By Eddie Bisknell

WHEN a popular 600-year-old pub closed in 2008 it sent shockwaves through the community.

However, villagers promptly rallied round to try and to save the Bell and Castle in Horsley from lying dormant.

That was in 2008, and after six years of hard work Greg and Caroline Saturley stepped in as landlords to complete the transformation and the Hog at Horsley rose like a phoenix from the ashes.

It now serves local ales and Mediterranean cuisine, with all produce sourced within a 15-mile radius of Horsley.

A worthy contender for the SNJ’s Pub of the Year 2016 competition, landlady Caroline says the pub’s success is due to its atmosphere, the chef and staff.

She said: “It’s like a social network, a lot of our staff know the locals well and what they drink.

“People come from far and wide for the fish and chips and our very popular Sunday roasts.”

The Hog has attained a four-star rating on Tripadvisor, based on 170 reviews, achieving the Tripadvisor Excellence Award.

It was recently named Best Pub across the five counties at the Western Daily Press Food and Farming Awards.

Caroline has not forgotten the hardship that she and husband Greg battled through once they had won the takeover bid.

She said: “It was a steep learning curve. We had never run a pub before, we had some experience from running The Canteen in Nailsworth which we’ve now improved upon with our wine bar, The Vault.

“We’ve made sure to keep it a family pub and to take care of the staff.

“The food is outstanding and it sounds a cliché but our atmosphere draws people back.”

Customers also return to the Hog for their events such as the Hogfest.

The Hogfest, which took place in May 2016, was a beer and music festival, with a whole host of entertainment and games for visitors, as well as ales, ciders and wood-fired pizza.

In addition, the Hog holds community events such as the upcoming Fashion Fundraiser in the spring.

The Mediterranean flavours of the Hog’s menu were inspired by the couple’s time in Cyprus, where they lived for five years, and a cuisine which is going down very well with the locals, a welcome source of summer in a frequently drizzly country.

To expand the allure of the pub, there are now two B&B rooms available and locals will be excited to hear that the Christmas menu will be available from November 1 - December 30.

Caroline agrees that this is very much a pub run by family, where staff and customers are treated as extensions of that family, leading the business on to further successes.

In this year’s Pub of the Year contest there will be one winner for Stroud and a separate winner for the Dursley, Cam and Wotton-under-Edge and Berkeley region.

The prize is a trophy and trip to Parliament with Stroud MP Neil Carmichael.

This time around there will be no nominations for finalists, just one round of voting – and the pub with the most votes wins.

The deadline is Friday, October 28 and the winner will be announced in the newspaper on November 2.

Send us the slip from page 29 of this week's SNJ to cast your vote.

Only voting slips cut from the newspaper will be accepted – photocopies will not be counted.

Post the voting slip to Pub of the Year, Stroud News & Journal, 6 Lansdown, Stroud, GL5 1BE.

For more information on the Hog at Horsley, visit thehogathorsley.co.uk