January Update

It’s been an incredible first Christmas at the newly restored Hermit. 

We completed the renovation of the third room at the pub just before the holidays started. Historically this room was used for dining, storage and even as a polling station! When we started it was a festival of the 80s, with swirly artex ceilings and walls, low false ceilings and mangled carpet. Turns out that underneath all this hideousness was a stunning stone wall, some great old floorboards and a number of old beams at rakish angles. We added some more floorboards reclaimed from a mill in Otley, dropped in a 12 person dining table, fitted some old fashioned bench seating and suddenly it felt like part of the pub again. Feedback has been great and the room will be available for private hire, birthdays and any kind of function you can think of. 

But as usual with The Hermit, one renovation exposed the requirement for another. We discovered that the roof over the third room was in very poor condition and the entire roof on that section of the building needs repairing.  This it turns out is a two week job.

In addition, we have learnt over the last 5 months that the extreme rate at which the pub sells real ale is not especially compatible with its tiny chilled cellar area. As such we are going to be moving a small wall in the cellar to increase the cellar capacity by about a third. 

And finally we have just about reached the limit of capacity for the single phase electricity supply that the pub currently receives. So we need to install a three phase supply to the building.

All this means that the pub will be closed from the 10th January to the 26th January inclusive. During this down time our kitchen team will be dreaming up some new dishes ready for when we re-open and Ed will be lining up some incredible ales for you to taste. But most importantly the pub will have undergone some fundamental works that should help cement its place in the heart of Burley Woodhead for years to come.

Come visit us for artisan sandwiches, small plates and hand stretched pizzas up until Sunday the 9th January, and then head back up when we reopen on 26th January.

Thanks so much for your support!