Campaigning Bedfordshire villagers will soon be able to enjoy a celebratory drink, after a 12-month campaign to save their only pub ended in success.
While licensing hysteria has spread across England and Wales in recent months, residents of Wood End village launched a Save the Keys campaign to safeguard the future of their only boozer.
The future had looked bleak for the 130-year-old site, which had fallen into disrepair, and looked like becoming housing.
But the Cross Keys’s future has now been safeguarded by its sale to Bedford restaurateur Carmine Licciardi for £275,000.
Licciardi, who bought the site through property agents Chirstie + Co, now plans to reopen it as a pub and Italian restaurant early next year.
By Amy Abrahams
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