The Fisherman, now the Village Inn, is a modern pub that was built in the 1960’s.
In April 2007 Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper reopened the Enterprise Inns owned pub after a £200,000 extension and refurbishment. The Fisherman was doubled in size and had a new kitchen, dining area and a sports bar equipped with two plasma screen televisions. Morris men entertained during the evening and llama trek expert Alastair Fraser even brought along his animals. Landlord Murray Hunt said at the time, “We wanted to create a real community pub which will benefit the whole of Sedbury. The response so far has been tremendous, and we’ve been well supported by Enterprise Inns.”
Elizabeth Rogers and Dave Hughes took over the running of the Fisherman in March 2009. Dave said, “A lot of people have said they have they’ve got their old pub back. The response has been great.”
In January 2010 the pub closed for business and was boarded up several days later. Councillor Alastair Fraser (Independent, Tidenham) said, “Owners Enterprise Inns have to ask themselves whether the rent they are asking for is too high.” However, it had re-opened by May.
In July 2013 an outline planning application was submitted to Forest of Dean District Council for the construction of two terraces of three dwellings and a replacement shop unit on the land adjoining the public house.
The pub was relaunched as the Village Inn and mother and daughter team Mo and Zoe ran the pub in July 2019. The Village Inn website then proudly declared it was ‘family run for family fun’ and the food was described as home-cooked ‘where quality doesn’t mean pricey.’
Western Daily Press, Saturday November 19th 2022 – Delight after butcher’s move to save village pub. (By Janet Hughes): A village pub locals feared could be bulldozed for housing has been saved after the local butcher stepped in to keep it open. Mark Pearce has taken over the lease of the Village Inn, Sedbury, which opened yesterday. Residents feared the worst when the previous landlady, Olivia Bushell, put a message on social media to say she was leaving due to ill health and the new owners wanted to sell up.
Some were worried that the pub would be bulldozed leaving a large plot for housing and this would mean them being forced to walk into Wales for a drink. But now Mark Pearce, who had a butcher’s shop on the opposite side of the road, has taken over the lease with Shaun and Amanda Barnsley who own the Millers Arms. The Village Inn sits on the English border at Chepstow and the Millers is a few miles into Wales at Mathern. Originally Shaun and Mark planed to re-open last weekend but they struggled to meet the deadline. Villagers appear pleased with the move to save the pub on the English side of the border.
Speculation over the future of the Village Inn started when Olivia wrote on the pub’s Facebook page that she wanted to thank all the people who used the pub because it was closing. She wrote: “It saddens me to say, that on Saturday 8th October at shut tap, I will be closing the Village Inn. As a lot of you know I have been very ill with a long recovery ahead still, this matched with in the near future the owners would like to sell the property so the decision was made between us.”
Many villagers feared that was the end of the pub until Mark posted: “We have great pleasure in announcing that myself and Shaun have taken over the lease of this fabulous village pub. Shaun and Amanda are bringing a lot of experience of the pub trade after running many very successful pubs in the past and are the present owners of the Millers Arms, Mathern.”
“Myself and Vickie run the local butchers opposite the pub and have loved being in the village. We believe every good village needs a great local pub so we thought why not buy it.”
Landlords:
1964 -1965 Fred Oakes
1965 -1967 Mr Black
1967 -1975 C. Richards
1975 D. Smith (from Live and Let Live)
2007 Murray Hunt
2008 Gerald Barratt
2009 Elizabeth Rogers and Dave Hughes
2022 Olivia Bushell
2022 Mark Pearce, Shaun and Amanda Barnsley
