VILLAGERS are looking into launching a community bid to buy The Globe Inn at Appley, which closed in December last year.

Stawley Parish Council called a public meeting at Appley Pavilion and it was decided a steering committee will look at issues surrounding any bid.

However, it was decided not to trigger a moratorium on the sale in case a pub operator wants to buy the hostelry.

The Grade II listed pub, which is reputedly over 500 years old and was originally the village blacksmith, is for sale at the reduced price of £397,500.

Parish council chairman Charles St George said: “People are missing The Globe – about 70 people attended the meeting and most were very keen for it to be retained as a pub.

“The steering committee will be looking at how the money might be raised, what grants, loans and assistance are available from charitable groups, possibly the Big Lottery, and the Government.

“It will also look at the state of the building and what might need to be spent on it to bring it up to standard; how much we could afford to bid; and how the pub might be run thereafter – would we want to get a tenant in to run it, which is probably the most likely option.

“Once the steering committee has reached its conclusions we will have to see if the will is still there for the community to make a formal bid.”

Mr St George, who said the committee would take about three months to complete its work, added: “The Globe used to have a fantastic reputation for food. It has quite a big rural catchment area and it’s near enough to Wellington that people would come out if you have the right offer – it’s a nice country pub.

“It is about providing a focal point for the community and a facility for people – and avoiding a situation where the pub closes and the use is changed so that we end up with a housing development on it.”

The Globe was listed on Taunton Deane Borough Council’s Register of Community Assets in April 2015 at the instigation of the parish council. This means the community has a ‘right to bid’ when the pub is marketed for sale and can freeze any potential sale to a third party for up to six months while it prepares a community bid.