7:00am Sunday 5th July 2009
By Nigel Kerton
Andy and Jen Duggan, who have taken over the Antelope Inn in Upavon, say they intend the roadside pub, that has had mixed fortunes in recent years, to be a proper family pub again.
Mr Duggan worked as a pub manager for the Luck family who run the St Austell Brewery in Cornwall and Antelope is one of the Wadworth chain run by the Bartholomew family.
“We are a family running a family pub working for a family-run brewery,” said Mr Duggan, 31, who has been in the licensed trade for 12 years, always in Cornwall.
The Antelope is a historic inn that was rebuilt in 1729 although records show there was a hostelry on the site as far back as the 1400s.
It looks more modern that it is because, although now tiled, it used to be thatched as shown by a photograph in the bar.
Soon after the couple took over the pub they realised that it was haunted.
Mr Duggan said: “It’s haunted to hell. Everyone here has seen or heard something that can’t explain.
“Things come off the shelves regularly and when anyone goes down into the cellar they can feel something touch them on the shoulder.”
The couple live above the pub with their daughter Bethannie, two, and Henry, 18 months.
Both Mr and Mrs Duggan are chefs but they are delighted to be training local youngster, Harry Gibbs, 17, who, said Mr Duggan, is quite capable of running the kitchen single handed.
Over recent years the pub has had a chequered history including short periods when it was closed.
But Mrs Duggan said they were working to re-establish it as popular pub-restaurant.
“We are trying to revive the food side of it and, although we knew it would be an uphill struggle, we are getting there,” she said.
They source all their provisions locally with steaks and other meats coming from Sumblers butchers in Marlborough and are about to launch a pie and pint evening once a week.
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