“We’ve been so welcomed by everyone in the village. They’ve been really, really amazingly supportive”
She has battled for years as Bristol’s last farmer, but now after being forced out of Yew Tree Farm, Catherine Withers is planning a new venture – saving a village pub on the edge of Bristol. The farmer, environmentalist and campaigner has bought the Prince’s Motto pub in Barrow Gurney, and now plans to create a pub and restaurant that’s a hub for local food production.
The pub has been empty for around 18 months and was put up for sale after having five different landlords in six years and a troubled time during Covid and in the years since.
A local campaign to save it got started in June 2024 with plans to create a community-owned family-friendly venue emerging from a public meeting in Barrow Gurney back in October last year. But after meeting with villagers, Catherine Withers told Bristol Live she has been welcomed as the person to “breathe life back” into the venue and turn it back into a community village pub.
At Yew Tree Farm, Catherine created an environmentally-friendly mixed farm that was so successful at creating a haven for wildlife it was designated a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.
Yew Tree Farm and her work there featured in national media, as well as on Countryfile and other TV programmes.
But her time farming inside the edge of South Bristol, off the A38 in Highridge, also saw huge controversies and battles, as she faced pressures from all sides. Bristol City Council put through plans to extend the South Bristol Crematorium cemetery into land they owned but she had farmed for decades, while leasing that land to other members of her family instead.
And at the same time, other land she had leased as part of the farm was the subject of attempts by Taylor Wimpey to build 200 new homes, and its owner also switched it to other members of her family after she objected to the new homes idea.
New land lady Catherine Withers at the newly acquired Princes Motto pub(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
But ultimately, it was a battle within her own family that saw her lose the farm itself – Bristol Live revealed in February she had reached a settlement that she would have to leave the family-owned farm this summer.
She is now working to restore the Prince’s Motto at Barrow Gurney to its former glory, and has plans to expand on the successful farm shop and cafe from Yew Tree Farm. The new venture is just a mile or so from Yew Tree Farm, on the edge of the North Somerset countryside.
“Our plan with the farm, because the farm shop was becoming so successful, was always to branch out and try and get a specific place for producing the good food that we’ve got and take the name further,” she told Bristol Live.
“So here we are at the Prince’s Motto, which just is the most lovely pub. It’s not quite in its full flush of beauty at the moment, but it soon will be,” she said.
READ MORE: Bristol’s ‘last farmer’ will have to leave Yew Tree FarmREAD MORE: Bristol’s last farmer is ‘humbled’ by support as battle goes on
The villagers managed to make the Prince’s Motto an asset of community value for Barrow Gurney, which gives communities a six month window to raise the funds to match any prospective buyer, but villagers met with Catherine and agreed to waive that right and open the way for the pub to reopen again.
“We’re going to hopefully breathe life back into what is a community village pub. We’ve been so welcomed by everyone in the village. They’ve been really, really amazingly supportive because this was an asset of community value and they bypassed that because our vision for the future is going to be the same,” she added.
“Pubs have to change and adapt and move on and I think that we’re going to work with that. Hopefully we’ll be well supported by the most amazing people. And obviously the farm and my farming and my food production is so important to me, that that will be feeding through to the food that people eat.
“Providing amazing food to people and community is what rocks my boat,” she said. “Who needs Prada handbags or anything like that when you’ve got really good food on your plate and good company around you?”
New land lady Catherine Withers at the newly acquired Princes Motto pub(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
With lots of work to be done to get the pub back up and running, an opening date is not yet confirmed, but will hopefully be later in the summer or early autumn, initially with small-scale facilities that build up as the restoration and refurbishment continues.
“It will be potentially on a skeleton crew and without indoor kitchen facilities, because we’ve got those to change. But we can barbecue outside. We’re really adaptable as a food producing business. Hopefully there will be some sort of alcohol offering. It’s all work in progress. It’s exciting,” she added.