The beginning bit

A huge thank you to everyone who recently contacted us with kind words of support, both online and in person, in response to our first blog. It has been enormously encouraging to us and so lovely to hear of your delight at the prospect of the Arms reopening.

The realisation of the huge task we have taken on is a daunting yet exhilarating prospect. We both love a challenge and the project ahead presents an abundance of them - not least of these is time. Apologies again to all you keen customers eager for us to open. We promise it’ll be worth the wait!

We’re still anxiously waiting for planning decisions to be made by the powers that be, so over the past month or so we have busied ourselves getting stuck in to clearing the pub and garden in readiness for the ‘big project’. We enlisted the talents of the lovely Olly and Will, young local lads keen to roll their sleeves up for a bit of part time work, and they’ve been duly working their socks off to help out. Joel has been merrily wielding his hedge trimmer and chainsaw to clear away rampaging brambles and overgrown shrubs, thanks to which we’ve found parts of the garden that haven’t seen the light of day for a few years. So now, we have a beautiful ‘blank canvas’ ready for us to start plotting out new lawns and paths, a vegetable garden, a wildflower meadow, the odd new tree and a ton of other lovely planting. As our 3-year-old (or at least he will be on Friday) puts it, ‘it’s going to be magical’.

Inside, tankards, historical Tichborne artworks and general pub bric-a-brac have all been catalogued and shipped off to storage, awaiting their safe return when the time finally comes. We’ve been busily beavering away on all the interior plans, and they are all coming together just beautifully.

So, whilst seemingly all quiet from the outside, it’s been a whirlwind of activity behind the scenes. Things are starting to wind down for Christmas now, so while we continue to wait for news from planning, all that remains is to have a few Christmas drinks with the neighbours and keep our fingers and toes crossed that we can really get cracking in the new year.

Thank you everyone for your continuing support. We wish you all the most wonderful Christmas. Here’s to celebrating it with you next year!

Susie and Joel