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Hazelmere

Ivinghoe pub's last orders after 300 years

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Published Date:
11 February 2009
IT has survived the Bread Riots and even the introduction of income tax. But what the revenue-raising zeal failed to do has been achieved by the smoking ban and the recession.
After 300 years The Rose and Crown in Ivinghoe has served its final pint, bringing to an end a history stretched back to 1699.

Landlady Paula James has been running the pub for six years, and for the first three the pub was raking in the cash.

The smoking ban was the first in a series of fatal blows to the pub trade and, with nearly 50 pubs closing every week, Miss James said she had been delaying the inevitable for over a year.

Miss James said the smoking ban, which was brought in nearly two years ago, had seriously damaged the pub trade.

The recession has been the final nail in the coffin for those pubs which were already struggling as a result of the smoking ban, she added.

Miss James said villagers had criticised her for closing her inn.

"I gave the villagers all that time to come and support the pub but nobody did. The locals don't drink here and I just can't understand that. I have a few people from Pitstone who walk a mile to the pub and they have always remained loyal. There used to be a youth hostel in the village and I got the majority of my trade from there, but when that closed, it was a massive blow to the business.

"I have now de-licenced the property and it can be sold as a house. To be honest, I would just like to get rid of it as quickly as possible."

For the full story, see this week's Bucks Herald

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  • Last Updated: 11 February 2009 3:09 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Aylesbury
 
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helend498,

12/02/2009 01:29:30
Paula. I'm not surprised with what has happened and what an awful waste of heritage and community spirit. This government has no morals.
The smoking ban was the big hit - the NuLabs believed the lobbyists (that they'd paid for with our cash) that it would bring more business to the hospitality trade. How utterly ridiculous was that! I'm still waiting for an apology as I'm sure you are as well.

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carlyle,

Aylesbury 14/02/2009 10:44:29
Its not the smoking ban that has killed pubs,people still go to places where you used to be able to smoke but now cant,you can not smoke on planes or cinemas but folk still fly and go to the pictures,
What has killed pubs are the prices of drinks,the government has latched on to that people enjoy the pub, so started to slap more and more taxes on drinking, and brewers kept putting up there prices till in the end not many folk can afford to drink out,
And any one who uses working mens social clubs where prices are cheaper the government having milked all they can out of pubs now see them as a nice little earner, and beginning to taxs them out of existance as well.
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Ex-Regular,

18/02/2009 10:38:53
I find it sad that the closure of this pub is being blamed on many reasons that are not correct.

For instance why attempt to blame the smoking ban, when the pub became smoke free at the bequest of the owner (who herself smoked) some 10 months before it was necessary, in October 2006, as reported in this paper in April 2007.

It is also incorrect to attempt to blame locals for not supporting the pub. Many people from Ivinghoe used to frequent what used to be a superb establishment. British Pub users do not change their favourite drinking and eating holes lightly, therefore it should be obvious, and is to those who know, that the true reasons for the decline of the Rose and Crown are not those outlined in the above article.
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