Beloved Somerset pub marks five years since community ‘found a way’ to save it

‘We don’t have a post office or a village shop,’ said one of the shareholders. ‘So the Packhorse is vital.’ Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

On the day of the Packhorse’s grand reopening exactly five years ago it snowed heavily. “Boy did it snow,” said Phil Legard, one of the hundreds of shareholders who together had raised more than a million pounds to save the beloved pub near Bath.

“By 9am the village was cut off and the first thing we had to do was organise a team of people to grab their shovels and dig so our first customers could actually get here,” said Legard. “But that is what the Packhorse is about. Community spirit, finding a way.”