AN INSPIRING appeal by a group of villagers to buy their local pub has nearly reached its £200,000 target.

There were fears that Tafarn y Plu (The Feathers Inn) - in Llanystumdwy near Criccieth,

Gwynedd - would shut and be turned into a house when it was put on sale in 2015.

However, last year, a group of locals set up a community benefit enterprise called Menter y Plu to try and save the listed pub - the last one in the village - to raise the £195,000 asking price and £5,000

extra to cover legal fees.

So far, Menter y Plu has raised a total of £76,000 by selling shares for £100 each but they need

to raise a further £4,000 before receiving £120,000 in grants and loans from Wales Council for

Voluntary Action (WCVA) to buy the building.

The enterprise also received support from Arloesi Gwynedd Wledig (Innovating Rural Gwynedd) to establish a crowdfunding campaign inviting people to invest.

One of the enterprise’s members, Tegid Jones, 35, said: “We’re nearly there. The crowdfunding campaign has been a great boost for us in terms of marketing and attracting new shareholders.

"We have now reached £76,000 which is 95% of our target and we are encouraging anybody to join with almost 300 shareholders and supporters to help us reach the target.”

“We are confident that we will succeed to raise the rest of the money over the coming weeks and look forward to opening the doors.”

Tafarn y Plu is opposite the home of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George and is popular with locals and tourists alike.

The pub is still partly open at present and the hope now is that it can open again each day - hopefully over the summer.

Money has come to the enterprise from people in Australia, the United States, Germany and a number of other countries around Europe.

One of the shareholders, Susanna Jones, from Germany, says she had first visited Y Plu with her future in-laws for the first time in 1960.

“ Doug, my husband comes from Criccieth and when I first visited my future in-laws in 1960 he took me to "The Feathers" telling me that this was his dad's favourite pub.

"There seemed to have been family connections in Llanystumdwy as well. In those days the men, after a few pints, were very quickly persuaded to sing their hearts out in Welsh.

“Having seen an article on-line about the general decline of amenities in Llanystumdwy, and what Menter y Plu were trying to do, it just touched something in me, especially since Doug died in February last year and I thought it would be a fitting tribute to buy 100 shares in the venture to hold on to the village hub.”