FAMILIAR faces have re-opened The Rising Sun in North Bradley, and promise to bring back to life a traditional village pub.
Andy and Lynette Hobbs are no beginners when it comes to running pubs and will be well known to local people, having previously run The Duke at Bratton and The Somerset Arms in Maiden Bradley.
They have now taken The Rising Sun at North Bradley from a derelict state to a village pub once again and had have celebrated with a successful opening night on Friday 25th October.
Lynette said, “The opening night and first weekend was bonkers! 99% of people were from the village and it was lovely – like sardines in a can, but the atmosphere was amazing.
“Most of the people seem to not have seen each other since the pub was last open, just shy of a year ago – so it’s great to give people the space to meet up again.
“It wasn’t our choice to leave our previous pub, The Somerset Arms in Maiden Bradley, as the owner wanted to refurbish it and close it until 2020, so we needed to move on.
“We looked at The Rising Sun after we left The Duke at Bratton, but we didn’t feel ready to take on the challenge. But now we know the area. and both our previous pubs aren’t far away, so we know that people can come and visit us and we are happy to bring a pub back to the village. We may be glutton for punishment, but this will be the last move!
“Our plans for The Rising Sun is to get food up and running as soon as possible. The pub was left in a derelict state, on the plus side, we had a complete empty shell to put our own stamp on.
“Comments from people so far is that it is clean, nice and fresh and has a country village pub feel.
“We have a pool table and are introducing a dart board too and have been asked to set up teams for both, so we are in the process of that.
“We are listening to what the customers want, and don’t want. They’ve said they don’t want a TV in there all the time, but we are also hoping to be a place showing big sporting events such as international football games etc.
“The food will take a traditional route such as soups, fish and chips, steaks and also we will bring our gluten-free experience to the menu as well, both to the food as well as the beer.
“We will also be having live music from time to time, our first being Stomp on Sunday 11th November from 3pm – a toe tapping fun music genre that has been really popular in our previous pubs.
“Our website and Facebook pages are due to be up and running shortly, where you can keep up to date with all that is happening.
“We are open to ideas from the public about what they want – for example quiz nights, book clubs – If you want something to happen, just ask us!
“We are really pleased to be here and it is nice to already be seeing people returning. They didn’t just come on opening night for a nose, they are coming back. So thank you to everyone who has supported the opening so far.
“Until the food gets under way, our opening hours are currently Monday 5pm-11pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 12pm-2pm 5pm-11pm. Friday and Saturday 12pm-11pm and Sunday 12-10.30pm.”
Lynette and Andy Hobbs behind The Rising Sun’s bar
