Two years since a pub on the Lizard Peninsula closed its doors it is preparing to reopen – after being bought by the community.

It had looked as though Newtown St Martin was to join a long list of villages to lose their pub forever when the former owners of the Prince of Wales Inn were forced to shut in 2020.

However, a group of residents decided to begin the long process of trying to buy the pub for the village, and after overcoming a number of hurdles the sale has finally gone through.

On Friday, the Friends of The Prince of Wales, Newtown St Martin posted on their Facebook page to announce: “We did it! We’re delighted to announce that after two years and a lot of hard work, today we successfully purchased the Prince of Wales Inn in Newtown St Martin.”

The group raised around £500,000 to secure the business, thanks to support from shareholders and funders including The Plunkett Foundation and the Government's levelling up scheme, the Community Ownership Fund.

It is hoped that the pub will now be able to relaunch next week, with a tentative opening date of Friday, November 11 if everything can be brought together in time.

Running it will be David Lambrick, a St Keverne parish councillor and well-known local publican previously of the Five Pilchards in Porthallow, who will be joined by two of his former colleagues there, Michelle Curnow and Emma Peters.

Group chair Katie Nightingale said: "We are so grateful to all the shareholders and our funders, as well as members of our local community who have offered support, both financial and otherwise.

"We have all had a challenging journey but we are a strong community and I would also like to thank the committee, being Viki and Adam Carpenter, and Mark Gittins, who have worked so incredibly hard through this process. “We’re also grateful to Sarah Doolin who put in so much work and to the Briants, the former owners.

“We're looking forward to opening our doors very soon and are excited to really bring this pub alive to restore it to the heart of our local community."

There are also plans to open a small shop for the village, initially inside the pub but with the aim of converting one of the outbuildings, selling everyday essentials.

Katie said the idea was to ensure the pub was kept as a community hub and as such it would be hosting a variety of events such as coffee mornings, seasonal activities and family events.

The Friends group has kept ownership of the land to the side of the pub, for use as parking, and members will also be looking at the potential for using part of the garden for extra space. Katie also said that the Briants had kindly offered the use of a field next to the pub if a large amount of parking was needed for big events.

More details about the launch event will be announced over the coming days.