We are a community volunteer group, The Friends of The Crown Inn (FoTCI) campaigning to save our local pub. Our local parish council, The Newcastle Parish Council has recently been awarded a Community Ownership Fund grant from the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government and acquired the pub on February 21st, 2025!
The grant provided the funds to purchase our pub and we are delighted!! The local pub has been closed for the last two years and we are a community that was focused on acquiring this special community asset that will foster local cohesion and well-being and attract visitors, cyclists and hikers to our area of National Landscapes.
The FoTCI have an active programme of fundraising and have already raised some much needed funds for particular pub projects. The pub is community-owned, but it is not yet in tip-top shape to open to the public! We are actively applying for grants to support some of these projects, and are beginning too, to look at sponsorships.
We have over 200 community members who are keenly interested in the pub, and getting involved as well as many others from neighbouring villages. Our FoTCI have an active, organising group of 10-20 people and we liaise with our many volunteers to take action and raise the funds to enhance and improve our new local asset. Please join us and enjoy the pleasure community involvement brings, as well as learn a few new skills, apply existing ones and eventually, reap the benefits of our great work and enjoy the pub facilities when it opens in 2025! Thank you to all those who have already dedicated many many hours of work of all shapes and sizes. Thank you!
We work closely with the Newcastle Parish Council Pub Committee to ensure that the fundraising themes and projects we are promoting, as well as volunteers from FoTCI, are aligned with the values and wide-reaching benefits that the Parish Council planned as part of their COF grant, and as part of their long-term vision. The FoTCI will ensure that for additional grants/funds that we apply for, we will also deliver to the benefits and objectives of these individual funds, and the vision of Newcastle Parish Council to better our place for locals and visitors alike to the Clun Valley, Shropshire.
We have controls and governance in place to ensure we are open and welcoming to all, including our equality impact assessment, anti-fraud, safeguarding policy, and terms of reference. We also have adopted the Shropshire Equality Commitment.
