It has served villagers for 170 years and provided an oasis for drinkers from surrounding towns when Scotland’s temperance movement was at its height.
Now the Swan Inn in Banton, North Lanarkshire, has been granted a reprieve from the wrecking ball after residents secured a £740,000 grant to buy their local pub.
The Swan Inn has attracted drinkers from surrounding villages and towns ever since local vetoes on alcohol were introduced in several Scottish villages and towns following the passing of the 1913 Temperance Act.
But it was threatened with closure and demolition in 2016, when villagers were notified of plans to turn the pub into flats.
Resident Catherine Moneypenny, 36, who is also secretary at the People United For Banton group, said confirmation of the lottery award had sparked delight in the village, which has a population of a few hundred.
She said: “We used to have a post office and shop.
“Then the post office withdrew from the shop in 2010 and that meant the shop was not sustainable any more and then, in 2012, we lost the shop.
“When we found out we might lose the pub, it was just devastating.”
The Swan Inn was one of the pubs which emerged unscathed as Scotland’s temperance movement, inspired by its counterpart in the United States, grew in strength and influence from 1830.
Banton around 1900 with the Swan Inn, right.
Campaigners were determined to reduce consumption of strong spirits and quickly established a base in Glasgow, as well as Paisley, Greenock and the mining towns of Lanarkshire and Ayshire.
The movement resulted in a wave of pub closures throughout Scotland.
But the Swan Inn survived and went on to become a meeting place for drinkers from communities across the region.
“The Swan has so much history,” said Ms Moneypenny.
“During the temperance years, when the surrounding towns were dry towns, we got bus loads of people coming through from surrounding places like Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch.
“Historically, it’s been a really vibrant pub. It would have been terrible to lose it.”
Wendy Dunsmore, who was born in the village after her family moved there in the 1950s, said residents wanted to turn the pub into a proper hub for the local community, which is still recovering from the loss of its shop and post office.
Since the shop closed, villagers have had to share lifts or catch a bus to Kilsyth if they need to buy supplies.
Ms Dunsmore said: “The pub is where people here would have their 18th birthday parties and other social events. It’s a social hub.
“The plan now is to make it a pub, cafe, restaurant and a shop. We lost our shop six or seven years ago.
“Bringing the shop back would give people their independence.”
Ms Moneypenny added: “Securing the Big Lottery grant is just incredible. It just feels like a bit of a dream.
“Initially, when the project was begun because we felt that we could not lose the pub. This is about rekindling the community.
“The whole village has come together to make this happen and our confidence in our community and our future has sky-rocketed. Thanks to a marvellous Big Lottery grant a bigger, better, brilliant Swan will emerge from what promised to be a community catastrophe.”
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