The Plough, Fadmoor

Welcome to the July investor update.

Petra and Debbie attended Plunkett UK’s Rural Business Awards on Friday with the event held at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London.  We knew were a finalist trimmed down from a group of 10 businesses to 3 in the “One to Watch” category, which was one of the nine awards being awarded.  This category is for community businesses that have yet to open and here is a link to the website if you would like to read more – https://plunkett.co.uk/rural-community-business-awards/.  So, it was between us, The Bell Inn in Curry Mallet (Somerset) and Kirtlington Community Shop (Oxfordshire).  Unfortunately, we did not win, Kirtlington Community Shop did, but the event was a great opportunity to meet and learn from other community businesses that have opened.  The majority of the community businesses were shops but some really interesting community focused events for us to look to introduce when we open!  We also suggested to Plunkett that it would be great to meet and learn from other community businesses in Yorkshire with a regional workshop.  Here’s a picture of Petra and Debbie with the Plunkett team and the representatives from The Bell Inn and the category sponsor Cadwallader.

We are just a week out from the Beer Festival (Friday 10 and Saturday 11 July) and plans are coming along well with the marquees going up on Sunday at 10am.  Order tickets here – https://www.ticketebo.co.uk/the-plough-fadmoor/beer-festival-at-the-plough-fadmoor-2026. We have sold all the beer barrel sponsorships with only Bronze packages available. Thank you to all sponsors – special thanks to the Platinum Sponsors, Rounthwaite & Woodhead and Gold Sponsors YorLoos.  It is so encouraging that the event is being well supported and ticket sales are looking really healthy, so please don’t leave it too late to get your tickets as we will shut down the ticket sales when we reach our max of 499 capacity per day.   For Saturday we only have 100 tickets available.  There are a few more tickets available for Friday night but we have already exceeded the total online tickets sales made last year. We have a full music line-up with local bands, three food options per evening plus over 35 beers, lager, cider, wine and of course our Plough Gin – lots to enjoy and it currently looks like the weather is on our side.  Plus, this year, Ed has been working with the team at Trig Brewery and has produced a “Plough On” beer which will be launched at the beer festival.  It is a modern, light mild style beer 3.4% – so make sure you give it a try when you come along to the beer festival.   

We understand that many of you are very disappointed that you won’t be able to attend this year’s beer festival as a family. We are really sorry that we have had to make the difficult decision to limit attendance to over 15s only.

This decision was made after careful consideration by the Management Committee, with health and safety at the forefront of our minds. The areas immediately around the pub building remain a building site, and following last year’s event, where there were concerns around the level of parental/guardian supervision, we felt this was the responsible decision given the nature of the event and high public profile we hold.

We very much hope to run a more family-friendly event, with younger children in mind, towards the end of the summer holidays, as well as our Pumpkin Parade later in the year.

Progress continues well on the toilet block build and the roof is now on, so work is due to happen inside the toilet block and on the exterior once the scaffolding in down.  Its looking really great.  We have fitted one of the windows at the rear of the pub and more to follow over the next few weeks as we get the new lintels and cills in.  The window we have in looks great, so will be really transformational for the look of the building.  Colin and Leo have also been working hard on the inside of the pub, putting in stairs so we can safely install ceilings back into the pub.  They will continue to focus on getting the bar and snug ready so that the bar can be rebuilt.

Petra has been working with Caroline Bosher and Patrick James on the design of the outside space, making it somewhere welcoming and accessible for all.  The drainage pipework has been installed and work can start soon on the surfacing work.  As part of this project, we have been successful in getting funding from Pub is The Hub – a national body set up to help advise pubs in rural locations to diversify and become the hub of the community –  which gives us  the money to purchase a pizza oven, a BBQ and a mobile container which we can use as a bar in the garden of the pub or at outdoor events.  These will be installed over the next month or so in the back garden ready for events.

Thank you all for your support of The Plough and we look forward to seeing you at the Beer Festival if you can make it and we will be in touch soon with the latest news.