Derelict village pub to be demolished

Cross Hotel has been deemed unsafe

A village pub will have to be torn down after becoming so derelict that it is being held up by scaffolding and has forced the closure of a key road.

The Cross Inn at Copplestone, in Mid Devon, is now derelict having been closed for several years, and efforts to restore it to its former glory were hampered when major structural weaknesses emerged.

The current owners had been conducting initial works in August last year linked to a planning application for the building when they experienced a bulging wall between the gable end and the left front lower window.

This led to a temporary three-week closure of the A377 through the village while structural scaffolding was erected to enable repair works.

But when works began, the south gable had to be removed, and when experts were asked to assess whether repairs could be carried out, they established that demolition was the only course of action.

Since the discovery in August last year, the owners have been working with Devon County Council’s highways team and Mid Devon District Council’s building control to establish the future of the building.

An architect report in October essentially dubbed the building unsalvageable, prompting the owners to request its demolition. The district council’s building control team has agreed it needs to be demolished on health and safety grounds.

Mid Devon’s planning committee said it was being presented with an “unusual situation” in that it is ordinarily able to decide whether to approve or reject something, but in this instance all expert bodies believed the building needed to be demolished.

Councillor Lance Kennedy (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton Cranmore) asked whether the building was “beyond redemption” and whether there was “little choice”.

Officers confirmed there was “no option but to demolish the building”.

Some councillors on the planning committee queried whether the building, as a former pub, should be protected given it could be considered a ‘community asset’.

But officers said a community asset would normally be a working and functioning building, adding that because this building was not listed, there was no heritage-related protection either.

A scheme to refurbish the pub and convert outbuildings to three homes was initially rejected by Mid Devon in 2021, but was then granted via an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

During the works linked to this scheme, the weaknesses in the main building, which has traditional cob walls, were discovered.

The demolition application relates only to the main building, and not the outbuildings that were constructed after the pub, and are made of stone and deemed sound.

The owners told the planning committee that four tenants had tried to make the pub work but had all moved on in quick succession, with the last one leaving in 2019.

That departure prompted the owners to try and refurbish the pub, and make the business more viable by repurposing the outbuildings.

“We’re not property developers and we were naive enough to think we could breathe new life into it,” owner Olivia Ambrose said.

“When we started repairs in 2024, the full seriousness of the structural problems came to light, and we have been led by experts and structural engineers since then, while also working with the council’s building control.”

She added that difficulties coming to an agreement with a neighbouring property over the demolition meant the process had to be conducted in two stages, adding around £50,000 to their costs.

“Last year was the most stressful and traumatic of our lives,” Ms Ambrose added.

Councillor Natalia Letch (Liberal Democrat, Upper Yeo and Taw) said the road closure caused by the unsafe pub building had been “almost unbearable” for Copplestone residents.

“The pub hasn’t been operating for a long time, and I think the village hoped it would reopen as there isn’t an alternative,” she said.

The planning committee agreed to allow the pub building to be demolished.