Buy The Bell Inn for our community

Aim

Our village has 380 people in it. In three months, we've raised £380,000 to buy our pub. We need a final push to get over the line.

Adnams told us at the end of March that they intended to sell the Bell Inn, and that it needed to break even to stay open. In its current state, after another winter, that would be difficult. We decided we weren't going to stand by and watch it close.

The Bell is a Grade II listed 17th century Suffolk pub, and it is where this village actually happens. Squit night on the first Thursday of every month. The quizzes and the crib team. The Molly Dancers and Musicians who parade through Middleton on Boxing Day and end the evening at the Bell with music, dancing and storytelling. Almost none of it is run by anyone other than villagers themselves.

Lose the pub and you don't just lose somewhere to get a pint. You lose the room where all of that takes place.

Where we're go to 

We formed a charitable Community Benefit Society, one of only a handful in the country, so that the Bell can be owned by the community and stay that way permanently.

Because the pub is a registered Asset of Community Value, we were given six months to set the Society up and raise the money. We have six weeks left.

We've raised £380,000 in pledges so far, almost entirely from people in and around the village. We need £170,000 more to buy the pub, cover working capital, and fund the improvements that will let it earn its keep in future years.

What this page is for

Most of that £170,000 will come from our community share offer. This page is the other part: we're raising £50,000 in donations, and it's the piece that makes the difference between just about buying the pub and buying it with enough behind us to get through a difficult winter.

Every donation goes straight into buying the pub and getting it open properly.

You don't have to live in Middleton to be part of this. If you've walked here, cycled through, stopped for lunch on your way between Aldeburgh and Southwold, or you just think villages should be allowed to keep their pubs, we'd love you with us.

Squit night, every first Thursday each month at The Bell Inn.

We're also home to the Molly Dancers and Musicians on Boxing Day.

Other ways to help

Come to something. We've got events and fundraising running right through to the deadline, and details are on our website.

Take a calendar. Donate £70 or more and we'll send you one of our Dogs of Middleton calendars. See the reward opposite.

And if you'd rather become a member of the Society than donate, our community share offer is open on our website.

Thank you

Six weeks. £50,000. A pub that has stood in this village for more than 300 years.

Whatever you can give, thank you. It stays here, in Middleton, for good.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 7th November 2026 at 6:41am