The historic country pub at the heart of the village of Roxwell is at risk. Please help us save it!

The Chequers Inn, which has served generations of the rural community for more than 250 years, has been closed since its previous owners retired in 2021.

The Roxwell Chequers Community Benefit Society Ltd has been formed to establish a community owned pub at The Chequers, to secure its long term future. This is a model that has worked successfully to save many other pubs around the country, including the Three Horseshoes at Helions Bumpstead, the Lion at Lamarsh and the Kings Head at Pebmarsh - all villages in Essex that are smaller than Roxwell.

We have launched a community share offer to try and raise the money from investors needed to buy the pub on behalf of the community, before letting it to a tenant to run. This is the tried and tested model for other community pubs, which do not need to be run on terms that are as overtly commercial as brewery or privately owned pubs.

To progress the project we have had to pay for various professional surveys and specialist advice to assess the condition and value of the building and work up our shareholder proposal, to ensure that our business is plan and budgets for buying and renovating the pub are robust. We have also had to register a Community Benefit Society with the Financial Conduct Authority to establish the appropriate legal structure to make this happen. We are crowdfunding these costs through this page.

In May the interim Chair of our Steering Group, Sam Metson, took part in Ride London-Essex, a 100 mile cycling challenge, to help raise sponsorship for the campaign. Since then, this crowdfunding page has continued to ensure that ongoing project costs are funded and the Society does not get into debt.

Every donation will go straight to the Roxwell Chequers Community Benefit Society to pay for project costs. If there is a surplus beyond our crowdfunding target, which will keep moving to keep track of costs, it will go into the pot to help buy the pub for the benefit of all. If we are not successful in doing so, anything left over will be donated to local charities.

There is potential for every pound donated to matched by a grant from the Government's Community Ownership Fund, so please give as generously as you can to help make this project a reality.

Find our more about the project on our website at www.savethechequersroxwell.co.uk