A FAMILY-RUN pub in the heart of a Somerset village decided it needed to diversify to cope with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bell Broadway, situated in a village near Ilminster, opened its own village shop on January 22.
The village no longer has a shop, and landlord, Tyler Doak, 30, decided he wanted to help the community during the Covid-19 crisis.
And so they have repositioned the fridges, made some shelves and turned one of the rooms of the pub into a village shop.
“The community needed it, there are a lot of older people in the village who don’t want to go to supermarkets and so they come here, or we drop stuff to peoples houses,” he said.
“Pubs are in trouble and are an essential hub of the community.
“After various lockdowns we decided to give Broadway what it needed – a decent shop - stocking fresh, local produce.
“We wanted to continue to be the hub of Broadway village, and the shop seemed a great way to do this, and continue what The Bell at Broadway has been doing since 1640.
“I am really pleased we made the decision for the village and it gives us something to do at the moment.
“Most of our workforce is on furlough, but we have had a few people who fell in the gaps and opening the shop gives a platform for us to have people who are continuing to work.”
The Bell Broadway opened in December 2018, and Mr Doak started running the business when last years initial lockdown was lifted.
Two years ago, Mr Doak lived in London as a project manager for a commercial real estate company - but now, he spends his evenings “worrying about the price of carrots”.
“If you told me two years ago I would be a greengrocer I would not have believed you but I wouldn’t change it ,” he added.
Mr Doak decided he wanted to support local businesses and so stocks meat from Bonners in Ilminster, meat and fish from Brown and Forrest, Hambridge, and chutney’s from Rawlin’s - a small producer less than a mile from the pub.
They also offer soup to takeaway, tea and coffee, as well as homemade cakes and sausage rolls. On Fridays and Saturdays, they offer a ‘heat and eat’ Thai food range. They will also be starting wood-fired takeaway pizza in February.
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