About us

Middleton cum Fordley is a village rich in assets and richer still in the people who live here. The church, the playing field and pavilion, the village hall and the Bell Inn all sit at the heart of village life, and around them a remarkable amount happens: the summer and autumn fairs, the open gardens, the Christmas party, Squit nights, quizzes, the Molly Dancers on Boxing Day, the crib team, the book club, the boules team and much else besides. Very little of this is run by anyone other than villagers themselves.

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The Middleton Community Benefit Society has been set up to build on that foundation and to look further ahead. Our aim is to play a long-term role in shaping a thriving and caring village community, one where the places people gather are secure, well used and owned by the village itself.

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Our first task is an immediate one. Adnams PLC has decided to sell the Bell Inn, and we intend to buy it. Taking the pub into community ownership is entirely consistent with the values Middleton already lives by, and it would secure a valuable community asset for the long term rather than leaving its future to the market, where it has struggled for the last few years. The Bell Inn is where we start, not where we finish.

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We have a Steering Group that has worked hard over the last couple of months to pull everything together, creating one of just a handful of charitable Community Benefit Societies in the country. Four Founder Directors (Brian Near, Julian Molyneaux, Gillian Stacey and Andrew Wood) have taken the Society to the launch stage - when we've raised the funds to buy the pub and we have completed negotiations with Adnams, we will be asking our Members to nominate and choose our first full Board of Directors as well as work with us on shaping our exciting future.