How a generation-bending TikTok campaign saved a local boozer

On Monday, the Elm Tree Inn in Dorset reopened its doors for the first time since 2023.

The pub was one of many victims of the coronavirus pandemic and rising costs, with the community saying they were left ‘devastated’ after its former owners were forced to close it down.

So what led to its reopening? Was it a local businessperson snapping it up, or a larger pub chain buying it?

Nope – in fact it was down to locals in the village of Langton Herring managed to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to save their boozer thanks to a viral TikTok campaign.

Martin Pearson, organiser at the Friends of the Elm Tree Inn campaign, said they are not taking the reopening for granted and hope they will be able to keep the pub running for many years to come.

The long-term village resident told Metro: ‘The previous owner’s business model basically didn’t work, they were running it as a fairly high-end gastropub, and so they suddenly announced it was closing.

‘They were looking for tenants to take it over, and that didn’t happen.

‘Going back in history we had already secured the pub as an asset of community value with the council, so as soon as it went on the market to be sold, it had to be offered to the community, and then we’d have six months to raise the money to negotiate a sale.

‘What we wanted to do was have a cooperative organisation that enabled you to have shareholders, one member one vote, for anyone who participated in the buyout.

‘The pub has been here for at least 400 years, although it’s changed over time the original building is still the core of the pub.

‘We’re a relatively small village, about 120 people, and there’s a small village hall, the church, and the pub, nothing else. We’ve got a bus shelter but no buses, no post office, no shop. So really the pub was the place where people connected.

‘The absolute priority was retaining the pub for the community. It’s been important for the life of the village for hundreds of years and it still is now.’

Sarah de Warren, who was brought up in Langton Herring, came up with the idea for the generation-bending TikTok publicity campaign, which quickly went global.

Martin explained: ‘I think “crazy” is the best word to describe that. It had a couple of impacts, it raised more money than we would have been able to raise locally, but also it spread the word about the place.

‘I think because of that, people bought into the story, into the image of a quintessential English village.

‘It also motivated us as well. Initially it was quite a daunting prospect to try and raise around £800,000 in total, we had an absolute deadline to get the money in, we did concerts and quiz nights and all of those things.

‘Sarah said “You’re never going to raise that amount of money selling jam”, so she did some clever script writing and really cajoled people into doing the skits, which they did, and that managed to spread the word around the world.’

But what about the future of the Elm Tree Inn?

With one pub set to close down every day in 2025, the future isn’t looking particularly bright for Britain’s boozers.

Blaming business rates and beer duty, the British Beer and Pub Association warns 5,600 jobs could be lost if 378 pubs close this year as predicted.

But as we’ve seen three heatwaves practically back-to-back, punters have been descending upon pub gardens up and down the country for a crisp cool pint or a G&T with friends and family.

Pub group Young’s, which has 180 boozers in London and the south east of England, saw an increase in turnover of 6.6% in the 14 weeks to July 8 as drinkers make the most of long stretches of sun.

More importantly, the humble pub is often the heart and soul of a local community – which is probably why several campaigns to buy and reopen village pubs have been successful in recent years.

The Rising Sun in Woodcroft, Gloucestershire, reopened in 2022 after an 11-year battle to stop the building being developed into flats, while the Martyrs Inn in Tolpuddle, Dorset, managed to reopen three years after closing down.

Both efforts included a public fundraising campaign, a method also being utilised by supporters of the Britannia Inn in Wells, Somerset.

Martin told Metro how he hopes his beloved boozer will withstand the test of time.

‘We wanted to adapt it so it really fitted in much better with the life of the community and people who come here,’ he said.

‘We are in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the pub’s in a conservation area, but also we have a lot of people coming here to bird watch and visit wildflower meadows.

‘When they’re here they quite like to pop into a pub to get a bite to eat or have a coffee, and there’s nowhere here to do that any more.

‘The new tenants are local and have experience working in the pub trade and with local food suppliers. One of our key focuses is to keep it local in terms of the beers we have and the food offering as much as possible.

‘We’ve done our homework, we’ve taken account of all of those industry issues, it’s not to say it’s going to be easy, hospitality is a hard business to be in, but we’re mindful of that and we think we can make it work.’

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