The Fox Inn at Westcote Barton has always been an important part of our village In September 2021, I wrote a blog post For Fox Sake explaining our pub’s lengthy decline and how a small (elite) group of villagers were trying to protect it from disappearing forever.
When the last tenants left in 2022 the Fox was put on the market; we knew we had a lot of work to do. We developed an online survey to capture what village pub meant to our community and what they thought it should become. The online survey yielded 115 replies in its first week. Around 70% of respondents said they were regular visitors and 50% said they were interested in buying shares. Many also offered their time and expertise and joined our committee.
We needed to give people a strong sense of our vision. To survive, the Fox had to become more than a pub. The redeveloping of a disused outbuilding into a café to provide space for community groups was just one of our bright ideas. We worked up a robust business plan and reminded people that living near a good pub could increase the value of their properties by 10%. To give an idea of exactly what they were investing in, a supporter produced CGI images of how we expected the developed Fox with its café to look. We pulled all of this together with a website and on social media. We called a flash-mob and a supporter used a drone to make a dramatic video. We organised a Pop-up-Fox event, for which we provided a licensed bar and a BBQ. For the first time, we saw and felt the overwhelming support we had.
We commissioned an independent valuation and a structural survey. To keep the process moving, members of the committee paid for these themselves. We began work on the complicated application for the government’s Community Ownership Fund. To create the democratic structure we needed to administer shares, we set about converting our ‘Protect Our Fox’ Community Interest Company into a Community Benefit Society and opening a bank account.
From talking to other community pubs, we knew we had to link our initiative to a local celebrity. Our MP, Robert Courts had held surgeries at the Fox during his time as a District Councillor and fully supported our campaign. We’re lucky that we live on the edge of the Cotswolds and Soho Farm, playground of the rich and famous, is quite nearby. Lots of celebrities have homes in the area. We wrote to or sent Instagram messages to Sir Patrick Stewart, Al Murray (I’d met his Dad once!), David Beckham and Jemima Khan to ask their endorsement. We didn’t get any replies. We even (briefly considered asking Jeremy Clarkson for help!
A friend had done some gardening work for the actor Tamsin Outhwaite, who lived nearby. They remained on speaking terms. That is how you get your celebrity endorsement, by actually having a personal connection. Although performing in a west-end play at the time, Tamsin kindly agreed that we could use her photo and approved our first press release.
We also looked for a unique historical event or character to link the pub to. This inspires investors, especially those from overseas, to buy a share in a quaint English pub. The nearby Holt hotel is believed to be haunted by the ghost of Captain James Hind, a 17th Century Highwayman and The White House pub in Bladon is where a young Winston Churchill ‘learned to drink.’
My mother-in-law researched the history of the Fox Inn in the hope of unearthing such a link. The earliest reference she found to the Fox Inn was in 1802. Thomas Chilton, the original landlord, is buried in St Mary’s Church, one field over. I like to think he is keeping an eye on his pub! It also emerged that before affordable domestic ovens, the pub would bake bread for villagers. I really like this idea of the Fox being so much more than pub.
We knew that a plaque was set in the ground at the side of the pub. It had become tarnished and overgrown, but stated that this was the site of the Middle Barton stocks, the metal was reused to make the neighbouring church gate. Using drawings and descriptions of other devices, a member of our committee, a carpenter by trade, made a reproduction set of stocks.
Buoyed by such strong support, and thinking that the pub would be snapped up straightaway, we launched our Crowdfunder appeal on Monday 20 November. Open for just 6 weeks, the shares were £1 each with a minimum investment of £100. To ensure the Fox became a community owned pub, each shareholder would have one vote, regardless of how many shares they owned. We set a minimum target of £420,000.
We raised an impressive £118,950. We’d had some amazing support from a great number of investors from the villages and further afield (Thailand, USA, Gagingwell etc.) Although a quarter of what we needed to buy the Fox outright, it was enough to trigger the government funding we had applied for. Then we learned that ahead of a newly-elected government, this fund had been frozen indefinitely. We had done so much in six months, but had just fallen short.
Our spirits were raised in the New Year when we were contacted by some like-minded investors interested in combining the money we had raised with their own to make a purchase. We supported their initial bid. Unfortunately, the owner did not even accept this bid and at the end of May 2024, we refunded all of our investors as promised.
With the asking price greatly inflated to reflect the debt weighing upon it rather than its market value, the Fox was priced too highly. There had been no offers in its first year on sale. It was being left to fall apart. Realising that a community-owned pub was the likely future of the Fox and we were in for a long game, we needed a way to raise funds and awareness before making our next move.
Our first pop-up Fox event had been very well attended and popular. We knew that more would show prospective buyers that there was serious community interest in the future of the pub and remind our community what they were missing at the same time. We bought sum-up machines, sourced beer from local breweries, designed and printed our own range of clothing and ‘Save Our Fox’ pint cups and prepared food. The member of the committee who built our stocks constructed a bar. Held every few months, each event had a different theme and after each, we circulated a press release to local media after each saying how much we had raised and how much fun everyone had had. These events were magical; real community happenings that only occur naturally, but with a lot of hard work from our volunteers behind the scenes.
My favourite was a quiz night in February 2025. Several committee members wrote questions and I compiled them. Taking a lead from TV’s Taskmaster, I announced a task that would get people thinking outside the box. Each team had until quiz ended to present the most beautiful Fox. We had provided some recycled objects teams could use, but the instructions didn’t say they could only use them. I was hoping that they would slip home and bring back items to use. I wasn’t disappointed.
After 20 months of being empty, the owner significantly reduced the asking price and invited us to a viewing. We were relieved to see that the Fox had not deteriorated as much as we had feared. With the knowledge that we could raise at least £120,000 again, that we had made a lot of friends and learned a lot, we decided to go for it once more. We reworked our business plan, financial projections and opened our second share issue.
By November 2025, we have sold lots of shares and were in advanced discussions with a like-minded investor. With the finishing line in sight, the agent informed us bluntly that an offer had been accepted. Taken aback, we met the bidder and were pleased to see that our aims broadly aligned. Relieved that we would not be responsible for the day-to-day running of a pub and pleased that our idea of developing an outbuilding on the edge of the plot into a café (The Foxhole!) would still be going ahead, we stepped aside and the purchase went through smoothly at the end of 2025.
I am very proud of my team. Using their individual skills and talents, they did such an incredible amount of work over the last 4 years, from contributing to meetings, drafting all kinds of documents, delivering leaflets, filming videos and hosting events, to preparing delicious food and pulling pints!
All the time it was closed, we kept the Fox alive and highly visible to potential investors as a viable financial prospect with strong community support. We kept it out of the hands of fly-by-night profiteers and property developers.
In a world where we are becoming increasingly disconnected, we learned that people still care enough to use their energy to build something special for each other. We also learned about the importance of the Fox to our community over the last 224 years. It has been a place of work, first dates, family celebrations and tearful goodbyes. Most importantly, it was somewhere in the village for everyone to socialise.
Over the last 6 months, The Fox has been comprehensively restored by the new owner and is due to reopen on Saturday 18th of July, I am looking forward the Fox being at the heart of our village again.
Richard C Brown MBE – July 2026
World According to Me: 