Going green at the Ickleton Lion - with help of cash grants

This month owners of the Ickleton Lion are celebrating after securing a cash boost from grants to help get the 300-year-old pub open again. Jo Hancock, from the Ickleton Lionhearted committee, explains how they will help realise a sustainable vision for the Lion’s future.

From the moment we began raising funds to buy the pub, we wanted to renovate and restore the Lion in a way that ensures it can stand strong for another 300 years and more. That means ensuring financial sustainability, as well as making the Lion a place to connect, support and give back to the community and the surrounding environment.

With more than 90 volunteers now working hard to bring the once-closed pub back to life, we’re delighted to have had a huge cash boost for equipment to make this sustainability vision a reality. Rising energy costs are one of the biggest risks to the long-term sustainability of the Lion, but the renovations present a perfect opportunity to introduce new energy-saving approaches to keep our carbon footprint – and our costs – as low as possible.

An incredible £22,458 grant as part of the Net Zero Villages Grant Scheme will enable us to transform the pub and its garden into a model for how to operate an energy-efficient business in a way that still preserves the building’s unique heritage.

It’s no mean feat to achieve this in a grade II listed building that’s been closed to visitors and open to the elements for two years. But the grant will pay for secondary glazing to 24 of the pub’s heritage windows, loft insulation and the insulation of hot water pipes, programmable heating controls to reduce waste, and it will allow us to replace all 55 existing filament light fittings with energy efficient LED fittings and bulbs.

Long-term, we’d like to explore solar panels to reduce our carbon footprint even further so we’ll be replacing old gas appliances with electric – opening the door to that possibility in future.

When we’re open, we plan to run information sessions on energy efficiency at the pub and to engage volunteers with our sustainability programme to help empower others to go on the same energy-saving journey in their own homes.

As well as saving energy inside the pub, we want to renovate and operate the Lion in a way that’s sustainable. And that starts at home – with local sources and second chances.

Once we open, we want to keep food miles low by supporting local suppliers and growing our own herbs for the kitchen on site. We also want to keep emissions from visitors as low as possible by installing bike racks to encourage people to arrive via pedal power along National Cycle Route 11, which runs directly past the pub.

Our interior design team are using British wool where they can for the soft furnishings and we’re grateful to COAT paints, whose climate positive paint will be used to redecorate the bar and restaurant. It’s not just the old pub we’re breathing new life into, we’re on the hunt for pre-loved furniture through online marketplaces and reclamation yards.

The kitchen is another example of how we’re trying to minimise waste. While the kitchen equipment wasn’t fit for purpose at the Lion, we used Caterquip to save it from the scrapheap. They will repair what they can and resell it. Anything usable but not economical to repair here in the UK will be sent abroad where it can be repaired and repurposed. Thanks to a grant of £26,464 from the Thalia WB Community Fund, we’re able to replace it with fit-for-purpose kitchen equipment ready to get cooking when the pub opens again.

Together, we’re creating a space that’s warm, welcoming, and built to last—good for people, kind to the planet, and smart to run. The savings we hope to make from our efforts will go back where they belong: into the heart of the community.