Welcome return for Wymondham's Cross Keys

Published: 7:16 AM March 22, 2009 Updated: 7:49 AM October 7, 2020

Pub landlady Elaine Penney yesterday spoke of the welcome support she had received from the local community on reopening Wymondham's historic Cross Keys.

The pub had been closed since the beginning of the year after John Turner, the previous landlord and her former partner, filed for voluntary bankruptcy.

Mr Turner said at the time that pubs across the county, and nationally, were facing tough challenges and he predicted that many more would close during 2009.

The Cross Keys is owned by the Wellington Pub Company, and Mrs Penney is looking to buck the trend. She began trading on Friday night and is running the business with her daughters Vicky and Lottie.

You may also want to watch:

"On Sunday, we were open all day and it was busy, as it has been during the week. We are absolutely chuffed to bits," she said.

The pub dates back to the early 1500s and is in a prominent position, overlooking the Market Cross.

District councillor Joe Mooney, a former mayor, said: "I am absolutely delighted that is has reopened.

"It's a prime location in the town,

and it was sad to see it closed.

"I think it will, hopefully, go from strength to strength, and I would encourage people to use it."

South Norfolk Council is spearheading an initiative to try to safeguard the future of pubs in the district.

It has set up a task force that has produced a six-point action plan, with local publicans, that it wants the government to introduce.

Suggestions include cutting or freezing beer duty until Britain is out of recession.

Earlier this month the councillor who chairs the task force, Keith Weeks, was invited to a London seminar by the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group of MPs to discuss national concerns.