Our Story
2014 – How it all began
Jonathan came across the Red Pump Inn for sale while carrying out some consulting for another pub company. Remembering it from one of their weekend drives into the Forest of Bowland and thinking back to a recent conversation with Fran when she let slip a long held desire to run a B&B, he emailed her the details to hopefully relieve the boredom of her day stuck in an office job she had grown to hate. That night on returning from work she informed him she had handed in her notice and was ready to buy! Be careful what you joke about!
2015 – Yikes, we’ve bought it!
Looking at the Inn more carefully Fran realised the potential for bedrooms to serve the local wedding venues, meanwhile Jonathan, who had run a successful Steak Restaurant in his twenties, identified a gap in the already quality food offering in the Ribble Valley and so a decision, over a rather nice bottle of Primitivo, was made to buy.
2016 – Glamping arrives
As trade began to take off bedrooms were still in short supply so with the old beer garden at the rear of the Inn redundant it was decided to erect 4 Glamping Yurts. As usual with Jonathan & Fran these had to be unique and so each was hooked up to an electric supply and built complete with adjoining timber ensuite bathrooms with hot showers and toilets.
King size beds with deep mattresses, fur throws and painted furniture took Glamping to a whole new level and with hot coffee and cooked breakfast included in the deal, no wonder these have been such a hit with guests.
2019 – Anyone for sunshine?
Continuing to build the business over the next few years meant that the next job would have to be extending the car park to cope with visitors, and at the same time building a proper Beer Garden to take advantage of the fabulous views from the Inn. Again undertaking almost all the work themselves the Beer Garden offers flagged paths, gravelled dining areas, raised lawns and stunning views.
2020 – Arghh Covid-19
This is the year Covid hit us all and we had to close. Well not all bad news, we got a morning lie in for a change, dinner at 6pm and a movie, time to catch breath during the day. Is this how normal people live? However this lasted a week and then we set about giving the toilets a complete make over, laying new floors and painting the building a new colour.
2021 – Luxury Shepherd Huts
With the Yurts being so popular Fran and Jonathan began to think about luxury Shepherd Huts which could run all year with full central heating and even offer a self catering option. After much research they designed and (as usual) set to building them from scratch. Jonathan loves joinery and as chance would have it another Lockdown 2 meant time to work on them.
We ‘re really proud of them and hope you will love them as much as we do.