The White Hart pub in Swaffham town centre announces closure

Kurt Oliver bought The White Hart in London Street in 2017 and ran it with the help of his family.

During the pandemic, Mr Oliver supplied more than 1,000 free meals to people in need across the community but the business has now closed due to the changes to the trade that have been seen since.

Kurt Oliver and his family took over the pub in 2017 (Image: Google)

The news was revealed in a social media statement shared on Wednesday.

"This is likely to be the last post we make," it said. "Sadly no way forward can be found to reopen The White Hart.

"The future has been, for some time, in the hands of creditors and advisors who all now agree with the business partners that the business cannot continue.

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"Since we reopened The White Hart in 2017 the business has experienced what is largely agreed as some of the hardest times the industry has ever faced and we tried to face these times with a welcoming smile and happiness.

"We like to think that we have always taken every opportunity to keep the pub as a community pub and helped wherever we can and hope the terrible period we are now about to go through is slightly masked by the thoughts we were able to help people."

The closing statement asked people to respect his team at this time (Image: Supplied)

Mr Oliver also thanked everyone who has supported the business.

He added: "We have done all we can to keep the business going through what has been the toughest of times for the licensed trade.

"But it's just not been possible to recover from the losses incurred during Covid. 

"We never manage to recover."

Some of the efforts to save the business have included community events such as quizzes, an exotic food tasting day and a 100oz steak challenge which even attracted the attention of a professional eater on YouTube.