Villagers count their blessings as new pub opens

Scott Hales, who is a builder by trade, did most of the renovation work at the Bilbrook Road venue, which as the name suggests is next to a church and once housed a vicar.

It features a piano, a courtyard, up to 18 real ales and ciders and a 'Fridge of Dreams' which has bottles and cans of stronger brews than normal.

George Price, Andy Evans, Roy Draisey and Dean Edwards are also involved in the new venture. Andy and Roy run the Codsall Beer Festival and Codfest event and George ran the community hub from the same venue, providing food parcels for people in the area.

Scott said: "The opening weekend was fantastic, as was the second, we had crowds of people come in and apart from being a bar we want to make it a community venue where everyone is welcome.

"We aim to have regular music on, there has been plenty of that already, and apart from the piano, people can bring in guitars and musical instruments.

"The idea came from a group of us who had different skill sets, whether that is building, running events or community initiatives as that is what we see ourselves as well.

"The building used to be the vicarage to the church next door so it was a quite obvious name - and we hope everyone who comes in will be blessed by what we have to offer."

Scott also keeps it in the family as his wife is currently working behind the bar, although the group hope to put someone in permanently to run the venue.

They also want to expand opening hours to include Thursdays – currently they welcome visitors between Friday and Sunday.