least four parties showed an interest, including Irthington Country Pubs Ltd, the community benefit society which was looking to raise the money needed through shares, and business partners Shaun Gardner and Jimmy Litttle, who recently sold Brewery House in Workington.