A 200-year-old pub in Llanystumdwy has officially reopened thanks to an outpouring of support from the local community.

Tafarn y Plu, or the Feathers Inn, was fully reopened on Friday, 23 August after residents of Llanystumdwy and beyond spent a year supporting and buying shares in the pub.

The Feathers went up for sale in 2015, and amidst fears of closure Menter y Plu – a local community benefit group – came together in July 2018 determined to keep the last inn in the village open.

After setting up and registering with the Financial Conduct Authority, they set out to raise the money needed to buy and develop the inn through the selling of shares.

Menter y Plu managed to raise the £80,000 needed to keep the pub going, with the remaining total being made up by a contribution of £120,000 from the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action’s community asset development fund.

Shares were bought not only by the immediate community, but also by those further afield, with people from as far as Australia and the United States expressing an interest in keeping the space open.

The community enterprise also received support from Arloesi Gwynedd Wledig (Innovating Rural Gwynedd) to establish the initial crowdfunding campaign inviting people to invest.

The aim of the venture, Menter y Plu stated on the crowdfunder page, is “to maintain Tafarn y Plu as a traditional Welsh, in language and ethos, community pub and shop, to be run by Menter y Plu for the community’s benefit and for the pleasure of anybody who cares to venture through its doors”.

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