A HUSBAND and wife duo brought in to help fix a rural community pub, have been blown away by the support they have received.

Charles and Ainsley Wood have a reputation for helping to get pubs that are failing off the ground, which is why they were asked to take over the Grey Goat Inn, at Baggrow, near Aspatria.

Charles explained: “I’ve got a reputation for fixing broken pubs.

“It’s a community pub, a rural pub and a vital one. I’ve got involved to fix it and make it work.”

Since taking over the rundown pub, the couple have worked on repairing the boiler and changing the beer, as well as making sure that everything passes all the health and safety checks.

“The community have helped immensely,” added Charles. “We cannot thank them enough.”

“Myself and my wife don’t drive, so the community has pulled together and helped us, down to the small things of driving us to the post office.

“We even had showers at people’s houses when the boiler wasn’t working.

“It really is community driven.”

After working to make sure the premises met all the checks and the bar was fully stocked, the pub finally reopened its doors - having been shut for a month - two weeks ago.

Charles and Ainsley have been overwhelmed by the support they have received since opening, and are now setting their sights on retaining custom and attracting more customers into the pub.

Charles said: “We are starting to look at attracting some of the Wainwright folk in from the fells. We’re also looking at doing food in the next few months.

“We’ve just teamed up with the Lakes Distillery and are pleased to be serving their gin and whisky. It’s a fantastic business.”

Although the couple have a reputation for helping get rundown pubs off the ground, this is the first time the duo have had to do the manual work too.

“This is the first time I’ve physically had to fix a pub because bits were broken,” Charles explained.

“In Bradford when I was tasked with fixing pubs my aim was to up the sales - usually by about three times.

“My biggest success was a pub called the Empress. We got this to be a community pub in a city.”

Charles and Ainsley took the plunge and moved to Cumbria more than three years ago.

Ainsley has worked in a number of places in Workington, but this is the first time they have lived in a small rural village.

Charles said: “We’ve had such a warm welcome and we hope that this pub will go in the right direction.

“We’ve now got to emulate the high standard of some of the previous tenants.”