Cash needed to save Codsall's Crown jewel
Imagine a pub where you could pop in for a quick pint and pick up your dry cleaning at the same time.
Well, that could become a reality if a group of residents fighting to save their local watering hole get their way.
The board of five directors is asking people to pledge money towards a bid to buy The Crown in Codsall Wood from its parent company.
Marston's has conditionally accepted their offer of around £300,000 for the pub and the group has so far received pledges for around a third of the money. If they manage to raise it all and Marston's sign the deal, they plan to make some unusual changes.
Among them are plans to have the pub registered as a parcel drop-off point, where customers would be able to deliver and pick up packages, as well as dry-cleaning.
They say they would hold regular shareholder meetings, where those who put money towards the bid would vote on how the place should be run on a one-share, one-vote basis.
Initial brainstorms have led to ideas for the venue to be used as a stop-off point for the existing mobile library, to host a Saturday market and to sell puncture repair kits for cyclists.
The group, which has so far received pledges from 19 people, feared they would lose their only local pub if The Crown closed, after the nearby Cross Guns pub was bulldozed without permission by developers who bought it from Punch Taverns in 2012.
Mr Clark, who is also chairman of the Codsall Wood Show and Village Committee, said: "We are a small rural community with very little in the way of amenities. We have no shops, we have no transport, we have nothing other than a small population. A small church is all that's left.
"If you want to make a community coherent and give it some form of personality, people have to know each other. To do that there has to be somewhere were they can meet and socialise."
Anyone who is interested should email enquiries@thecodsallwoodpubcompany.co.uk