THE new owners of a historic village pub say they are looking forward to an exciting future after diversifying and expanding during lockdown.

Moira Edwards bought the Three Horseshoes, in Church Road, Fordham, in December, to run with her son Sam and his partner Abbie.

They planned to open the pub to the public for the first time on New Year's Day, before the news of further Covid restrictions was announced.

Deciding against simply rescheduling the opening date the trio got to work setting up a takeaway business and even opened a coffee shop and bakery at the premises.

Gazette: The garden at the Three Horseshoes in Fordham opened in AprilThe garden at the Three Horseshoes in Fordham opened in April

Moira said: "We had already taken on two chefs and furloughing them wasn't an option so we thought we would crack on and do takeaways.

"We had people knock on the window and ask if they could get a coffee so we decided to start the coffee shop. That sort of took off.

"We ended up serving 500 people in one weekend and there was a huge queue down the road. We did 92 takeaway lunches for Mother's Day."

The business opened properly to its first outside diners in April, before welcoming customers inside last month.

Despite lockdown now being over, hopefully for good, the trio plan to continue to build on the success of the takeaway side of the business.

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Moira said: "We moved the coffee shop from the front porch to a garage we converted, and we now sell coffee, tea, cakes, sausages rolls and other things from there all homemade on the premises.

"We are really pleased with how it is going and we have had great reviews from people."

The Three Horseshoes dates from the 16th century and the trio said they fell in love with the historic premises the first time they visited.

Gazette: Some of the delicious baked goods available at the Three HorseshoesSome of the delicious baked goods available at the Three Horseshoes

They all have a background in hospitality with Moira bringing a wealth of experience and Sam and Abbie meeting whilst studying for their Hotel Management degree at the Edge Hotel School, Wivenhoe House.

Moira said: "This hasn't been a truly successful pub in the past but we do not understand why. It is in such a beautiful position, we just fell in love with it.

"We were very much aware of what we were doing because we went into this after the first lockdown.

"It did mean we couldn't do a big launch which is very different than you would normally do but it worked in our favour.

"It gave us a great opportunity to meet people in the village and surrounding villages and show off our food .”

"We had no plan to do a coffee shop or a takeaway menu but to survive we had to adapt to our customer base "

Visit threehorseshoesfordham.com.