I know the cost of losing a pub in a community because I’ve lived it. In 2011, I took on the custodianship of The Three Crowns, a 500-year-old Grade II-listed pub in the beautiful West Sussex village of Wisborough Green. It was trading under £300,000 a year when I arrived; the rent was £30,000 and the rateable value £24,000. My dad created a stunning garden and kitchen garden and I worked every hour I had to rebuild the pub with a strong ethos, local suppliers and a real sense of care. By 2015, we’d grown our turnover to £984,000.
