The Midlands-based Peach Pub Company has bought a new Punch lease on the Old Mill, a canal-side dining pub in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
A former Chef & Brewer, the Old Mill is one of 727 Spirit managed pubs that Christie + Co has offered to the leasehold market this year following Punch’s reacquisition of Spirit last December.
The pub sits on the site of a former watermill on the River Bulbourne that is recorded in the Domesday Book. The current detached three-storey building dates back to Victorian times and ceased to be a watermill in 1900.
The Old Mill, which is on the main London Road next to the Grand Union Canal and backs onto a weir, has a main bar and dining area to seat 120 customers, a patio and a canal-side garden.
It also provides a one-bedroom managers’ flat and four-bedroom staff accommodation.
The new joint owners - manager Alan Turtill and Peach founders Lee Cash and Hamish Stoddart – are planning a £400,000 refurbishment of the pub in February.
The Milton Keynes office of Christie + Co sold the leasehold off a guide price of £136,000.
By Angela Frewin