A GLASS HALF-FULL AT BUCKBY WHARF

Tim Coghlan raised a glass on the Grand Union Canal as The New Inn reopened to the relief of regulars

- Tim Coghlan

In 2019, at the age of 52 – when most people are perhaps thinking it’s a bit late to start embarking on a completely new career-challenge – Craig Allen bought the freehold of the canalside New Inn at Buckby Top Lock, and became its owner-landlord.

He opened for customers on 1st July of that year. Having worked on narrowboats in various capacities for over 30 years, running a pub was completely new to him, and he would be on a steep and challenging learning curve.

But he felt the urge to have a go when The New Inn came up for sale. The previous owners had decided to retire after running it for some six years and both were beginning to tire of it all.

There was now every prospect that this inn – which had links going back to the very earliest days of the Grand Junction Canal – might suffer the same fate as that of so many other pubs. Canal pubs were not exempt from such a thing, as seen by the closure of the Napton Bridge Inn and its conversion to a bijou canalside house; and now the Rock of Gibraltar on the South Oxford near Thrupp is boarded up.

In fairly recent years, but prior to those retiring owners, The New Inn had been closed for a year or more after the previous owner was alleged to have had an unwelcome visit from Customs & Excise. His assets, including the pub freehold, were seized, and the pub left empty, whilst matters were resolved under the long slow process of the law.

The building was shuttered, the electricity turned off and the cellar simply left to fill with water.

Prior to that, it was felt that it had been a very cheapskate outfit in every way. On one occasion I had met up with a delivery crew of mine, who were bringing a boat up from the River Nene to go on our brokerage with ourselves.