A turbulent few years at Whorouly Hotel has led to long-time publican and well-known local, Graham Wood stepping back behind the bar to pull a few ice-cold frothies.

The reopening of the pub, which has been closed since June 2025 and not had beer-on-tap for a couple of years, has been overwhelmingly welcomed by the Whorouly community.

Woodsy (as he is best known) originally took over the pub back in 2010, but sold the business in 2019 to 'downsize' a little, only operating the nearby Whorouly Café and Post Office and making daily deliveries on the local mail run.

Since 2019, the pub has experienced both ups and downs and more recently the prolonged closure, so Woodsy and his wife Jennifer Garrett have stepped back in to give 'the old girl' some much needed love and reopen the pub doors.

The first order of business was a total overhaul of the beer system to ensure the pub’s famous ice-cold frothies are once again being served, regularly quality checked by Woodsy, of course.

While he and Jennifer still operate the café and post office during the day, on Friday and Saturday evenings Woodsy can be found behind the bar and Jennifer is kept busy in the pub kitchen, to provide a limited menu.

The first evening of the long-awaited reopening on Friday, 16 January, saw many locals return to the pub and enjoy a wonderfully social evening, 'solving all the world’s problems over a few bevvies'.

“The whole community is very excited and supportive of the pub reopening,” Jennifer said.

"But we are still finding our feet and we still have our day jobs, so at this stage, both the hours and the drinks and food offerings are very limited.

“Exactly how the future looks remains unknown, but for now Whorouly Hotel is back in business as a much-loved local meeting place, carrying on a tradition which dates back to the 1870s.

"We want to thank everyone who has lent a hand to get up and running again, sent us well wishes or turned up to support us.

"We certainly wouldn’t have got this far without that wonderful community spirit and we hope this is just the start of a bright future for the Whorouly Hotel.”