Wildlife trust says new pub is 'missing link'

A nature charity that bought a pub to attract more people to its reserve said its opening weekend was a success with queues of customers waiting to be served.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) purchased the Pleasure Boat Inn in Hickling in 2023 and found a manager to run it.

Trust chief executive Eliot Lyne said the venue provided "a great opportunity to talk about nature to people who might otherwise not come to one of our sites".

"We recognise that we're in a nature crisis and what we're doing as a broader conservation sector isn't working as well as it could do, because we're not really speaking to to everyone who we could do," he added.

"So this is a quite an innovative way of doing something different, really."

Rick and Felicity Malt have been hired to run the Pleasure Boat and already manage two other Norfolk pubs.

Mr Malt said: "It’s great to be in partnership with Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

"We are looking forward to developing our offer in harmony with their values, including providing people with a warm welcome to Hickling Broad and Marshes to enjoy the area and learn about its special wildlife."

The NWT said it purchased most of the other land around the pub in 2017 and the pub was the "missing link" to realise its vision for wildlife and people locally.

The pub should also help the trust bring in more revenue.

"It's a financial investment as well, and as a charity we have to earn or raise every penny that we spend," said Mr Lyne.

"So we have to also think quite innovatively about how we do that."

Mr Lyne said the other 49 wildlife trusts around the country were watching Norfolk to see how it benefitted from this venture.

"Norfolk, it's so special," he said.

"The nature we've got, our economy and our society and our quality of life is based on nature.

"To a large degree, with our tourism and farming industries that are globally successful, we've got to invest to maintain that nature and this is one way of doing that."

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