‘This is a lifeline’: the pub serving free Christmas lunches every year

Sarah and Mick Dore at the Alexandra. ‘Loneliness is a scourge isn’t it,’ says Mick. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

For the best part of a decade, Sarah and Mick Dore have welcomed people who find themselves alone at Christmas into their pub for a proper, homemade Christmas lunch.

In its first year, about two-dozen people arrived, but year-on-year, its numbers have grown to the size of a small primary school. In the coming days, thanks to donations from their suppliers and “generous, generous people”, they are preparing to host more than 250 people in the pub free of charge.