Welcome to The George Community Pub
Second Share issue now underway with big incentives
Following our exciting grant award of £988,200 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, restoration of the historic George Pub is now within our grasp. Our target is to raise a total of £340,000 of which over half has been promised through a pledge campaign last year. Once converted pledges will narrow the gap but we still need to raise the remainder.
As an incentive to UK tax payers, investors in The George will receive 30% tax relief under the Governments Social Investment Tax Relief Scheme and for people living locally to Wickham Market we have also been awarded match funding by the Architectural Heritage Fund through the Community Booster Programme. This means that for every pound invested another pound will be invested in shares up to the value of £50,000.
You can be part of this amazing community rescue and restoration story, help us by buying shares in The George Community Pub.
Click here for more details of share offer and how to apply
Latest News…..
Share Offer deadline extended to 27th May
The George Management Team have been delighted with the response received from our share offer to date. Share investments received are approaching our minimum target but we are also aware of a number of potential investors who have pledged support but need more time to prepare .
We have decided therefore to extend the offer to Friday 27th May in order to accommodate late applications so that we can complete the major part of our fundraising.
We take the opportunity of thanking those that have already applied. If you are thinking of applying, we look forward to receiving further valuable contributions in the next few weeks. Copies of the Share Offer Prospectus and applications forms can be found in Inspirations and the Teapot, or can be downloaded from here.
News on the User Group
Thankyou to everyone who volunteered to become a member of the George User Group.
Everyone who has volunteered is being welcomed to the User Group with a tour of the George and a presentation on the project. The User Group will play a vital role in supporting and advising the Management Committee on decisions which will affect the look, feel and use of the George as a comfortable, inviting, and family-friendly community pub, inclusive to all.
The User Group will aim to represent future users of the pub and input views and opinions on important detail. The group will make informed recommendations on matters such as interior design and ambience, garden design, food and drink, events and activities and how we can make the George a fantastic place to visit.
An early Christmas present for Wickham Market!
We are fantastically pleased to announce that our application to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for a Heritage Enterprise Delivery Phase Grant has been approved. Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the country’s National Lottery players, a grant of £988,200 will provide the largest part of the funds required to allow us to reconstruct the historic George as the community pub at the heart of Wickham Market. This is, in no small measure, down to the support we have received from you over the past few years. We must also not forget to express our gratitude to those individuals and organisations whose funding, advice and encouragement has got us this far.
There is still a lot of hard work ahead for our volunteer team and now is certainly the time to get in touch if you want to join the Committee or our User Group, or volunteer to help with Project activities or events; particularly if you have skills or expertise which you think will be relevant.
We cannot start work fully until we are granted Permission to Start by the Heritage Fund, though we hope to receive this in February. Permission, depends, however, on our raising a large part of our match funding. The main source will be our second share offer, due to launch in mid-January. For those of you who do not already have shares this will be your chance to become part of ‘The George story’ (for an investment of as little as £50). For those of you who, this year, made pledges , which was vital in demonstrating to the Heritage Fund our capacity to raise the money we still need, this will be your opportunity to honour your promise to buy shares.
More details on the award, the next stages, the share offer and volunteering will follow soon.
Please feel free to share the good news with your friends and family or on social media, or contact us for more details or to find out how you can be part of our team.
Other News
Summer 2021
Latest progress update on The George project
Following our successful planning application, we want to clarify the type of pub The George will be, what makes a community pub and the anticipated dates for building works and pub launch. With that in mind, we have produced a full News Update. Please click here to view the News Update.
We are currently finalising our presentation to The Lottery Heritage Fund for second round funding which will be submitted later in August. We should have an answer sometime in November / December 2021, in the meantime as our work continues we will issue regular updates to keep you all up to speed with progress.
April 2021
Report on The George project presented at the Annual Parish Meeting
The George Management Committee were pleased to be invited to submit a report for the Wickham Market Annual Parish meeting which was held on 12th April. The report summarises the objectives of the project and what we hope to achieve. It also gives an update on where we are we on our journey to restore The George. Click here to view a copy of the report.
February 2021
Suffolk County Councillor shows his support for the George
There has been much support for the George Community Pub in Wickham Market but none more so than from Alexander Nicoll our County Council representative. Alexander has supported many community projects in Suffolk and for ‘Saving the George’ he has always been willing to stand up and promote our message through the media and other contacts.
Once again Alexander and Suffolk County Council have shown tremendous support by awarding a localities grant to The George of £2680 to help fund our latest ‘pledge to invest’ publicity campaign. Pledges are needed to show other grant providers such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund that a wide section of the community is behind this project. Have you ‘pledged to invest’ yet? Do it now by clicking the big button above.
Many thanks to Councillor Alexander Nicoll for helping us along the way.
February 2021
The results of our e-survey of last year
In April 2020 we decided to carry out a survey of what people wanted in terms of food offerings, beer choices, how often people eat out, what activities they wanted to see in the pub, whether they wanted a micro brewery, etc. Because of Covid 19 restrictions we were limited to doing the survey on line and via email to only our shareholders and friends. We had a very good response to the survey which has provided valuable data which will aid in future decision making. The survey report can be found here.
For completing the survey, we promised a free meal for two when the pub opens. The winners were chosen at random which are: Daniel Hussey, Kate Thurlow, Michael Verdon Miller, Ruth Ascroft and Bryan Hall. Congratulations to them all.
Our thanks to everyone who took part.
January 2021
Christmas Card Questionnaire – How would you like to see your pub?
The results of the Christmas Card questionnaire are in, including colour preferences for the building and options for the front garden, cycles and wood fired pizza oven. Alongside these questions there were many other comments all of which are summarised in this report.
Thanks to everyone who took part.
If you are not already a member and want to subscribe to our ‘Friends of the George’ email group to receive updates on progress, details of events, news, etc, then please click on the icon to be added to the friends list.