POPULAR pub The New Inn has re-opened with landlord of neighbouring watering hole The Crown taking the helm.

The Stratton pub closed in the new year after the owners, Arkell’s Brewery, claimed that business rates were too high to make keeping it open economically viable.

In the meantime the brewery has been searching for the right tenant to run the place, and now Ross Morgan, who is landlord at The Crown, another Arkell’s pub in Stratton, has taken over behind the bar.

Ross, who has been landlord at The Crown Inn for five years, said he was delighted with the opportunity to run both pubs in tandem.

“They are very different pubs, and at opposite ends of Stratton St Margaret,” he said.

“The New Inn is a good pub which has enjoyed an excellent trade in the past and there’s no other sports bar like it down this end of Stratton.

“Stratton has been really good to us, so this is an opportunity for us to give something back by working to build the business up again.”

Brewery director, George Arkell, was also pleased with the appointment and excited that The New Inn was once again open for business. He said: “It’s great to get The New Inn open again. We’re hoping that with an experienced landlord like Ross running the pub, it’s got a bright future.”