Toby Brown, general manager of the old ferry boat inn, holywell, st ives, cambs

Living in a closed pub in a rural location during lockdown was not good for General Manager, Toby Brown’s wellbeing. He missed constant work, customers and camaraderie.

 

I’m the General Manager of a lovely old thatched pub in a beautiful location, down a quiet country lane and right by the river’s edge. We’ve got seven hotel rooms and are thought to be the oldest inn in England – we even have a resident ghost.

When I took over at The Old Ferry Boat Inn in 2017 my family said I was almost destined to be GM, because I practically grew up here. My grandparents used to live on a boat on the river, so I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember.

The village has an amazing community – and my team is a community in itself. I have around 30 people working for me. We’re tight-knit and I suppose in some ways I act like a confidante to the younger team members: we definitely share the good times... and the bad.

When the pub closure announcement was made in March 2020, I think the locals were expecting it, because the pub was heaving. Every table was booked: it was nuts. And as soon as we were told to shut most of my team turned up, too. One person drove 20 miles just so he could help close up. I remember being on a call to management and when I got off the phone my kitchen had been totally cleared in about 30 minutes flat because 11 team members worked together on it for me.

Low about lockdown

After all the buzz and amazing feeling of ‘We’re all in it together’ came the come down. I’ve worked non-stop since I was 16 and really didn’t know what to do with myself.

We’re in a very rural location and I found the silence of lockdown deafening. It was unseasonably hot and I couldn’t sleep as the thatched roof held the heat. I also struggled with reassuring my team that everything was going to be OK, when I really wasn’t feeling it myself. I missed the rhythm of day-today pub life; I missed getting up at 6am; I missed seeing hotel guests for breakfast; I missed chatting to customers; I missed my team. The weather was beautiful, there were lots of people down by the river, and I couldn’t stop thinking: I should be open now – I should be making money.

I just missed everything. I even got a thrill when they came to take all my beer out of the cellar because I was delighted to see the draymen again. An operations manager came to tape off the kids’ play area and I spent ages chatting to him. It really helped to feel connected to work again and later that afternoon I called the Employee Assistance helpline.

Just being able to talk about work with someone was a game changer and I started calling the wellbeing team two to three times a week. I also took a lot of comfort from chatting with Belinda Steward, the business unit director for Hotels. It meant so much that she was so willing to be available to talk. I can’t really explain how important that was to me.

Voluntary Help

As the first lockdown dragged on, I read a few books and did a short online mental health course to help me deal with other people’s loneliness and lockdown issues. But I’m not someone who enjoys sitting on the sofa or having long lie-ins. I remembered that I’d volunteered at an animal shelter in my teens and had done some dangerous dog handling. So, I rang the shelter and told them I had an empty pub with a massive garden and lots of time, so could I help them? They sent me a very damaged German Shepherd. At first you couldn’t approach her. She had cigarette burns on her ears and was so aggressive; she hated people. But gradually I won her trust and worked on training her. It was fantastic to have something to get out of bed for, and she was eventually re-homed.

The last lockdown was a lot easier for me to deal with. I’d got my head around the uncertainty and knew where to go if I felt I needed support. I also did more voluntary work as the vaccine rollout started. There are lot of elderly people in the village who don’t drive, so I volunteered to take them to the vaccination centre for their Covid jabs. I think I took about 67 people in total, and it was rewarding to feel part of this big community effort.

We also found out that my partner and I are expecting our first child. Having something positive to look forward to made the dark days a lot brighter.