Rustic feel when pub reopens

A north Norfolk pub that has been closed for 18 months looks set to reopen next year with a 'rustic' atmosphere.

The Spread Eagle, at Erpingham, will be run by Norwich businessman Paul Wayling.

He said the plan was to reopen by early summer and to offer customers a pub that combined a bar for locals with a restaurant serving traditional food and ale.

'There won't be any foreign food: it will be completely and utterly a traditional rural rustic pub,' said Mr Wayling, a father of two who runs the Foodstuff catering and coffee shop business in Dereham Road, Norwich.

He also hopes to add letting rooms for weekend breaks at the pub, which is where Woodforde's brewery started out in the 1980s before moving to Woodbastwick.

The pub was sold on the instructions of bankruptcy trustees by business agents Christie and Co. Director Bill Colquhoun said four out of every five pubs going on the market were being resold and reopened.

'This sale is a reflection of growing confidence from purchasers responding to competitively-priced pubs that are seen to offer favourable future prospects under private ownership with an owner- occupier at the helm,' he added.