The Oxford Arms is now proudly owned by locally founded community organisation Open Arms Kington!

Open Arms Kington (OAK), is a volunteer run Community Interest Company, with all proceeds to be reinvested into community activity. We purchased The Oxford Arms Hotel in Duke Street, Kington with a grant from the Department of Levelling Up's Community Ownership Fund, private loans & a loan from St Mary's Parochial Church Council.

Community ownership has been at the heart of OAK’s vision. Next year we will launch a Community Share Offer, making the Oxford truly owned by Kington community & its supporters.

We believe passionately that as a community, we can take control of our own environment, inspire each other & together, be a catalyst for positive change. Our dream is to create a welcoming, inclusive community pub & hub that belongs to Kington & its supporters. It would remain a local asset & meeting place for future generations.

Our dedicated team have been working tirelessly for over 2 years to make this dream a reality. Now more than ever, we appreciate we can’t do it alone. We believed from the beginning that this venture should be built from the ground up – together.

This is your opportunity to help make good things happen; pledging your support to this project would make a tangible difference in our community.

Support from the community through a Community Share Offer would enable us to repay the private loans and carry out essential building repairs, refurbishment and accessibility modifications. This would enable a phased re-opening of the business for the benefit of the community.

At this stage, we are seeking members of the community & beyond who would like to 'pledge' their support to the project.

What is a Pledge?

A pledge is simply an expression of interest - a way of indicating that you’d like to get involved or help out. There are 3 main ways you can ‘pledge’ - you can pledge your time, your skills or you can pledge a financial contribution through community shares.

• If you would like to support the project financially, you can make a community share pledge offer. This indicates that you would be interested in buying community shares in the Oxford Arms when we launch the share offer later this year.

• An example of pledging your time would be signing up with our volunteer team to help out with gardening or cleaning whilst we get everything ship shape, or helping at one of our open days.

• Pledging your skills would be offering expertise in an area that we could use help with - for example with social media, funding applications or carpentry.

A pledge is not written in stone. It does not bind you in any way, but it does help us get a realistic idea about how the community might like to get involved. For this reason we ask that you only fill out a form if you are really keen to offer what you are pledging. Your pledge at this stage will help us build a firm financial plan in the prospectus. When the full business plan and prospectus is complete, we will get back in touch with you to see if you would like to commit fully to your initial pledge.

The Oxford Arms has been a profitable and vibrant part of Kington life; now a new phase begins for this historic hostelry. As a community asset the pub has attractive interest-bearing opportunity for investors, and offering resources for work, volunteering, social and cultural participation. From 2010 to date the number of community pubs has grown from 5 to 209, and there has been a 100% success rate. Our plan is:

i. To conserve, develop and maintain this Grade II listed landmark building, which has a long history as a place of community importance.

ii. To maintain The Oxford Arms’ centuries old pub, hotel and hospitality role with the income generated invested in the community hub activities;

iii. To create a multi-purpose community hub for Kington that will provide a community cafe, a performance and meeting venue and offer general community space for events, locally run activities & service provision.

If you would like to participate either financially, by volunteering or with ideas and feedback about the future of The Oxford Arms, please download the Pledge Pack below & fill in the form. Please return it by hand or post to The Oxford Arms Hotel, Duke Street, Kington, HR5.

Thank you for your support!