Villagers win race to save UK pub, as thousands close
Fast forward to 2025 and laughter rings out of the newly reopened watering hole after locals clubbed together to save it.
The pub, which first opened in the 1830s, is one of tens of thousands across the UK forced to call last orders over recent years.
Once the heart of the village, the Radnor Arms—which had become uneconomic due to rising costs—was shut by the landlord in 2016 and quickly fell into ruin.
For locals in the picturesque south Wales village of New Radnor, population 438, the demise of their only remaining hostelry was devastating.
Over the years, there were around six or more pubs or ale houses in the village. By 2012, all except the Radnor Arms had shut down.
'It was the heart of the village,' said David Pyle, a 57-year-old retired psychiatrist who has lived next door to the pub for the past 18 years.
'Sometimes you could hear a bit of hubbub, sometimes you'd hear a roar go up when Wales scored, or a male voice choir singing in the back bar,' he told AFP.
'It was just lovely,' he said. 'And then it closed.'
British tradition
UK pubs, a quintessential cornerstone of community life, are increasingly under threat.
Faced with changing drinking habits and spiralling bills, more than a quarter of the 60,800 in existence in 2000 have closed their doors in the past 25 years.
Of the 45,000 still operating at the end of last year, 378 —at least one a day— are expected to close this year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).
The loss of Radnor Arms in 2016 left the village without a focal point, hitting everyone from hobby groups to local hill farmers who would meet there after work for a pint of beer and a chat.
'It was the heart of the community. It was a place where anybody could come in,' said Sue Norton, one of a team of locals who banded together to save it.
'We celebrated births, deaths and marriages here. So for us, it was very emotional when it closed,' she said.
Vowing to rescue it, Norton and other villagers applied to a government scheme aimed at giving people the financial firepower to take ownership of pubs or shops at risk of being lost.
A major fundraising effort last year drummed up £200,000 ($271,000), which was matched by the community ownership fund and boosted by an additional £40,000 government grant.
With £440,000 in the kitty, the villagers were able to buy, refurbish and re-open the pub, relying on a rota of volunteers to work behind the bar rather than paid staff.
Ukrainian refugee Eugene Marchenko, a 44-year-old lawyer who is one of the volunteers, says the pub helped him meet practically everyone within days of arriving.
Marchenko, from the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, is being hosted by a villager along with his wife and teenage son. He said he quickly came to understand the importance of having a place in the village for 'drinking and having fun together'.
'I read in books that the pub was a famous British tradition, but I can feel it myself... It's not just about the drinking alcohol, it's about the sharing and everybody knows each other,' he said.
Lifeline axed
The previous Conservative government launched the community ownership fund in 2021.
Under the scheme locals have successfully saved around 55 pubs, according to the community ownership charity Plunkett UK.
The pubs are run democratically on a one-member, one-vote basis by those who contributed to the fundraiser.
But the new Labour government, which took power a year ago, dropped the scheme in December as they sought to meet competing funding demands.
Villagers in New Radnor are relieved to have got their application in under the wire but saddened that other communities will not benefit.
For now they are planning to make the most of their new community hub.
There are plans to host a range of activities—from mother-and-baby mornings to a dementia group that aims to trigger memories through familiar sights and sounds.
Sufferers and their carers could come and have a 'drink or a bag of crisps—or a pickled onion, if people like those,' Norton said. — AFP
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‘Absolute madness': Thailand's pet lion problem
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'It's terrifying to imagine, if the laws aren't changed, what the situation is going to be in 10 years.' The boom is fueled by social media, where owners like Tharnuwarht post light-hearted content and glamour shots with lions. 'I wanted to show people... that lions can actually bond well with humans,' he said, insisting he plays regularly with his pets. He entered Big George's enclosure tentatively though, spending just a few minutes being batted by the tawny striped liger's hefty paws before retreating behind a fence. Since 2022, Thai law has required owners to register and microchip lions, and inform authorities before moving them. But there are no breeding caps, few enclosure or welfare requirements, and no controls on liger or tigon hybrids. Births of protected native species like tigers must be reported within 24 hours. Lion owners have 60 days. 'That is a huge window,' said Taylor. 'What could be done with a litter of cubs in those 60 days? Anything.' 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There is also growing evidence that captive lion numbers in Laos exceed CITES import licences. In Thailand, meanwhile, imports of lion parts like bones, skins and teeth have dropped in recent years, though demand remains, raising questions about how parts are now being sourced. Thai trader Pathamawadee Janpithak started in the crocodile business, but pivoted to lions as prices for the reptiles declined. 'It gradually became a full-fledged business that I couldn't step away from,' the gregarious 32-year-old told AFP in front of a row of caged cubs. She sells one-month-olds for around 500,000 baht ($15,500), down from a peak of 800,000 baht as breeding operations like hers increase supply. Captive lions are generally fed around two kilograms of chicken carcasses a day, and can produce litters of two to six cubs, once or twice a year. Pathamawadee's three facilities house around 80 lions, from a stately full-maned nine-year-old to a sickly pair of eight-day-olds being bottle-fed around the clock. They are white because of a genetic mutation, and the smaller pool of white lions means inbreeding and sickness are common. Sometimes wrongly considered a 'threatened' subspecies, they are popular in Thailand, but a month-old white cub being reared alongside the newborns has been sick almost since birth. It has attracted no buyers so far and will be unbreedable, Pathamawadee said. She lamented the increasing difficulty of finding buyers willing to comply with ownership rules. 'In the past, people could just put down money and walk away with a lion... Everything has become more complicated.' Legal review Pathamawadee sells around half of the 90 cubs she breeds each year, often to other breeders, who are increasingly opening 'lion cafes' where customers pose with and pet young lions. Outside Chiang Mai, a handler roused a cub from a nap to play with a group of squealing Chinese tourists. Staff let AFP film the interaction, but like all lion cafes contacted, declined interviews. Pathamawadee no longer sells to cafes, which tend to offload cubs within weeks as they grow. She said several were returned to her traumatised and no longer suitable for breeding. The growing lion population is a problem for Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), admitted wildlife protection director Sadudee Punpugdee. 'But private ownership has existed for a long time... so we're taking a gradual approach,' he told AFP. That includes limiting lion imports so breeders are forced to rely on the domestic population. 'With inbreeding on the rise, the quality of the lions is also declining and we believe that demand will decrease as a result,' Sadudee said. Already stretched authorities face difficult choices on enforcing regulations, as confiscated animals become their responsibility, said Penthai Siriwat, illegal wildlife trade specialist at WWF Thailand. 'There is a great deal of deliberation before intervening... considering the substantial costs,' she told AFP. Owners like Tharnuwarht often evoke conservation to justify their pets, but Thailand's captive lions will never live in the wild. Two-year-olds Khanom and Khanun live in a DNP sanctuary after being confiscated from a cafe and private owner over improper paperwork. They could survive another decade or more, and require specialised keepers, food and care. Sanctuary chief vet Natanon Panpeth treads carefully while discussing the lion trade, warning only that the 'well-being of the animals should always come first'. Big cat ownership has been banned in the United States and United Arab Emirates in recent years, and Thailand's wildlife rules are soon up for review. Sadudee is hopeful some provisions may be tightened, though a ban is unlikely for now. He has his own advice for would-be owners: 'Wild animals belong in the wild. There are plenty of other animals we can keep as pets.' — AFP
