Norfolk pub opens community café

The Blue Bell in Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, has opened a community café to provide a place for locals to meet up, socialise and help combat loneliness.  

The pub, which reopened in June after being purchased by over 400 members of the community the year before, has opened the café to provide an accessible, safe space for people living in the local area to get together to tackle loneliness and isolation.  

A key focus of the pub is to offer support to address the inequalities of physical and mental health and poor access to healthy foods in the area.  

Pub Café was opened with the help and Community Services Fund grant from Pub is The Hub, the not-for-profit organisation that helps pubs to diversify and provide essential local services.  

“The pub’s committee should feel proud of the vision and hard work they have put into getting the doors of the Blue Bell reopened," says Pub is The Hub regional advisor Terry Stork. "The services the pub is offering is of great benefit to locals.  

“This community café will be really key in helping local people to connect, particularly after the pandemic lockdowns which caused many elderly people in the area to experience feelings of loneliness.” 

The pub has also launched a new fruit and veg market in its garden where people can donate and buy locally grown surplus produce.  

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