The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited 

Community Benefit Society No. 9244 

Registered Address: Danesbury, Main St, Iden, East Sussex TN31 7PT 

Iden is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, located three miles north of Rye. The village dates back to at least the 11th century. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. In the 2021 census the population of the village was recorded as 477 people, which is an increase of 21 people since the previous census in 2011. Over 65s represent 45% of the population, with 43% aged between 18 and 64 and 12% below the age of 18. The population is split almost exactly 50/50 between males and females.  

Before its closure in June 2023, The Bell Inn had been an active pub at the heart of Iden for several centuries. A building on the site of the Bell Inn is referred to as a ‘messuage and garden’ near Iden Cross in local court records in 1591. The Bell was previously known as The Anchor and a reference is made to it in subsequent court records of 1736. An inventory of 1751 mentions that the building contained a brewhouse. Another written record dates from February 1815, when Joseph Parker ‘surrendered a tenement, plus garden and outhouses, formerly in the tenure of John Varrier, to Lewis Meryon of Rye, brewer’. The Bell Inn featured in early-C19 court records and in the Iden Tithe Award of 1843. The Tithe Map shows that, in 1843, the Bell Inn occupied a large site which included a large garden to the east, an area of pasture to the south and an adjoining cottage and yard to the west. To reflect its historic importance The Bell Inn was in 1987 granted Grade II listed status for its historic interest. This listing was reconfirmed in February 2025. 

The Bell is the only pub remaining in Iden, and there are no other pubs within easy walking distance. The nearest village pubs are in Peasmarsh (3 miles away), Wittersham (4 miles away, currently closed) and Stone in Oxney (5 miles away). Given the poor local public bus service, all of these require private transport to visit from Iden.  

Rye is 2 miles from Iden and has several pubs and restaurants that mostly serve the tourist trade. Rye can be reached from Iden by a bus service that runs roughly every 2 hours during the day and finishes at around 6pm, making private transport the only option for visiting Rye in the evenings. 

The Bell has always been central to the life of the Iden village community. As well as providing a meeting place for residents it has attracted many visitors to the village, especially in summer, who then used other amenities such as the village shop. The Bell was the natural venue for local sports and recreation clubs to meet, and for marking important events in the life of the village such as births, marriages and funerals. As well as the usual pub activities, The Bell played a crucial role in supporting the Iden village fête, running the bar with subsidised drinks and hosting an after-fête party with live music and a pig roast to round off the day. Given the important contribution The Bell has made to village life, it was adopted as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) on 4th September 2023. 

Current Health of the Pub Industry in the UK 

Pubs have always been a focal point for towns and villages, playing a vital role in community life. However, pub numbers have been in decline for several years. This was accelerated by the Covid pandemic, with 2,000 pubs permanently closed during the first year of lockdown according to the British Beer and Pub Association. Many of these were in rural locations, leaving small communities without space to meet, prompting further isolation. 

This only paints half the picture however. Pubs are closing, but new ones are also opening. CAMRA branches carry out six-monthly counts of openings and closures in their areas and these show that since July 2021, 1400 pubs have closed permanently but 1795 have opened! Many of the latter are bars and micropubs but so are many of the closures. More pertinently, permanent closures in rural areas are much less than in urban ones. In the first six months of 2025 CAMRA recorded 121 such closures but only 19 were in villages.

There is further reason for optimism about the pub industry. Faced with the loss of their ‘local’, many communities have decided to come together to form their own co operative pub. The first of these opened in 1988. Growth in the number of community pubs was slow at first, but changes in legislation in 2011 enabled pubs to be designated as an Asset of Community Value. As of January 2024, there were 174 community-owned pubs in the UK, an increase of 62.6% during the previous five years. According to CAMRA, this had risen by the summer of 2025 to with 50 more ‘in the pipeline’. Research from the trade body Co-Operatives UK found that 99.3% of community pubs were still successfully trading after the first 5 years of operation.  

2023-2024  

Engaging the Iden Community 

Much to the sadness of the village of Iden The Bell Inn was closed and put up for sale by its current owners in June 2023. Iden Parish Council responded rapidly by organising a meeting in Iden Village Hall, inviting the owners to address the community. The meeting, which took place in August 2023, was very well-attended, with over 100 people joining from the village. At the meeting, the owners expressed their wish for the community to buy The Bell. Shortly thereafter a working party was formed to explore all options.  

Autumn 2023 

In the autumn of 2023, as the working party started to explore options for The Bell Inn’s future, a couple of social events were held in the Village Hall to seek the views of local residents. After these events the working party met regularly. The next task was to conduct an extensive survey of the residents of Iden and the immediate surrounding area. 400 copies of a wide-ranging questionnaire about The Bell were printed, of which 135 were returned. 

96% of returnees (129) said they supported the purchase and re-opening of the Bell as a community venture. 85% (115) also said they thought it was either ‘very important’ or ‘important’ to have a local pub in the village. 

112 returnees identified themselves as potential regular users. This use would be spread evenly between mid-week (74%) and weekends (81%). There was a preference for early evening (90%) and lunchtime (73%), with less but still substantial interest (i.e. over 20%) for coffee/brunch time, teatime and late evening. 

The most popular choices of food were for traditional/informal pub food, followed by sandwiches and restaurant food. Brunch seems to be favoured over breakfast! Sunday lunch and locals’ nights with special offers were suggested as potentially popular. The main reason most people would choose to use the Bell was ‘to socialise with friends and family’ (98%), plus to enjoy and share the following activities: 

43 people said they were ‘very likely’ and 45 people said they were ‘likely’ to ‘consider participating in The Bell Funding Project’ as proposed, if so required. 

Winter 2023-2024 

Having explored a number of governance models for community pubs the working party opted in early 2024 to create a Community Benefit Society (CBS) as the most appropriate model for our situation. The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited (hereafter referred to as ‘The Society’) was registered in February 2024.  

The Society is a limited liability community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) using a set of pre-approved model rules developed by Plunkett UK, a charity that has been helping communities to set up and run community-owned enterprises since 1919. Our rules include a statutory Asset Lock which ensures that, if a surplus is achieved, it will be used to improve the facilities and ensure the future of the business, and after that can be made available for distribution to other community or charitable projects. Profits cannot be used to benefit the members as individuals other than modest payments of interest to investors. A copy of our rules is available here.

Spring 2024-Spring 2025 

The Society’s original intention was to buy The Bell with a grant from the UK Community Ownership Fund (COF), matched by a community share offer and other grants. During the Spring of 2024 the Society raised £10,000 from a crowdfunding appeal and £5,000 from the East Sussex Community Wellbeing Fund. By June 2024 the Society had gathered pledges of support for the proposed community share offer totalling £265,000. The intention was to apply to the COF for matching funds of £250,000 to put the CBS in a position to purchase The Bell. However, following the announcement of the UK general election in June 2024, new applications for the COF were put on hold, and in December 2024 the Labour Government confirmed that no further applications to COF would be allowed. This was a huge disappointment both to the Society and the village at large. Having put considerable effort into preparing an application for a large COF grant no longer available the Society lost heart. They explored several other options but none bore fruit. Matters got worse when the owners of The Bell Inn applied to delist the pub, which application was turned down in February 2025. They also applied later in the year to Rother District Council for change of use to residential accommodation (see below at 10-11).

2025-26 

In August 2025 matters suddenly improved and optimism returned. The main factor driving this change was the emergence of a local landowner philanthropist Christopher Strangeways, who owns the major share on the Iden Community Stores, stepping in to offer a substantial capital sum to help the Society purchase The Bell Inn. 

As a consequence of Christopher Strangeways’ intervention The Society is about to purchase the freehold of The Bell at Iden in partnership with him as joint freehold owners. We intend shortly to exchange contracts on the purchase of the freehold of The Bell at an agreed price of £425,000. In addition it is our intention to grant a 20 year lease of The Bell to John Rogers, a successful local publican, as the Innkeeper. As part of this agreement, he will be given an option to purchase the freehold of The Bell within the first five years of his tenancy. If the arrangement with John Rogers fails to materialise we will find an alternative Innkeeper. We believe The Bell Inn provides a positive and attractive investment opportunity for the reasons set out below. 

The Society will be contributing at least £225,000 towards the freehold purchase. It is our intention that this money will be raised through the sale of community shares. We are confident that a number of residents of Iden and the neighbouring areas have a strong wish for the Bell to succeed as a business; and they are likely to express their confidence in the Project through the purchase of shares.  

We held a public meeting in the Iden Village Hall on December 18th to announce the above developments and to take questions. The meeting was attended by over 100 people. A sense of positive optimism pervaded the event which was also attended by the local MP, Helena Dollimore, Member of Parliament for Hastings, Rye and the villages. She subsequently sent us the following message: 

Thanks for getting in touch and for sharing this exciting news. It’s great to hear that the purchase of the Bell is going ahead. Well done to you and all involved in the campaign for this incredible achievement. 

Conclusion 

As the Management Board of the Society we have a responsibility to assess the financial risks and benefits associated with this Project, including any possible consequential impact of the government’s proposed new legislation to reduce the legal alcohol consumption driving limits.  

We firmly believe that The Bell Project represents a credible and positive commercial opportunity strengthened by community ownership where the property owner, customer base, and the Innkeeper will all share a common objective. With diversified revenue, aligned stakeholder interests, and strong local demand the Project offers a sound basis for sustained profitability and protection of personal capital investment for the reasons set out below.  

1. Pubs in England and Wales owned by Community Benefit Societies have an exceptional success rate (see above at pp. 3-4). 
2. Support within the Iden community and surrounding area for the return of The Bell as a successful enterprise is extensive (see above pp. 5-6).  
3. When the current owners of The Bell applied in September 2025to Rother District Council for change of use from a pub to residential accommodation, the response of the Iden community was overwhelming and heartwarming. There were in excess of 180 individual objections. This contrasts with a similar application by the owners of The Swan in the neighbouring village of Wittersham, where the total number of objections was 12 (with 11 in support!). The Bell’s change of use objectors wrote movingly of the central importance of The Bell to the life of the Iden community, going back over a number of decades. The owners have now suspended their application for change of use. 
4. Confidence in the likely success of the Project arises directly from the ownership/management structure for the Bell. As the freehold of the Bell will be owned by the local community, this fundamentally changes the landlord–tenant dynamic. Community ownership creates a shared incentive to see the business succeed, translating into strong initial and ongoing custom, and active local promotion. This should in turn generate a constructive relationship between the Innkeeper and the freehold owners, rather than purely rent-driven oversight. 
5. We have calculated there are 29 bed and breakfast outlets within a short distance of Iden (excluding Rye) with the total number of potential guests listed as 161. This clearly provides a great potential source of customers for food and drink and other activities at the reopened Bell Inn.  
6. In 2014 the legal level of alcohol to be consumed by drivers in Scotland was reduced from 80 to 50 ml. The same level of reduction is currently being mooted for England and Wales, by the Westminster Government. In 2019, a team of researchers at the University of Stirling published their empirical findings on the impact of these changes upon the business viability of rural pubs in Scotland. These were their conclusions.
   • Rural pubs did not become unviable as a category. Most pub operators reported no long-term financial impact from the lower drink-drive limit, even though some rural venues noted reduced alcohol sales.
   • The greatest risk was to wet-led rural pubs. The same research observed that a few pubs, mainly from rural areas, reported some reduction in alcohol sales, while many adapted business practices (e.g., food, low-alcohol options).
   • Behaviour changed, then stabilised. Pubs that adapted their offerings helped minimise long-term economic impact. 

7. In Scotland, alcohol-only, evening-focused pubs were the most exposed to the change in drink driving law. Food-led, daytime-active, community-integrated pubs demonstrated materially greater resilience. The Bell’s intended operating model directly aligns with this lower-risk customer profile including both individuals and several projected customer groups, such as walkers, cycling clubs, members of the bowls and cricket teams and so on. The provision of a modern drinks range including premium low- and no-alcohol options will reflect proven strategies adopted by successful rural operators. It is also quite normal today if group of friends go out to the pub for an evening, that one (or more) of their number will be the designated driver for the evening, thereby allowing those who wish to drink more alcohol the freedom to do so. 

Anticipated schedule

2026
January 22nd-12th February
Run Share Offer

February
Acquire Freehold of The Bell and grant 20 year full repairing lease

February-July
Leaseholder obtains statutory planning permissions, carries out full refurbishment of The Bell.
CBS holds first AGM and elects Management Board of up to 12 members, including Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary.

July
Bell Reopens for Business
CBS works with Leaseholder to mutual success goals.

July 2027
Tenant begins rent payments (12 months from opening)

Detailed account of the Financial Forecasts March 2025-2029

Details of Share Offer

Details of Management Board members

© The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited 2025. All Rights Reserved. By Olli Hopkins