Forest Gin and Cat and Fiddle exceed fundraising target

Forest Gin have exceeded their crowdfunding target to refurbish The Cat and Fiddle Inn between Macclesfield and Buxton, and relaunch the pub as a gin and whiskey distillery.

Forest Gin will work alongside owners Robinsons Brewery to transform the pub, bringing eating facilities as well as the distillery.  Donations and bookings of exclusive distillery tours before the pub reopens in 2020, totalled almost £55,000 in 42 days, allowing work to get started.

The pub had been closed since 2016 as its remote location made the site economically unviable, particularly during the winter months.  As a result, the pub needs considerable investment to bring it back into use, including roof repairs.

Forest Gin owners, Karl and Lindsay Bond, will benefit from the space to grow the business through the partnership with Robinsons Brewery.  Karl said:

We’ve been absolutely blown away at the support.  The pub is important to people – their grandparents got married here, or they were proposed to here, it is filled with these lovely community stories, and I think that is why so many people have got behind the relaunch.

“The crowd-funder did better than we imagined. We offered corporate days out, tours with drinks included, plaques on the wall, a number of things and that is where the money has come from – people are getting something for the money they’ve put into the Cat & Fiddle.

“We’ve started the work but we are at ground-zero, there is so much to do. Fingers crossed, phase two, all the exciting decorating and installing the bar, will begin next year.”

The Cat and Fiddle pub aims to reopen by late Summer 2020, creating a handful of new jobs in the Buxton and Macclesfield areas.  Karl added:

We will be recruiting in the new year, looking for bartenders and tour guides. We will definitely be looking to the local community to fill these positions.”