It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Chickerell as a pub garden has been adorned with Christmas lights, supplied entirely from local donations.

On Thursday, November 30, The Lugger Inn’s garden was decorated with festive lights marking the start of the pub’s festive celebrations.

 

Earlier this year, The Lugger Inn launched ‘The Life & Soul Community Trust’ initiative which aims to provide support and to spread happiness to the community. The Trust reached out to the people of Chickerell at the beginning of November, asking them to donate or loan any unwanted Christmas decorations and lights as they wanted to put them to good use by lighting up the pub.  

The response was overwhelming and soon the Cottage Room at The Lugger was completely full of Christmas decorations.  In addition to their light switch on, they also had a donation box nearby to raise funds for Christmas givings and future 'Life and Soul' community projects.

Liam Coles, owner of the Lugger Inn said: “The intention of the Trust is to provide support to those within the local community, whether monetary or otherwise, to bring happiness to others, promote wellbeing and nurture a strong community spirit. 

“That is the very reason that we reached out to the community to donate their unwanted Christmas lights so that we could display them for the enjoyment of the children and adults of Chickerell.  I would like to thank all the volunteers, staff, and members of the Life & Soul Community Trust for all of their support and hard work to make this happen.” 

The inn was established in 1873 and is named in recognition of the village's fishing history, specifically a type of small fishing boat that uses one or more lugsails named a lugger. It was also named Dorset Echo Pub of the Year back in 2022 as voted by our readers.

More festive events are due to take place at The Lugger Inn during December including a Christmas Fayre at 5pm on Thursday, December 7 which will include a visit from Santa. 

Information about the events can be found on The Lugger Inn website.