Campaigner Ian Sandall, talks about his determination to see the Crooked House pub rebuilt two years after it was demolished.

Transcript

00:00Okay Ian, Crooked House campaigner, we're here on site, two years after the

00:07fire of the Crooked House pub. Where are we now, what's going on, what's the update?

00:13Unfortunately two years on we're actually still in limbo at the moment. I mean as

00:19you can see by the state of the site you know nature is starting to reclaim the

00:24foundations, the lane, you know it's difficult to walk down the lane now with

00:28the brambles and the overgrowth. Regarding the the campaign and the

00:33situation, as I say we're still in limbo. We were supposed to have an appeal hearing

00:39on the 11th of March, just gone. That got delayed due to legal reasons so we're

00:46now literally waiting for the police and the CPS to conclude the arson charges and

00:52once we've got a result from there then we're hoping we can surge on and we can

00:57get on with the appeal and we can get cracking on and get some bricks being

01:01laid at that wonderful wonky angle. Absolutely. I mean in reality do you

01:06think it's ever going to be built? Do you think it will be built in the end or not?

01:11Do you know what, if in reality I said no I'm wasting my time campaigning. So yes I

01:17really do think it will be built. Will it be very soon? No it won't. Is there a

01:22long road to travel? Yes there is, but ultimately it doesn't matter if it's the

01:27next couple of years or the next seven or eight years, yeah this pub will be

01:31back stunning people, rolling marbles, you know making people smile whenever they

01:37think about it again or just turning up to it. But yeah I definitely think this

01:41pub, but it needs to be rebuilt. Yeah. You know it is a black country heritage, it's

01:46part of our culture, you know what, it's even part of our DNA. Yeah. You know my dad

01:50bought me here, he came here with his brothers, it's almost like a rite of

01:55passage, you know. You get to a certain age, you get bought here by your family, you

02:00have a pint and you're introduced to the crooked house and our black country kind

02:04of heritage. Yeah. Two years ago, I mean what were your feelings when you first

02:09heard about the news, about the fire? Well I mean very mixed emotions, so I

02:14remember sitting late at night, you know flicking through Facebook and all of a

02:20sudden it just went wild. You know pictures started appearing, being on fire

02:24and yes you know you had that sinking feeling, you know it's gone. Yeah. But

02:29waking up the next morning, seeing the you know the smoking shell, there was hope.

02:34That's right. Because from that shell you can rebuild, it's been done before.

02:38You know, so there was always hope. And then of course two days later. It was

02:42within 36 hours. Yeah. That it appeared, the videos again, of this digger

02:47randomly hacking away. Yeah. And do you know what, at that point then, that was a

02:51grieving moment. Yeah. You know, and I've documented and I've said it before, it was

02:55like a stab to the heart. Yeah. It was like you were grieving for a building which you

03:02once knew. Yeah, yeah absolutely. Well like you say, fingers crossed, you know, at some

03:07point in the future you'll be, you'll be in the pub drinking the first pint.

03:11Well it doesn't matter who drinks the first pint, it doesn't matter who claims

03:16victory. As long as this pub is rebuilt, do you know what, the community wins. The

03:20community have got together, they've stood up for the cause, they've backed

03:25everything. And do you know what, when this pub is built, it's the community pub. It's their win.