WW pub crisis: now The Woods End closes down

YOU might recall my theory a couple of weeks ago that one Wherryman’s Way pub was always in crisis. The Loddon Swan was in the limelight then because its management company had gone into administration. Well right theory, wrong pub. Last Sunday – the very day that Coldham Hall re-opened – The Woods End at Bramerton closed its doors. Another classic riverside pub falls victim to the economic slowdown.Landlord Martin Wormell was holding a clearout bonfire in the back garden this lunchtime. He blames a combination of two wet summers and one cold winter for failing to make ends meet. He has also noticed a big reduction in the number of hire cruisers making it this far up the Yare. So what will the pub’s owners do next? “Well it’s too important a pub to leave closed for the summer,” he told me. “They’ll get someone in, but I’m walking away with nothing.” Perhaps the next landlord has got to go down the Coldham Hall route; modernise and aim at the locals. Oh and they might want to glance at my “Boots as well as Boats” post too. The pub market is changing, fast.

What next for the Loddon Swan?

“THERE’S A rule about the Premiership,” wrote one clever sports reporter a few weeks ago, “that as far as the media is concerned, one football club should always be in crisis.” I feel much the same about Wherryman’s Way pubs. Last year we feared for Coldham Hall after the bailiffs moved in. (It should re-open within weeks. See previous posts.) Then the Woods End at Bramerton was put up for sale – again more here. Now the future of The Swan at Loddon is in doubt after management company GRS Inns went into administration. Amazingly The Swan is one of four pubs which survive in Loddon/Chedgrave – but for how much longer? The White Horse does the restaurant/upmarket thing; the King’s Head looks after the footie lads, while The Angel does a good line in cosy chintz. And The Swan? Goodness knows I wouldn’t have the bottle or the business nous to run a boozer in these troubled economic times, but I can’t see who this pub is aiming at. Which is of course a crying shame. It started life as the grand coaching inn - some of the stable buildings still survive to the rear. And in the days when each town had its own court, the local magistrates met there too. But that’s all ancient history. These days it doesn’t feel so grand ..and this latest news means it doesn’t feel very well-loved either.