10/09/2026
🎂 WE’RE 10! 🦢🥂
Ten years ago this week, we did something either incredibly exciting or mildly unhinged — we bought the freehold of our beautiful little pub in Woodnewton.
And somehow, a whole decade has passed.
There have been some enormous highs, a few lows, plenty of lessons, the occasional “what the hell are we doing?” moment and, we suspect, rather more w**e than was strictly necessary.
But somewhere along the way, we’ve turned The White Swan into something we’re genuinely incredibly proud of — a place that really does represent the two of us. Which probably explains quite a lot. 🤣
Over those ten years, we’ve invested more than £1 million into the old bird. Some of it you can see, lots of it you can’t — including completely new kitchens and all the deeply unglamorous bits of owning an old building that nobody gets particularly excited about until they stop working.
And then there’s the menu.
Our gloriously bonkers, slightly out-of-control, travelled-the-world-and-brought-back-the-best-bits menu that has somehow become such a huge part of who we are.
And, bizarrely, much of that started with our takeaway menus during Covid. You lovely lot kept telling us what you wanted, we kept cooking it and, ten years later, the menu has become the crazy beast it is today. We blame you entirely. ❤️
But seriously, thank you.
To every single person who has eaten with us, drunk with us, celebrated with us, recommended us, reviewed us, returned to us and supported us over the last ten years — you have helped make The White Swan what it is.
And to our wonderful little team, past and present: we quite simply couldn’t have done any of it without you. ❤️
Now, there is one slight problem…
Our original plan was that The White Swan would be a ten-year financial investment. We weren’t really going to get involved, obviously 🙄, and after ten years we’d sell it and “retire”.
Well.
That went well. 🤣
Because ten years later, we’re more involved than ever, we’re still full of ideas and we’re not going anywhere.
In fact, we fully intend to own, love, change, improve and generally meddle with The White Swan for at least another ten or twenty years.
Admittedly, by then we’ll be approaching 70 and 80, so service may become slightly slower and one of us may need help getting up from table 12. 🤣
So here’s to the first ten years of our slightly mad little pub.
And here’s to whatever comes next. 🥂🦢
Thank you for helping us create something we absolutely love.
See you soon.
Will & Jason xx
