3:30pm Sunday 31st May 2009
By Robert Hale
A LOCAL real ale brewery is breathing new life into a rundown Malvern pub.
The Cavalry Arms in Clarence Road has been empty for several months, with steel shutters across its windows and doors.
But the Wye Valley Brewery, in Stoke Lacy, has bought the pub and hopes to have it open for trade by the end of June.
Peter Amor, Wye Valley founder, said: “When we saw the pub it ticked a lot of the right boxes for us. It’s only 11 or 12 miles from the brewery, it’s in an area with a lot of houses around, and it has all the makings of a nice community pub.”
Wye Valley bought the pub from Punch Taverns, which owns more than 8,000 licenced premises across the UK. “I won’t say what we paid for it,” said Mr Amor, “but I can say it’s considerably less than the original asking price.” Work is now going on to upgrade the pub’s interior, and the search is on for a suitable tenant.
“We’re not a huge group with hundreds of pubs on our books,” said Mr Amor. “We want to find a tenant who we can work closely with to make it a success.” The brewery already owns two pubs: the Barrels in Hereford and the Rose and Lion in Bromyard.
“These were both rundown when we took them over and they are now both very popular pubs,” said Mr Amor. He said now the Morgan at Link Top had been sold with a condition preventing it reopening as a pub, Wye Valley was considering renaming the Cavalry with the name of Malvern’s famous sports car.
Wye Valley’s purchase has been welcomed by CAMRA spokesman Mark Haslam.
He said: “The pub had a succession of tenants in recent years when it was owned by Punch Taverns.
“We believe it will now be a real success as a Wye Valley house.”
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