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THE new owners of a pub which reopened last night after having been closed for more than three years grew up in the village and say they wanted to give something back to the community.

The Hunters Inn, on the corner of Droxford Road and Cott Street, Swanmore was formerly a coaching inn, dating back to the 1700s.

Heartstone Inns took over from longstanding landlord Tony Picariello in 2018 after buying the pub for £900,000, but closed it a year later saying it was proving ‘uneconomic’ to operate.

Pam and Stewart Elliott bought the pub in March 2020 when it was on the market for £750,000 – just as the UK was about to shut down due to the Covid pandemic.

Pam & Stewart Elliott outside the newly refurbished Hunters Inn, Swanmore.
Photos by Alex Shute — Pam & Stewart Elliott outside the newly refurbished Hunters Inn, Swanmore. Photos by Alex Shute

The Elliotts, who are both ‘in our 70s’ now live mainly in Hong Kong, but couldn’t resist buying their old watering hole when it came on the market.

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It marked the start of a lengthy refurbishment.

Pam said: ‘We managed to build it back up again with our small team – it was rather dilapidated when we started.’

Staff of the newly refurbished Hunters Inn hard at work serving a full house.
Photo by Alex Shute — Staff of the newly refurbished Hunters Inn hard at work serving a full house. Photo by Alex Shute

But the couple are no strangers to the hospitality industry as they own high-end hotels in Malta, Jamaica and Australia.

Stewart said: ‘The whole point of the project was that we wanted to restore the pub and The Hunters Inn was part of the fabric of the community – we want to bring that back.’

The pub will start serving food from today, and the Elliotts have brought trusted staff from their Malta hotel, The Grand Excelsior, over to the UK to train up the new team.

Stewart added: ‘Bricks and mortar is easy, but keeping up the quality and the standards is the hard part. We’re very happy with how it’s going.’

A country band playing on the opening night at Hunters Inn, Swanmore.
Photo by Alex Shute — A country band playing on the opening night at Hunters Inn, Swanmore. Photo by Alex Shute

At last night’s reopening party the pub was packed out, there was live music and a ribbon was cut to mark the occasion.

‘The turnout has been quite amazing tonight,’ said Pam, ‘it’s been nice to see everyone.’

Stewart said: ‘It’s had 300 years, and I think it will see out the next 300 years – I hope we can just make it as enjoyable for everyone as possible.’

The pub was a popular nightspot in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, attracting coachloads of people from Portsmouth, before later running into difficulties.

Historic Hampshire pub Hunters Inn in Swanmore reopens for first time in three years - new owners pledge to make it heart of the community

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