You're absolutely right that many pubs - particularly in urban and desirable rural locations hollowed out by second homes - are being flogged off by the Pubcos  for the site value or as private housing.

But there are many medium sized towns, and Berwick is a classic case, which have been hollowed out by migration of the younger generations and superstores on the fringes, leaving a wasteland of chain stores, charity shops, betting shops, estate agents and moribund pubs which pass from one set of hapless tenants to another.

Enterprise Inns flogged off the Brown Bear for next to nothing and it was snapped up by a very shrewd cash-rich local businessman who is estimated now to have well over 100 local properties.

Mark believes - and I agree - that he has identified a gap in the market for a genuine community pub proposition going way beyond the conventional.

He successfully turned around the Sun & Doves (which everyone apparently said was beyond help) and applied a formula which trebled the turnover - only to find that the landlord multiplied the rent, and eventually bankrupted him.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson