This pub, the last local amenity, was under threat: the owner wanted to sell it as a house.
The first campaign meeting was on 20th January 1998: the packed public meeting agreed to set up a company to save the pub: Reach For A Pint Ltd.
The owner, William Lester, took the pub off the market for about 6 months and by late summer 1998 he'd dropped his asking price by £20,000. His application for change-of-use planning permission was refused by East Cambs. Planning Committee in March 1999.
The locals put in a bid of £130,000 for the pub (with £30,000 left over for restocking & refurbishing) and this was successful in mid-1999.
In Summer 1999 it was renovated and it reopened under the former name of The Dyke's End on 16th October.