The Heart of a Community

The Heart of a Community

By Ben Stones

British pubs are closing at an alarming rate. The British Beer and Pub Association recently announced that nearly 40 pubs are closing a week. Empty, unoccupied pubs that were previous packed to the rafters can be seen vacant, derelict, or sometimes even knocked down completely in most towns. But a small pub on the outskirts of Winchester is thriving. The Hyde Tavern, under the guise of landlady Janet Theodore is coping well with the recession and is building up a reputation as a busy community meeting place.

Upon entering the pub visitors are met with low ceilings, wooden beams and real local ales straight from the barrel, something rare in an age of chain pubs. A blackboard on the wall details the upcoming events. Customers can experience literature evenings, carol singing, or a pub quiz in the upcoming weeks, something that Janet, who has run the pub since August 2008, has been recognised for. In February she was awarded with an Innovation Award from Admiral Taverns. She described how she had increased turnover for the company; “the way I had done that was to encourage people to come in for events and I think by getting events going people started to use the pub more” When the local area manager suggested putting game machines and a jukebox in the pub, Janet reject these calls. “I declined because I felt I knew the clientele wouldn’t want that. And because I stood my ground they gave me the award for standing my ground and doing my own thing and then increasing the turnover at the same time”.

This has helped the Tavern stake its own place in the local community, acting as a hub for locals to go and have a chat with a pint of local ale. Being a central point in a local community is important for Janet. “People need some sort of focus I think I a community. All the local shops are closing and I think it’s terrible that all this has happened. I have always felt it is important to support local people.” A real sense of community can be felt in the pub. Locals come for a chat, a drink, and occasionally use the pub for various meeting. Everyone seems to know everyone else. But are these sort of pubs slowly beginning to fade away?

“It’s also nice for someone to be able to come into a pub, that’s a pub without feeling they are interrupting someone having a meal”

With chains such as Weatherspoons, Yates and other emerging gastropubs it is easy to go into a pub and have a meal. However, the Hyde Tavern does not serve food. “There is so much competition for food in Winchester. There are loads of places for people to go…But I think it’s also nice to…be able to come into a pub, that’s a pub without feeling that they are interrupting someone having a meal, that they can have a good laugh and enjoy themselves without it.” It is this that the Hyde Tavern seems to have built its reputation on. Conversation is key. It is the type of pub that you can come in on your own and within five minutes will be in deep conversation with someone you, perhaps did not know before. But has being a small pub that does not serve food taken its toll financially on Janet? “I know there’s more profit attached to food, which is why so many people are doing food”, but she is keen to point out the downsides; “I would have to employ somebody else to be here all the time, so that would be another expense that I would have to have all the time”.

The recent tax increase on alcohol is something that has really had an effect on the Hyde Tavern bank balance. A one percent increase on the duty of beer, wine and spirits in March will be increased by two percent for the next two years, meaning increased prices for customers as well as the pubs themselves. “It really does make a difference because pub companies are taking a lot of money anyway and then on top of that you’ve got vat rising as well which is a terrific amount. It has hurt me a lot. And the rise again will mean that I’ll have to put prices up, which means I can’t compete with Tesco and I can’t compete with Weatherspoons or anywhere like that.”

“They gave me the award for standing my ground and doing my own thing.”

But as long as the local community continue to use the Tavern as local meeting place and community hub, it is hard to see it going anywhere. It is rare to enter the pub in the evening and see it anywhere near empty. The recent success of the Winchester Pie Competition held in the pub, gained local press coverage. The event saw over 20 locals bring their pies in for a packed pub to taste. Janet is developing this idea further by producing a book of recipes for all the pies entered. All the proceeds are then being donated to the cause of a new piece of glass artwork celebrating the 900^th anniversary of Hyde Abbey, after the previous piece was smashed by vandals.

The future for the Hyde Tavern seems bright. Janet is keen to develop the pub to ensure it is this busy all year round. “We’re redeveloping the garden so that there’s paving throughout and people can use the garden a lot more. And I hope that will make a big difference in the summer because at the moment this is more of a winter pub than a summer pub.” Whether it be for a quite pint in the winter sat next to the open fire, or a refreshing local ale in the summer sat in the garden, the Hyde Tavern is the place to do it while enjoying the company of the local community.

Photojournalism Assignment

A Day in the Life of a Football Match

For this assignment I decided to choose a local football match between Winchester City and Brading Town to be my focus. I felt that I could portray the progression of time by capturing six photographs at various stages and illustrating the different events occurring during the match. As far as lighting went, I did not really have much control over the levels available. Luckily, it was a bright afternoon, so I was able to obtain good light quality in my photos and was pleased with the variety of colours and shadows in some pictures. I tried to move around to different areas of the ground to get various angles on the pitch, and again I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time for actions on the pitch being in a good location for me to get a photograph of. All of my photos were taking with the camera in the sports mode setting, to enable me to get optimum shutter speed and aperture.

My first photograph shows both teams lined up, exchanging handshakes before the match. I tried to frame the photograph so the majority of the players are included in the shot, with as little empty space in the frame as possible. I am pleased with how my photo came out, and only did a small amount of cropping to the photo to get rid of any empty space, leaving enough grass space free to place my caption. The placing of my captions was something that could be done in similar positions for the majority of my photographs as there generally was a patch of grass with no objects in to obstruct any text.

I selected my second photograph as it captured the opening goal, a vital point in any football match as it can define the rhythm of the game. This photograph in particular was chosen as the viewer can see the ball on its way into the net, with the goalkeeper looking on helplessly and the Winchester striker with his arm raised in celebration. Like my other photographs the only editing carried out was cropping of unrelated items or figures only half in the shot.

The next photograph in the collection shows a Brading player taking a shot at the Winchester goal. This photo was not edited in any way from the original as I was very happy with how it came out. The three Winchester defenders are not standing in front of one another and are in full view and the shot shows the ball just as it is leaving the opposing players boot. I also felt the picture was busy without being too crowded. I feel there is a good balance between action between the players and empty space with not a lot happening. I would have preferred to place the caption higher on the grass, perhaps above the visible line of the pitch, but when placed in this position, the shadows on the pitch interfere with the text.

My forth photograph is perhaps my favourite of the group in the way it puts across what is happening. I like the juxtaposition between the celebrating Brading players, with the discontent of the Winchester players having just conceded a goal. As a result, I did not edit this photo in any way other than adding my caption, which for this photograph had to be in white font, in a different location to the others as there was not enough free space on the grass for my text.

The penultimate photo of the set was originally a long shot of a Winchester player jumping and heading the ball towards goal. I decided that I would crop some of the trees from the top of the picture, to give more of a focus to the players and the action by having the area that was not cropped enlarged.

The final photograph depicts the end of the match, with the players and officials shaking each other’s hands. I felt this shot was necessary as it brings a conclusion to the event. I again, cropped the picture, taking some of the trees from the top of the shot. I would like to have cut the figure furthest right, as he is only half in shot. However, removing him would cut off part of the next player’s boot off and I did not want to make the picture too small and cramped by cropping out all three of the players furthest to the right of the shot.

Altogether, I am pleased with my set as I believe it shows a progression of time and tells the story of the event quite well. This was the second attempt at this assignment, as I had previously tried the same theme at an earlier match, but was not able to attain shots as good as these, so felt the need to try it again and produce some shots of better quality. All of my photographs were staged in a way, but spontaneous in another. The match as a whole was a staged event, I knew it was going to happen and I would be able to take photographs. However, the actual outcome and action of the match could not have all been determined before hand, other than I knew teams would shake hands at the start of the match and at the end, with some sort of events occurring in between, and it was down to me to capture these events in a way that told the story of the event.