About the Derehams Inn
A brief history and where we are today
Formerly The Bricklayers Arms, The Derehams Inn, in Derehams Lane, Loudwater, has been a pub since 1860, originally owned by The Carrington Estate. The last owners of the Derehams Inn, Graham and Margaret (Maggie) Sturgess, owned and ran this free house very successfully for over 20 years, before Maggie’s sudden and untimely death in December 2020. During Maggie and Graham’s tenure, the pub was truly the heart of the local community, providing a friendly, inclusive environment. The pub was home to darts, crib and dominoes teams, there was a very popular quiz every Tuesday and every year, on the first weekend in July, the Derehams hosted a beer festival lasting the whole weekend with live entertainment and a good selection of food and beers. There were many community events held at the Derehams, including a Halloween party with prizes for fancy dress and pumpkin carving for the children. Many local sports teams, clubs and societies held their meetings at the Derehams. The Derehams was very popular for food during evenings and lunchtimes and was often fully booked for Sunday lunches.
Unfortunately, after Maggie’s death, Graham, who was already in his seventies and in poor health, was forced to sell the pub, as he was unable to manage the running of it on his own. It was Graham’s strong desire to ensure that the Derehams remained a pub and continued to serve the local community. With this in mind, he agreed to sell at a reduced price, to the current owner, who he had been assured was a publican who would continue to run the pub as a going concern. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case as the purchaser was in fact a developer, but this only became apparent once the sale was beyond the point of no return.
The Derehams Inn was closed in July 2021, the day Graham Sturgess left the pub, and since then the pub has been left empty and abandoned and allowed to become dilapidated. The new owner had no intention of reopening it as a pub, despite the fact that the Derehams was the last remaining pub in Loudwater.
​According to the ‘Morning Advertiser’, 200 pubs closed in the first quarter of 2023, in the same article it was reported that accountancy firm Price Bailey, revealed that 620 pubs entered insolvency in the previous 12 months. Despite this, they also reported that 35% of pubs reported an increase in turnover.
Many factors have led to the demise of pubs over the last few years, including high taxation on alcohol sales, Covid 19, the rising cost of living, rising energy prices, high business rates, high property prices and flawed planning laws which allow change of use if a pub can be demonstrated to be un-profitable for a period of time (permanently closing the doors does not tend to boost profitability!)
Village pubs are an integral and essential part of local communities and a strong part of UK heritage. Many villages, like Loudwater, have seen the loss of not just pubs, but also British Legion clubs and social clubs, leaving nowhere for the community to socialise and network.
We believe that the trend towards pub closures is an urgent problem which needs to be addressed before these treasured establishments are lost forever. We have been fortunate enough to have received advice and support from The Craufurd Arms pub in Maidenhead, which became a community pub in 2017 and have also begun collaborating with The Boundary Arms in Pinkneys Green, Maidenhead, who are at a similar stage in their journey to save their pub. We have also received valuable support from our local High Wycombe MP, Steve Baker and his team.
We are hoping to raise as much awareness as possible, both locally and nationally, in the hope of raising the funding we desperately need.