Reviving the Spirit of Dylan Thomas: Community Rescues Historic Welsh Pub

The community has big plans for the pub. They bought the pub in 2023 but this is only the start. In order to ensure the whole community to access the pub the group have planned a lot of renovations to bring the building into the 21st century – and beyond – and enable the venture to be a sustainable business for the future.

The Community Ownership Fund (COF) has allowed them to develop a restaurant, employ local people, and run a wide range of events that appeal to all members of the community. They offer music and comedy nights, coffee mornings, Welsh lessons and more, and are the "clubhouse" for various sports clubs.

The community of Dyffryn Aeron is predominantly Welsh speaking: this project was not only about giving the village somewhere people can come to meet up and connect, but also to ensure that the Welsh language was preserved and nurtured.

Tafarn Cymunedol Dyffryn Aeron Cyf see this project as putting Dyffryn Aeron on the map, transforming the village and the surrounding areas – bringing people together, reducing isolation and loneliness and making the community together, stronger (as the Welsh football team would say!).

Tafarn Cymunedol Dyffryn Aeron Cyf started with a community share offer, which raised an impressive £383,000 from the community with support from Welsh celebrities such as Matthew Rhys and Rhys Ifans. Shares were sold with a minimum price of £200, meaning that they now have 645 members all working to make the pub the best it can be. Running the share offer first meant that they could demonstrate the high level of community support and commitment to save the pub.

The group has now been awarded £250,000 from COF and a further £30,000 of revenue funding. This will enable them to make the significant renovations needed to ensure the business was open to everyone and was resilient. The revenue funding will cover staff costs for the first year, which means that it will be built on solid foundations and have the best chance of becoming a sustainable business in the future.

After an unsuccessful initial application to the Community Ownership Fund, Tafarn Cymunedol Dyffryn Aeron were left feeling disillusioned, unsure of which direction to go.

This is when Cwmpas came into the picture. Cwmpas supported the group with assessing the business plan, financial forecasting, supportive feedback through acting as a critical friend and helping them to add detail to their answers.

Looking through the previous unsuccessful application to the fund, it was clear there was lots of passion and community support for the project but they needed support around understanding answering technical questions. Much of what they wrote assumed familiarity with the project – that often left them selling themselves short of the great work they had done, and the work they planned to do.

Director of Tafarn Cymunedol Dyffryn Aeron, Carys Lloyd said:

Tafarn Cymunedol Dyffryn Aeron’s have a number of recommendations for groups exploring COF and community ownership:

• Get support early support from expert organisations such as Cwmpas.
• My Community website has a huge amount of support.
• The COF application is a huge, complex task – make sure you have solid foundations in place with a good business plan, in-depth community engagement and your match funding.