We have reached our first landmark

Dear Friends,

A big thank you to all who came to the Launch of the Share Offer on May bank holiday weekend. The turnout was tremendous and goes to show how strongly people feel about saving the Racehorse for our community. And a big thank you to all the volunteers who helped make it such a success - I am still not sure how we made it through Sunday lunchtime, what with the popularity of the hog roast and dodging the rain showers! If you were unable to come, I hope you are able to come to one of the other events we have planned.

We have now reached our first landmark of £25,000 on the road to buying the Racehorse. We have over 120 shareholders and pledgers, 200 supporters and, I am told, our FB posts are regularly reaching over 1,500 people. We can truly claim to be a Community Pub!

However, we are only at the start of the race to raise the capital needed to purchase and develop the Racehorse. While the total needed is £260,000, our aim is to raise at least £160,000 from the community, with scope for the balance to be found from grants and loans. And so our next target is to cross the £100,000 mark! To reach this, we are now asking all pledgers to convert their pledges into shares and all our supporters to invest if they can. While we are conscious that the past months have brought changes to all our circumstances (and the committee have made a decision not to hold anyone to their original pledge) we hope you will buy plenty of shares as that is the only way we can keep the Racehorse open.

Since taking over the lease of the Racehorse in December 2019 we have shown that there is a strong desire to save the Racehorse and that a community led pub is both popular and sustainable as a business going forward. It is truly a community asset and is evidence of how the Parish and Community Councils and the pub can all work together for the benefit of the whole of the local community. We expect this will encourage both more investors and bigger investments!

If you have already invested, many thanks and we will no doubt see you in ‘your’ pub very soon!

If you have pledged to invest, now is the time to convert that pledge into shares. It is vital to our project to build momentum in the drive to encourage others to invest and we need your help to do this. If you have enjoyed the pub over the last months, we would encourage you to invest even more as every share sold brings us a step closer to our goal!

If you are a supporter of the pub and want it to stay open, we need your help to buy it so please invest now!

Details of the Share Offer, as well as the supporting documents, are available here, and, if you have any questions, please get in contact with one of the committee or email us.

To convert an existing pledge or to buy new shares please fill out a Share Application Form which is available either from the pub or click here. You can email it to us or drop it in at the pub.

Remember that your share investment will only be used when we buy the pub and, should we not reach our target, will be returned to you.

Many thanks,

The Committee