A poignant farewell as The Plough Inn Bickington closes after 45 years

The much-loved Plough Inn at Bickington is closing its doors on Monday for the last time to mark the end of an era that has spanned almost half a century.

Owners Carol McCormack-Hole and her husband Jerry have reluctantly decided to retire after 45 years at the helm of the popular and historic pub on the outskirts of Barnstaple that has been at the heart of the community longer than many in the village can remember.

Carol and Jerry are just as big a part of the community themselves, known by everyone and active in so many local events, activities and campaigns.

Above: The Plough Inn and owners Carol and Jerry have become a staple of Bickington life. Credit: Viral PR

Carol launched the North Devon Scanner Appeal in 1987 for the region’s first CT scanner and she has remained a voice for local health services to this day, still serving as a public governor for the health trust.

In recent years Carol was awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal) for meritorious community service and attended the Queen’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace to receive it.

Well-known for its sumptuous Wednesday lunches and Sunday roasts cooked by Carol and with Jerry behind the bar, The Plough had four skittles, seven darts and two euchre teams and has hosted countless community events and local groups.

From bingo, quizzes and buffets to charity fundraisers, christenings, weddings and funerals, plus meetings of singles and diabetes groups, the U3A, a memory café, Devon Senior Voice and Healthwatch, the pub has been a true community hub and a big part of many thousands of lives.

The Plough Bickington Bike Ride was once a big local event, with thousands raised each year for charity and the pub would regularly enter a float into Barnstaple Carnival.

The last day of business at The Plough will be Monday, March 31, with the last-ever Plough Sunday lunch on March 30.

‘Have you ever had cow pie at The Plough Inn?’ Locals have been asking that question for decades in reference to Carol’s popular beef pie, a favourite with many regulars.

The couple have taken the difficult decision to retire and have spent several months saying their goodbyes to so many regulars, teams and the clubs they have grown close to.

Carol said: “We are only stopping working in the pub because of ill-health and old age. We will miss our customers, but we are still here and still living here.

“We wanted to make it into a community pub and it’s a way to be active in the community, it’s a good life, it’s been a very productive and satisfying thing to do - I have known everybody and their granddad!

“It’s such a local pub, everybody I should think has been here at some point or another, we have had ‘hatch, match and despatch’, so many christenings, wedding receptions and funerals.”

Jerry added: “We used the premises as a community hub. We have a brilliant skittle alley we built upstairs, so it was a great place to have a buffet or conferences, all sorts of things.

“It’s all about people and the clubs we have supported all these years, we have all grown old together. It’s the people we have enjoyed and shared their lives, we have been intertwined with so many people.”

Both Carol and Jerry were teachers – she taught locally and Jerry was a lecturer for 20 years at the then North Devon College.

Carol said: “That was the starting point, that we were both teachers and running a pub at the same time. I still get the children I taught coming here to play darts and calling me ‘Miss’.

“We had kids coming here to play pool when they were 15 and they are still regulars here. I used to let them in but I would check with their mothers first to make sure they were allowed!”

Carol is also a well-known local councillor and served as the Liberal Democrat district councillor for Bickington for 21 years and she remains a councillor on Fremington Parish Council – 35 years and counting!

She launched the Scanner Appeal in 1987 when she had ovarian cancer and discovered there was no CT scanner at North Devon District Hospital – an appeal followed, including running a charity shop in Barnstaple town centre for two years, until the scanner could be purchased.

Above: The North Devon Gazette reported on the success of the North Devon Scanner Appeal organised by Carol. 

Jerry has had an equally busy life – he served in the Royal Air Force for 25 years before his teaching career and in more recent times he served as a trustee for CAB for five years.

Much of his community service was related to the pub – he ran the mixed summer skittles league for 27 years for four local pubs and was on the committee of the Mixed Darts League for 10 years, plus more than 10 years on the Men’s Barnstaple Darts League.

He was also an upstanding member of P.I.G.S for 20 years – that’s the Plough Inn Golf Society, which saw regulars make monthly visits to local golf courses and any visitor to the pub would have seen countless piggy ornaments on various shelves, an in-joke tribute to the popular golf society.

The Plough was first registered as a pub in 1710, though the buildings and its history as a hostelry are thought to be older. Later it was merged with the cottages either side to create larger premises and Carol and Jerry added their own innovations to create more space when they took it over.

Above: The Plough Inn at Bickington, pictured here in the late 1800s, has been a hostelry for centuries. 

One of those was a necessity - there was an original skittle alley on the floor above the ‘parlour’ when they first moved in, but after a year, the ceiling stated to sag when matches were played, so a new alley was built upstairs at the back of the building instead.

Many people will miss the legendary Sunday and Wednesday lunches as The Plough era ends – Sunday roasts were served for 40 years and Wednesday lunches began when someone asked for a New Year’s Day lunch ‘with cow pie’ 35 years ago.

Carol and Jerry would like to thank all their customers and friends, old and new, for their support and friendship during the Plough’s long journey.

Carol said: “Running a community pub is a commitment to the community, but you have got to actually do something because it’s hard work and unless you really want to do it, you won’t do it – it’s 24/7.

“I will miss the customers and I will miss the life – the customers are also our friends.”

Above: The Plough Inn circa 1950