West Oxfordshire pubs keeping punters happy in lockdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced pubs had to close from March 20 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Many pubs pulled the shutters down, however over the last few weeks, some of them have come up with alternative ways to appease customers.

Lisa Neale, 41, manages the community-owned Red Lion in Northmoor with her husband, Ian.

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They have opened a collection service to local residents.

Mrs Neale said: “Ian does all the cooking and we offer the pub classics like fish and chips, and beef and veggie burgers.”

The couple have also been offering goodies such as brownies and croissants.

“We keep bookings staggered so we don’t have people waiting outside,” she added.

“We’ve also started doing ready meals such as lasagna and shepherd’s pie, and they’re selling really well.

“Everything is freshly made using local produce, and it’s good to see everyone pulling together.

“We’re doing lots of takeaway beer and if we can continue selling beer, we can help the local breweries.

“We’re a community pub so we’ve got a duty to them.”

Peter Creed, 32, runs the Bell Inn, Langford with his business partner, Tom Noest, 24.

The duo are both delivering and running a shop from the pub.

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Mr Creed said: “We’ve always done takeaways anyway with the pizza.

“We sat down and created the best takeaway menu we could, as we were keen to do it to the best of our abilities.

“It’s been great, we’ve been selling lots of takeaway beers and the wine list is 50 per cent off.

“It’s keeping us ticking over and I also think that the support from Government in our industry has actually been quite good.

“We have a good relationship with local producers and it’s now grown - we’re getting vegetables and meat delivered pretty much every day.

“The shop has grown in ideas, and is allowing us to pay rent, utility bills and the council tax.

“We’ve said to people that nothing is impossible, and with enough notice, anything is possible.

“Initially it looked like we would lose the business but it’s working for us and we’re keeping busy.”

Sebastian Snow, 57, the owner and chef at The Lamb in Crawley, is running a collection service for customers.

He said: “There was an emphatic demand for a takeaway service in the parish.

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“Customers get given a 10 minute slot so it’s quite a military exercise making sure people arrive bang on time.

“It’s survival mode for us given that we don’t have anything else to do at the moment.

“It’s also about community spirit, we’re trying to keep the takeaways to under £10.

“We’re also pretty new in the village, we’ve only been here a year, so we’re trying to get on the side of the villagers.”

Steve Ward, owner of the Harcourt Arms in Stanton Harcourt, built a detached building as a deli, which the pub opened in February.

He said: “As soon as all this started happening, we got the deli stocked up.

“We allow one family in at a time and it’s been a godsend for us, it’s been going really well.

“We’re lucky to have the premises to do this, it works really well.”