The Hoops – your villages need you!

General

Published on November 24th, 2025 | by Admin

Many residents will know that The Hoops in Great Eversden is now on the market. Following Cam Spice’s departure earlier this year, our village pub is now at risk of following the same fate of our village shop.

As the property is listed as an Asset of Community Value (until March 2026), our villages and wider local community have a legally protected six-week window in which to register an interest to purchase the freehold. Ultimately we therefore have an opportunity to protect the future of this valuable asset, which has served the local community as a licensed premise since the 1830s.

At the Parish Council meeting on 13 November, councillors agreed to submit a formal Intention to Bid on behalf of the village. This action has triggered a six-month moratorium, giving our community valuable time to explore whether we can secure the freehold – and therefore sustain a future for The Hoops – through the most viable leasehold arrangement or business model.

A number of residents who attended the meeting have already expressed enthusiasm for forming a community steering group – likely to be formally set up as a Community Interest Company (CIC), to lead the project and assess the appetite for community ownership.

We now need further support from the community to get involved in the CIC, as well as understand interest for securing The Hoops’ future.

Although we have gained extra time, the overall deadline to submit a full community bid, which would involve raising sufficient funding, is midnight on 16 April 2026, so maintaining momentum is essential.

Village Survey

One of the first actions is completion of a resident survey which will gather valuable thoughts and opinions in to the future of our pub. We encourage you to share your honest thoughts. The link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZKBD9N, plus circulated on Eversden Online and the Eversden Facebook Page. We have created a webpage on this site for all Hoops information so keep an eye out for updated and results on there. Survey will close on 31st December 2025.

If you are interested in joining the CIC steering group, contributing specific skills, or simply want to hear more about what’s involved, please email hoops.eversden@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support. We are looking forward to exploring the possibility of saving The Hoops!