Horringer’s Beehive gets its buzz back

A year ago the future of The Beehive as a pub was still in doubt, but now it’s buzzing.

The Horringer pub’s new chef/manager Max Mellor is making plans for the summer and villagers who campaigned to stop it becoming a house want people know it is worth a visit.

Max, who was at The Beehive in 2002, said “We opened it as a drinking pub, but the food has taken over a bit.

“It’s traditional English pub food but with some of the dishes I’ve put a little bit of a twist.”

They offer everything from sandwiches to Sunday roasts, though Max says you need to book on Sundays.

They serve Adnams and Maldon beers and aim to have a rotation of guest ales. Max is also organising events such as music evenings with a folk evening on May 21 and the Anecdotes playing on May 24.

“In the summer I might even start the barbie,” he said.

The struggle for the pub began when owners Hawthorn Leisure applied for permission for housing in December 2015 and was refused.

Early in 2016 the villagers formed a community benefit society to try to buy the pub and successfully applied to St Edmundsbury Borough Council to get it declared an asset of community value (ACV). In May 2016 the County Court threw out Hawthorn’s appeal against the ACV listing.

The society made a share issue to try to buy it but then learned Simon and Sarah Chaplin had bought it for the community.

Society chairman Peter Crofts said: “It was terrific to find it had new owners who wanted to run it as a pub. We’re now encouraging everyone we can to come to it. We want people, not just from the village to know about it.”

It is open Wednesday to Saturday noon to 230pm and 6pm to 11pm and Sundays noon to 4pm. Food is served noon to 2pm and 6pm to 8.30pm.