Hornton Online

Welcome to Martin and Gwyneth Gelling, who took over the Dun Cow on Monday 5 August and opened the same night without missing a beat! They've lived in Banbury, where Gwyneth teaches at the Harriers, for 32 years without ever having visited Hornton until they saw the Pub advertised in an estate agent's window. In true Hornton tradition, they came for a drink one Monday evening, fell in love with the place, and decided there and then to become our new Landlord and Landlady.

The Gellings have never run a Pub before - but don't think for a moment that they don't know what they're doing, or that they don't understand the meaning of hard work. They have other kindred businesses which they will continue to operate. Vitis Wines is one, which specialises in supplying a great many unusual English meads, wines and beers made to traditional recipes - which will no doubt interest the home-vintners amongst us! 'The Drunken Monk' (www.drunkenmonk.co.uk) is a business which provides beer tents to festivals and historical re-enactments. Martin is also a Champion Archer and on an Agent's books as an extra.

Gwyneth explains "We see the Pub as the next step up for Martin's business. We've been selling these wines for the last nine or ten years, and I know that Martin's beginning to find it hard work putting up and pulling down a full size beer tent every weekend plus moving the barrels. So we've included the family as full time partners and they'll be taking over more of that side of things. They're young enough and fit enough to cope with marquees!" "Ian, our Manager, has just come back from Corby," added Martin, "Where they had a show for about thirty five to forty thousand people. Our younger daughter, Merryl, spent the weekend there being a Celtic Princess fighting against the Romans. Meanwhile our eldest daughter was working at a medieval wedding this weekend. It's pretty well nationwide - we go to Tintagel in Cornwall, the Lake District, Cumbria. We were asked to go to Bannockburn, but even we thought that was a bit too far!"

The first week in Hornton has been very hard work. "We were both very nervous," said Martin. "50% of the nerves were to do with being newcomers, and knowing what a close community this is we were a bit worried about how we would be received. And about 20% of the nerves were due to not being able to add up in front of strangers!" They needn't have worried, however. "We have been made very, very welcome," said Gwyneth. "I woke up this morning and thought, well, that was our first week, and it really wasn't too bad. Friday night was manic - you couldn't see across the bar." "It's been very friendly," agreed Martin. "No-one's turned their backs to us."

So what do Ye Gellings (sorry - it becomes infectious!) plan for the future? "We will try to come up with some more regular attractions, particularly for Saturday and Sunday evenings," said Martin. "Things will be a little different when the food is properly up and running." The food will be traditional home cooking, perhaps with a bit of a twist - rabbit and bacon pie, jugged hare and vegetarian options were mentioned - but essentially 'English'. "The food's been quite a big topic," said Gwyneth. "We need to sort the kitchen out a bit and we're trying to keep it ticking over meanwhile. Pauline has stayed on to help which is a godsend - she's the only one who knows where anything is."

There are no plans to make any big changes to the Pub itself, certainly not to its name. "'The Dun Cow' is a good Saxon name," says Martin. "We certainly won't be gutting it or turning into something modern. There are one or two things we might tweak a bit, but basically we don't plan to change anything." Martin intends to continue all the things the Village is used to, like the Rock Concert and May Day. There may be a few ticketed re-enactment functions a year held in the back bar and garden but the other half of the Pub would function as normal. "We know that there are regular things like the Shoot Dinners but we don't know when or how many. We have to hope that people will tell us," said Martin. "We need all the information we can get!" added Gwyneth.

The people of Hornton certainly realise how lucky they are to still have a village Pub - and they're not slow to enjoy themselves. It looks as though the new Landlords are all that Hornton could have hoped for, and that we can all look forward to re-enacting that favourite old Hornton tradition of partying the night away for the forseeable future!