Bury St Edmunds pub The Macebearer seeks new tenant

A Bury St Edmunds pub which was at the centre of a community campaign is looking for a new tenant.

Greene King said it is recruiting for a new partner for The Macebearer, in Home Farm Lane.

Sean Driscoll, who runs The Masons Arms in Whiting Street and The Kings Arms in Brentgovel Street, has been at the helm of the pub since June 2021.

At the time, The Macebearer had been shut since the first lockdown prompting the community to launch a campaign to ensure it reopened with hundreds signing a petition.

A Greene King spokesperson said: “After investing in the Macebearer over the past couple of years, we are now recruiting for a new partner to join us at the pub.

“We would like to thank Sean for his time running the pub since it reopened in 2021.

“He will continue operating the Macebearer up until next spring while we recruit a new partner and we will also continue working with Sean at other pubs across Suffolk, including the Masons Arms and Kings Arms pubs in Bury St Edmunds.”

The Macebearer has been a social hub for the community since 1974 and was named by resident Shirley Pattle through a competition in the Bury Free Press.

She picked the name to commemorate the merger of what was then West and East Suffolk authorities, which saw Bury lose its status as a county town but also its macebearer.

In 2014, Mrs Pattle, who was invited to a party to celebrate the pub’s 40th anniversary, said she came up with it after noticing several roads on the Nowton estate were named after former mayors and thought the macebearer should be acknowledged.