A WANBOROUGH pub which has been closed for months is under new management and has thrown open its doors again.

The Harrow Inn in the High Street has been closed since August, but opened again last Wednesday with a new licensee.

With plans to return it to being the heart of the community, locals and regulars have already started flooding back in.

Michele Rostami, 54, who has taken over the management of the Harrow Inn, said: “It’s a very pretty pub, it’s a quintessential pub.

“Inside it’s very intimate. I’ve changed the layout, so instead of a separate restaurant area, that area is more integral to the pub now.

“I think it has tons of potential. I want to start having regular music nights once a month, and a quiz night, and get the darts team up and running again.”

Michele, who is originally from Merseyside, moved to Swindon in 2013. She knows the pub well, and has succeeded in achieving the dream of many by taking over the pub she used to patronise.

She said: “I lived here in Wanborough for 4-5 years before, and I was a customer in here. It was the kind of pub which I thought I’d love to run one day.

“It’s the age of the pub – it dates back to at least 1720. It was an old coaching house, and there are three letting rooms in converted stables that sit to the side of the pub.”

“It’s renowned for being haunted as well.”

Recognising its previous popularity within the village, Michele, who has been the licensee of several pubs over the last 20 years, has kept changes to the pub to a minimum, aiming to maintain the former winning formula.

She said: “I’ve just given it a quick lick of paint, a few changes to the bar and to the flooring – nothing dramatic.

“It’s great, the bar has kind of been modernised, it’s been tiled and re-shelved. The character of the pub has remained, but the bar has become a bit more of a focus now.

“I’ve also got the chef [Ian Jefferies] who was here previously, who was a partner in the previous business. He’s come back as my chef now, so the food is good quality.

“We’ve got pub classics, then we have some specials on the menu as well, something for everyone really.”

Competition is rife in Wanborough, with the village having five pubs competing for patrons, as Michele acknowledged.

She said: “It is a pub-heavy village, but its proximity to Swindon helps it.

“Each pub offers something different, they each have their own crowd, and they complement each other. It’s probably the only village you could do a pub crawl in!”