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Our Story

Once a privately owned freehouse that closed during Covid, The George is now a community-owned and run pub offering a wide range of features and activities: good food, award-winning beer, restaurant, events, music, chess club, knit and natter, art gallery, fine wines, and promoting local produce.

THE GEORGE COMMUNITY

The George Community Pub stands at the centre of the village of Bethersden in Kent. It has been a drinking establishment since the 17th century and became a licensed pub in 1841. For decades it has been the centre of village life and locals refer to it as ‘the heart of the village’.

Following the pub’s closure in 2020, local residents came together to form ‘The George Community’ with the aim of saving and reopening it as a community enterprise. The group applied to the FCA to form the Community Benefit Society and The George Community Limited became a legal entity on 2nd August 2021.

The group also began organising a number of successful pop-up social events - both outdoors and at the Village Hall - to try to keep both the community spirit of the pub alive and to raise funds to help mount a bid to buy the premises.

With the support of Ashford Borough Council, Bethersden Parish Council, the Plunkett Foundation and local MP Damian Green, a successful share offer was launched to a packed attendance at the Village Hall at the end of November 2022 - and we raised over £300,000 in just a few weeks!

We extended our offer until after Christmas, to allow us to complete further renovation to the outside space, including the patio and fencing.

With support from share-matched funding from the Government’s Community Ownership Scheme, the purchase was agreed and The George Community took possession of the pub at the beginning of February 2023. There followed several months of external and internal refurbishment before the pub reopened - serving drinks only - at the end of May 2023. A daytime café service began at the end of June, and once a major kitchen refit was completed the restaurant opened in December 2023, when our chef Jim Miles joined the team.

We look forward to going from strength to strength in the future, building on our offering whilst always providing a fantastic environment for the local community to enjoy.