Home > Yorkshire > Kirkby Malzeard > Henry Jenkins Henry Jenkins

The Henry Jenkins closed in June 2008. It was named after a legendary character, Henry Jenkins, who claimed to have been born around 1501, in Ellerton-on- Swale, Scorton, and who was buried on 9 December 1670 in Bolton-on-Swale, having in 1667 sworn an oath to Chancery that he was "one hundred and fifty seven or thereabouts" giving evidence of being at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, taking arrows to English soldiers as a memorable event he remembered. The building was purchased in 2011 and the owner hoped to run it as a pub, but struggling to find tenants eventually felt it was unviable. His applications to develop the property into housing have been rejected on several occasions. The interior has been stripped and other fabric is suffering neglect. The "Henry Jenkins" Community Group was awarded £330,000 from the Community Ownership Fund towards purchase of the property, and had also raised £200k pledged community shares, but fear the plan to turn it into a community facility will fail because the owner has refused to sell the property to the Group at a price which they believe reflects its value, and their grant may lapse.

Source: Kathryn Ludlow

As feared, the £300k Community Fund award has lapsed and the Henry Jenkins Group (HJG) trying to purchase the property had only raised about £145k towards purchase, against an original purchase price of £250k. The owner had refused to sell and had appealed North Yorkshire County Council's rejection of his application to convert the property into a holiday cottage, which appeal had failed as the Council had determined he had not demonstrated there was "no reasonable prospect of the public house use continuing on a viable basis". The HJG was hoping the Council would rethink the Group's call for a Compulsory Purchase Order to break the stalemate.

Kathryn Ludlow (March 2026)

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