Episode 4 Calling Time

The Welsh pub, that traditional haven from domestic conflict, that oasis of light,

is under a three-pronged attack from the smoking ban, the recession and cheap supermarket booze.

This series is about the die-hard battle to keep these pubs alive

and over the past year we've followed some on the front line

from city centre taverns to country village inns.

The triumphs...

-..and the mishaps.

-Aah!

-The jubilation...

-CHEERING

-..and the tears.

-'Everywhere you look, there's pubs boarded up'

and you just hope you're not next.

All of them with the same goal -

to keep their locals from calling time.

In this episode, when a North Wales village loses its last pub,

a gang of colourful local characters band together to bring it back.

I don't know what I'm doing on the food committee cos I can't really boil an egg.

4.2%? I'll have some of this.

-OHH!

-Careful, Vincent!

It's great and we can get on with it now.

Will they succeed? Or will the wrecking ball intervene?

In the foothills of the Snowdonia National Park,

the village of Llan Ffestiniog is facing a dilemma all too familiar across rural Wales -

there's nowhere to buy a pint.

We've got two empty pubs here. The Abbey Arms, which we're just coming to,

which has been shut for seven years. It just shut its doors, no warnings.

Over the last six years, Mel has seen each of Llan Ffestiniog's four pubs close down.

-The effect on the community has been devastating.

-It's a dead village.

You lose contact with some people. There's some people I haven't seen, I don't think, since it's been shut.

It's a sad situation. Almost every village, there's a couple of closed pubs.

It seems to be the trend for five or six years now,

but recently it seems to have picked up speed, pubs closing almost daily.

The final pub to call last orders was the Pengwern Arms.

For almost 300 years, it was the hub of village life,

but, like the rest of the village, once the local slate industry closed

it went into slow decline, shutting its doors for good two years ago.

Here we are at the Pengwern.

It's been a focal point of the village ever since I can remember

and maybe a few years before then.

This stone, the coat of arms of the Pengwern family, testifies

1728. Do the maths. That's almost 300 years there's been a pub

and it was built as a hotel and pub. It's never had any other use.

So there you go. 300 years of history.

Mel wasn't going to let that history rot away. With local residents,

he launched a campaign to reopen the Pengwern, starting with a national press appeal.

People in a village in Gwynedd are desperate to get back into their pub

and if the group get enough support at a public meeting tonight, they'll reopen it themselves

and make it an even bigger part of village life.

We're shedding this "can't do" image.

Our cup is definitely half full.

We need people to come out tonight to support us. If you're sitting

on your backsides watching the TV, come down to the village hall and give your support.

We need people not only financially to contribute...

12 months on, the Pengwern remains an empty shell, but all is not lost.

Mel's televised appeal raised a committee to save the pub.

For the past year they've met weekly in the fight to raise the £200,000 they need to buy the building.

OK, just to start the ball rolling, I'll just quickly email him when I get home tonight

and tell him we're happy with the pink one.

The committee's treasurer is Mel's wife Ros.

Our public meeting in January, the support was incredible.

150 people put their hands up to say they wanted it open. It's taken a lot longer than we hoped.

We've got 150-odd shareholders whose money we've held, so we've got to raise the rest by grants

for the whole amount of the price.

We're all biting our fingernails, sort of hoping it comes through soon.

The shortfall stands at £180,000. They have applied for a Welsh Assembly Government grant

and local academic Selwyn is in charge of the paperwork.

As soon as we get the keys, we'll develop it not only as a pub, but also as a restaurant, a hotel.

And local organic farmer Bini is working on ideas for the pub restaurant.

The project is much, much more than just opening a pub. People want to go out,

they want good, home-cooked, reasonably-priced food.

There's lots of really good ideas.

Should the grant application be successful, they face one hell of a restoration job.

Mel gets hold of the keys to check out the current damage.

Here we are, boys.

Come inside!

Lights on, shall we?

We've only got the bitter on at the moment, boys.

Purple Moose, anybody?

With two bars, a lounge, a restaurant and function room,

12 bedrooms and a flat, the Pengwern's a bit of a beast, in need of significant sprucing.

The amount of work needed does make you catch your breath sometimes.

It's got to be more or less gutted and start from scratch.

Walking round the Pengwern sends local boy Mel into a reverie.

This is the place where I used to come when I was 18. We had the public bar here.

The riff-raff of the village, such as myself! My grandfather used to sit there with his pint

and quote poetry.

But one controversial game of darts burns brightest in Mel's memory.

I played the proprietor of the Pengwern Arms and I beat him

so I said, "OK, I'll play you for the pub." And I beat him a second time.

So, in fact, I did win this pub in a game of darts back in the 1970s,

but he never honoured the wager.

He was that kind of man. A gentleman.

Shall we go upstairs, shall we?

The building has been empty for two years, but one resident, former landlady Martha Owens,

still occupies the top floor... despite being dead for 150 years.

All the staff that I've spoken to

have said that Martha still walks the corridors.

So if you hear anything behind you, see anything... Does that thing pick up ghostly images?

Most of the unexplained phenomena emanates from one room and some staff did anything to avoid it.

This is the bedroom that Sarah won't come anywhere near, for some reason.

"I'm not going anywhere near that."

I'll have to ask her again. I'm not a great believer in ghosts.

You can see this is an aerial photograph and, talking of Martha, there she is there, look.

That's where Martha lies. She never really left.

It might be an idea to put bugs in the ceiling for noises at night.

That'll be a selling point.

It's one thing for the community to reopen the Pengwern, but how do you run a boozer by committee?

Mel and Sel decide to find out. They travel to Llithfaen to visit a co-operative pub

called the Tafarn y Fic.

Over 25 years ago, this village took over the pub

and have run it successfully since then. That's why we've come here to try to tap into that information.

John has been on the village co-operative since the beginning

and has seen it inspire many other community co-ops around the world.

It now owns the village shop and post office, but started in similar circumstances

to the Pengwern.

The brewery decided the Fic was not viable, so they shut it down, boarded the windows up

and it stayed like that for 12 months. A few of us got together and decided to change this.

The brewery were asking £20,000.

So we thought, OK, we'll go for it.

And we never looked back.

The Tafarn y Fic has also adapted to new markets and opportunities.

With quality pub grub a growing trend, they've added a restaurant.

-Are there any particular features of the restaurant, the food, sourcing...?

-Yes.

The food is mostly local. Especially the meat is local.

And it's quite popular, actually.

People like to support local things.

You do get people, sceptics, and they want you to fail, but you get them everywhere.

The more challenging it gets, the more resilience we get here.

The Fic in Llithfaen has been really quite inspirational.

You can have all the sort of books in the world and all the theory,

but if you've got something practical you can point to, well, that's so valuable.

It's April, 2011.

Six long months have passed since the committee applied for the Welsh Assembly grant

to purchase the Pengwern. Finally, Mel has some news and in the community hall next door,

-the committee have convened an emergency meeting.

-Tonight's meeting is to explain the situation

where we're up to at this stage in time.

It's an anxious time for all.

Mel has information concerning the project's future.

The Welsh Assembly have granted the full £180,000.

The Pengwern is theirs!

'At last, this thing is coming to life.'

It made me feel like the last couple of years haven't been wasted.

I've always had belief in the project, but that's the stamp of approval on the whole thing.

The important thing is we don't start with any debts at all. The building is paid for.

And it's a free house, so we're not tied to any brewery, which is a good starting point.

The morning after the night before and at long last the Pengwern's in the hands of the committee.

Yes! Here we go!

Yes!

After years of campaigning, fundraising and filling in forms,

they're finally in. Cause for a quick celebratory glass of champers,

then on with the hard graft.

It's fantastic. We'd spent two years, but now the hard work...starts.

We can actually get on with it now. Hopefully, within a few weeks the place will be heaving with people

and the till will be ticking over.

The work's being carried out by enthusiastic volunteers on a trial and error basis.

I'm Huw Edwards and I've been part of the management board for near on a year.

I'm getting on with some plumbing work, replacing an old copper pipe.

Time to turn the water on.

People are really pulling together. It demonstrates how important it is.

But when working on an old structure, goodwill and passion isn't always enough.

Because it's a listed building,

we found a stock of old glass that we cut for the Peng

so it keeps CADW and the conservationists happy.

CADW isn't Mel's only concern. Every day more problems come to light.

The workload is mounting, but Mel's hoping the publicity generated by buying the pub

will bring fresh volunteers.

Well, I'm hoping it will take a hell of a lot of the pressure off me.

Most of it's being done by volunteers, but obviously we have to get the professionals in

to sort out gas.

SPEAKS IN WELSH

OHH!

Careful, Vincent.

Whilst Mel gets on with the restoration work, local farmer Bini is working up her own plans

for the Pengwern's restaurant.

Here on this village farm we produce Welsh mountain lamb.

It's quite a distinct product and there's lots of scope to market it.

So one of the things we're exploring with the Pengwern is the food side.

We need to get the food right. It's ambitious, but we're determined

our menu is going to reflect our locality, local recipes, local talent.

It's amazing how much stuff is grown round here. I'm not the expert.

I can't really boil an egg.

So I don't know what I'm doing on the food committee! I'm interested in the ideas.

It's not just prime lamb that Bini's hoping to get on the menu.

We do organic Welsh black meat. She's a bit shy of you.

She doesn't like men.

It is amazing how much talent a village has.

It's going to be a lot more than just a pub. It's going to be a centre for all sorts of things

that maybe we haven't thought up yet.

And when not busy rearing future fare for the Pengwern, Bini puts in a shift

-refreshing the volunteers.

-Now here is just transformed in terms of this colour. I'm loving the colour.

There was much debate about the colour. It looks fabulous.

New light fittings, the bar...completely pulled out and cleaned.

It's just so much work gone in and so much fun, really.

The grand plan is to open in the summer, less than three months away, and the rush is on to finish.

This function room is... Well, the pressure's on now because we want this for the 25th of June.

These lads, every time I come here they're doing a fantastic job.

And through to the kitchen.

It's a fantastic kitchen. It's got potential, but we're going to have a big clean-up here

and get it checked out.

Bini and the food committee's priority is to get the kitchen cooking on gas by June,

so they head down the road to Blaenau Ffestiniog for counsel with an experienced caterer.

We've only come two miles because it's really important to us to have local suppliers,

support local small businesses and cottage industries, which Sue's is.

Sue's home bakery provides cakes and bakes to the local community.

But the ladies are not just here to sample the delicious wares.

They need advice on how to deal with current hygiene, health and safety regulations.

My advice is to ask for an advisory visit first.

They'll set out exactly what they feel you should do. It has to be spotless, things put in containers.

Obvious things. Anti-bacterial sprays available at all times. Floors must meet the skirting board

-so nothing can get in or out.

-You've got all this paperwork?

-Everything.

That's why I was so keen on employing somebody who's done it and knows about the paperwork.

-It's got horrendous now.

-Yes.

-Unfortunately, it takes away from the enjoyment of cooking.

For these amateur restaurateurs, the red tape world of commercial catering is a daunting tangle.

With such a short time to the launch, is the idea of a restaurant biting off more than they can chew?

June in Llan Ffestiniog.

The Pengwern's grand opening is just 24 hours away and the village is out in force to get things finished.

It's now nearly the end of June, is it? I've lost track of time.

We got the keys on 1st of April and I've been here every day all day since then.

The pub's interior has been totally transformed and a proud Mel is eager to give the grand tour.

It's brightened up a hell of a lot. The woodwork was all dark stained.

The comment was it was like being in a coffin. Oppressively dark.

Incredibly, the renovation has been completed on time and under budget, thanks to some ingenious ideas.

There were lots of little cigarette burns and somebody had a bright idea

of putting these little floral bits and pieces on. It worked quite well.

Against the odds, the massive function room has been finished.

When we first saw it, we thought, "Bloody hell! Start from scratch!"

But it looks pretty damn good.

It looks better than it ever did, I think.

The bar might be ready to roll, but the kitchen is in mothballs.

They gave up on getting a hygiene certificate in time, but Bini's determined to showcase local fare.

She's commandeered the village school canteen and drafted in helpers, including husband Huw.

The food is for the bash tomorrow. It's using Bini's organic lamb

and they come from the farm just over there. If you look through the window you can see two brothers

grazing on the field over there.

We're going to cook lamb tagine a la Huw.

A very famous recipe.

This weekend is part of the celebration of the opening. We're hoping for good weather,

but the forecast's not good. But we'll go for it anyway in the garden.

We're still buzzing, really, with the fact we have saved it.

We're all a little bit exhausted.

Bini's tired pride is understandable. As the villagers make their final preparations,

Bini knows that another of the village's pubs faces another fate.

After seven years of slow decay, the Abbey Arms is being demolished to make way

for new-built flats.

Launch day and whilst the weather threatens the mini music festival,

Mel's still in early to person the pumps.

We've succeeded in reopening the place.

Whether we make it a viable business remains to be seen.

OK, boys? We're good to go. Connect the beer up.

This is a very significant moment as far as I'm concerned.

This will be the first beer that will be on its way to the function room.

As the self-appointed cwrw guru, Mel takes great pride in his work

and brings diligence and expertise to this vital role.

Ah, Rich. Just in time!

Some quality control.

Everybody's commented on the quality of the beer. We aim to keep it that way.

That's only achieved by hard work and lots of testing and tasting.

This is serious stuff.

Bloody perfect.

Whilst Mel passes judgment on the beer, Bini and Ros deal with the late rush for tickets.

We're sorting out the tickets. Lots of people want them, last-minute. The weather doesn't put them off.

We're just making sure we've got enough. How many are left?

I've got about... I've got about ten left.

- Is that it?! - We're going to sell out.

- It's a sell out! - Do some creative ticket making!

Rain's stopped play on the outdoor concert plan, but there's an indoor alternative - the village hall.

If we'd got Plan A, we'd have got more people in the garden,

but I think it'll be fine. This will be a concert more, rather than a sort of festival.

The performers begin to arrive. Topping the bill will be the Glanaethwy Choir.

Some members are from the village and the choir is singing for free.

CHOIR REHEARSE

Behind the pub, Bini's husband Dr Huw is warming up his home-made Moroccan delicacy

-in a borrowed catering truck.

-Four cauldrons of lamb tagine.

We can have one on here and serve it through the hatch.

-This is what's called... What do they call it?

-Trial and error before the event!

-Ah, but it'll be all right.

-All right on the night.

With everyone under starter's orders and raring to go, the crowds descend for the concert.

As the concert draws to a satisfying close, the audience pours out of the hall

and descends on the Pengwern and its bar volunteers.

In no time at all, the pub is full to bursting, the beer is freely flowing,

smiles are flashing and the food is rapidly running out. And Bini couldn't be happier.

Although we were onto Plan B, it worked out really well.

The food...

Everybody's raving about it, aren't they?

As the pub crowd swells, the staff just about cope,

but Mel's dealing with a dodgy glass washer that can't keep up.

-How are we doing for clean glasses? Anything that will hold beer.

-I'm going as fast as I can.

I've just been inundated with all the empty glasses. The little machine can't cope.

-WHOOSH FROM WASHER

-Yeah! Here we go!

But back in the bar, the punters are oblivious to the hidden drama

and a night of strong trade is a fitting opening to round off years of hard work and dedication.

A beautiful North Wales morning and the debris tells the tale of a good night.

Ros is first down to start the clear-up.

Completely beyond our wildest expectations.

It was definitely a success financially and, by the reaction, I'm sure it was for the community.

After its sparkling opening night, can this voluntary venture maintain the momentum?

Two months later and a drizzly autumn evening in Llan Ffestiniog.

12 months ago, the heart of the village would be deserted, but even on a dreary Monday evening

-it's buzzing with activity.

-In which substance were 70 million-year-old feathers found?

Number three.

Which animal makes the longest migration in terms of distance?

This is what we aimed for when we first started.

We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but a couple of divorces later

and how many people have we murdered on the way? But, yeah, we got there.

I used to do the quiz before the pub shut before.

It feels more like back to what it should be, more of a community.

It goes on and on and on.

And number two, it's amber. Amber is the answer to number two.

Which mammal makes the longest journey of migration?

It's the humpback whale.

The pub's successful relaunch has changed perceptions of the village.

With most rural populations in decline, Llan Ffestiniog's vibrant community is attracting incomers.

-Good night.

-People like Carol just moved here.

Perhaps she wouldn't have got to meet so many people because there was nowhere to meet people.

We were retiring and we thought that we'd move to somewhere we wanted to be.

Hearing about the pub and the community's efforts to buy it, looking at that on the website,

we thought that means there's a community there. People are trying to fight against

that dilution of village life. This symbolises it, I think.

This series has seen its share of casualties and survivors.

The pub industry in Wales has changed forever, but communities, publicans and breweries

who make up the pub trade will adapt their locals to make them relevant to each new generation.

If there is a moral to this story, then it would be use your pub or lose it.

Iechyd da!

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2011

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