The new owners of a pub which is set to reopen today admit it’s a difficult time for a relaunch – but they felt it was important to start trading. The Coach House Inn, formerly the Coach and Horses in Winterbourne Abbas, will be opening at 12pm. New owners Lee and Jo Worsley have spent £250,000 refurbishing the premises.

Mr Worsley said: “It’s a very tough time at the moment, but we felt it’s important to get the pub open, even if we need to close it temporarily in the future. We had to cancel our press launch last night because a lot of people representing various companies were told to work from home remotely. It’s a difficult time to open a pub. We are in uncertain territory and no one has the answers. We will be opening for drinks and will start doing food on Friday. We will have to wait to see what the government decides to do. We thought we should open and give people the opportunity to have a look round even if we’re forced to close in future.”

He added: “It’s looking really amazing, we’re very pleased with how it has turned out.

“We had a soft launch at the weekend and fed about 100 people on Saturday and Sunday lunchtime.

“There were some really lovely comments and feedback.”

The pup will be open from 12pm to 2.30pm today and again in the evening from 6pm to 9pm.