THE LATEST arrival on Dorset’s pub scene had the elements to battle with in her first weeks.

Publican Sandy Duncan has renovated and re-opened the Coach and Horses in Winterbourne Abbas, which had previously closed its doors in February.

Her first few weeks behind the taps could hardly have been more eventful with the village one of the worst hit by recent floods.

Sandy had spent three weeks stripping out and completely refurbishing the venue.

The pub now boasts a coffee lounge area where punters can enjoy homemade cakes as well as a bar area and a 100-seat restaurant complete with traditional clay pizza oven and chargrill.

She said she was thankful that, compared to others in the local community, the pub escaped the flooding relatively unscathed and even took in some of those worst affected.

Sandy said: “It didn’t help trade the road being shut but it was devastating for the village.

“At the end of the day we were quite quiet for a few days but it was nothing compared to some people who lost everything. People started coming in here and everybody was helping everybody else, it brought the community together a bit more.”

Sandy said the new-look pub had proved popular with the locals so far, who mainly enjoyed the bar area with its high leather stools and range of real ales and ciders but many also enjoyed the new coffee lounge concept.

She said: “When we opened we had people queuing up at the door and it’s been really well received, they keep coming back night after night.”

For Sandy, who has a background in the pub trade and hospitality industry in her native West Midlands, the nineteenth century coaching inn marked the final stop on an exhaustive search for her ideal establishment.

She said: “I had spent 12 months searching for a place to do this concept and looked at probably 200 plus pubs.

“I walked in here and I just fell in love with it really, it’s got such a nice feel.”