Fox Inn, Wilbarston
2 Church Street, Wilbarston, LE16 8QG
Your investment
£12,000
Agreement Type
Long Term Agreement (5 Year Tenancy)
- Three beautiful ensuite letting rooms
- Fantastic food destination venue
- Strong established and thriving business
3+ Private Bedrooms
Beer Garden
Car Park
Cask Ale
Function Room
Kitchen
Food Preparation Area
Letting Rooms
Live Music
Open Fire
Sports Teams
An experienced licensee or couple at The Fox Inn would be ideal to be able to modernise and strengthen trade while maintaining the pub’s traditional offer. By maximising multi-stream trading, the pub could attract daytime visitors with coffee, brunch, or light lunches, maintain a hearty and seasonal menu for lunchtime and evening diners, and expand evening and weekend trade through quizzes, live music, themed nights, and private events. Enhancing its role as a community hub, the licensee could host local events, partner with nearby suppliers for locally sourced food and drinks and engage the community through social media and newsletters. Excellent standards for comfort and flexibility, promoting the guest rooms, and maintaining a friendly, welcoming service have been very successful ways of working in the site currently and anyone new to the pub would do well to continue this experience. Strategic marketing, including promoting seasonal menus, Sunday roasts, and collaborating with local tourism initiatives, could attract visitors from surrounding areas. Overall, new licensees could build on The Fox Inn’s existing strengths to create a versatile, community-focused pub that trades successfully across all dayparts while preserving its warm, traditional charm.
The Fox Inn, is a traditional country pub and restaurant situated in the village of Wilbarston, Northamptonshire, and being right in the centre of this small rural community, it sits on the historic route of the old A427. It occupies an attractive Grade II listed, ironstone building dating back mainly to the 18th century on Church Street and is conveniently located close to Wilbarston Post Office & Store and the village’s primary school. Wilbarston is a small rural village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, about 5 miles east of Market Harborough in Leicestershire and nestled in the scenic Welland Valley. The village lies near the county border and benefits from proximity to larger towns such as Market Harborough, Corby and Kettering while retaining a quiet country character. The nearest mainline railway station is at Market Harborough, providing frequent services to London, Nottingham, and other destinations for commuters and visitors to the beautiful, picturesque area. Wilbarston had a population of roughly 746 people in 2021, reflecting only a slight decrease from earlier counts and typical of a small English village. The community is largely middle-aged, with a mix of families, working adults, and older residents, and is characterised by stable, long-term households and a relaxed, rural pace of life. With its picturesque surroundings, and strong sense of neighbourliness, the village fosters a close-knit community where local institutions like The Fox Inn play a central role. The pub itself acts as a hub for socialising, dining, and events, helping to maintain Wilbarston vibrant village spirit and communal warmth.
The Fox Inn has a classic rural pub layout that blends traditional charm with practical functionality, designed to cater to a variety of trading needs. Guests enter into a warm, welcoming bar area, featuring a polished wooden counter, bar stools, and a mix of tables and cosy booths along the walls. This space acts as the social hub, ideal for casual drinks, walkers, quizzes, live music, and local regulars, with clear sightlines to the taps and a lively, inviting atmosphere. Opposite the bar is snug/sports area, slightly separated to provide a skittle zone and potential pool table space or more comfortable sofa seating. Tables are currently arranged around the main trade space to accommodate small family groups, couples, or larger parties, and the space is enhanced by rustic décor, exposed timber beams, stone walls, and soft lighting, creating a characterful, traditional village pub ambience. Towards the rear, there is a flexible events space that can be used for private bookings, everyday dining, or seasonal celebrations, enabling the pub to trade successfully beyond peak meal times. Ancillary areas such as the kitchen, storage, and toilets are discreetly located to maintain smooth operational flow without disrupting the customer experience. Overall, the layout allows The Fox Inn to operate across multiple trading streams, daytime drinks, lunchtime and evening dining, and community or private events, while preserving its cosy, traditional character and serving as a central hub for village life.
The Fox Inn operates as a traditional village pub at the heart of its community, with a strong emphasis on quality food, drink, and social connection. It offers traditional, home-cooked dishes alongside a wide range of drinks, including real ales, cask beers, spirits, wines, and soft drinks. The food menu focuses on hearty classics, popular Sunday roasts, seasonal specials, and themed dining evenings, ensuring broad appeal for both casual drinkers and dedicated diners. The pub’s flexible, multi-stream trading style allows it to serve different customer groups throughout the day. Daytime trade attracts walkers, families, and local residents looking for a relaxed and welcoming stop, while lunchtime and evening service centres on dining. Evenings and weekends bring a more entertainment-led atmosphere, with quizzes, darts, music nights, and private events adding to the sense of community and sociability. Complementing the pub experience, The Fox Inn also provides comfortable guest rooms for short stays, making it appealing to visitors as well as locals. With its friendly, informal atmosphere and professional, food-led approach, The Fox Inn successfully blends traditional village charm with modern hospitality, ensuring it remains a vibrant hub of village life while maximising trade across multiple streams.
Annual Rent: £22,000
Security Deposit: £5,000 or the equivalent of three months’ rent, whichever is greater
Working Capital: £3,000
Stock: £4,000
Fixtures and Fittings: To be confirmed upon valuation – funding options may be available for the right licensee.
Tie: All drinks categories are tied. For fully funded licensees on long term agreements, we offer free-of-tie options for certain drinks categories in exchange for an annual fee.
For a breakdown on financial information, please refer to the ‘Additional Info’ tab.
Annual Rent – This is our lowest rent figure associated with a Full Tie. If the tie is reduced the effective rent (via Tie Release Fees) will increase. Rent is billed and paid for weekly in advance depending on the payment terms agreed). On occasion, our Business Development Manager will discuss a start up rent which is discretionary to an individual pub and can be discussed.
Security Deposit – A security deposit is required when applying for a pub with Admiral. This will be the greater of £5,000 or three months’ headline rent. The deposit is held on your account and returned when you leave, subject to your final account balance and the condition of the property. We will also carry out a credit check as part of your application, which may affect the deposit amount required.
Working Capital – This is a recommend amount required which will be used in the day-to-day running of the business.
Stock – This will be valued by an independent valuer on the day you take over the pub. This includes unbranded glassware, unopened bottles, wines, spirits, any unopened / opened kegs and cask ale providing the container is unopened.
Fixtures & Fittings – This includes any item that is bolted to the floor or walls, and a fitting to be any item that is free standing or hung by a nail or hook. This will also include furniture.
Tie: All drinks categories are tied. For fully funded licensees on long term agreements, we offer free-of-tie options for certain drinks categories in exchange for an annual fee.
Training – £350.00 – Before signing a long term agreement, you will be required to attend our 7 Steps to Sales Success training programme. Held online over two days, you will learn marketing and business strategies that will help you to grow sales in your pub – step-by-step.
Service Charge Cost – £65.86 per week – The Admiral Taverns Premium Maintenance Package will help take care of your compliance and statutory obligations with one simple fee, whilst giving you piece of mind about your boiler and cellar cooling repair and replacement. This also includes full access to e-learning for you and your staff.
Zero Business Rates* – Based on the draft rating list for April 2026, the Nil Rates Payable is based on small business rates relief being applied for by the licensee and the licensee only occupying one property for commercial purposes. Please note, this only applies to pubs marked with an Asterix *
We believe we do things differently to other pub companies. To us its quite simple – great pubs are run by great people, so we focus on ensuring we can empower you to run a successful pub business. Every licensee is different, and no two pubs are the same, so we carefully tailor the range of agreements, support and training packages we offer to give you all you need to run your own pub.
The first step is to call our recruitment team and have a chat with us. We’ll probably suggest you attend one of our recruitment events as nothing beats a face to face chat. It’s also a good idea to research the sort of pub you are interested in ahead of time, so you have a clear picture of the competition in the area and what the local community looks for in that pub.
In order to run a pub, you will need a personal license which regulates the sale of alcohol in a pub. This can be achieved through attending a one-day course, ending in a multiple-choice exam. Once you’ve passed the exam, you then need to apply to your local council, for your personal licence. Admiral can easily help you with this by offering a discounted rate. Finally, you will also need to complete PEAT training (Pre Entry Awareness Training), an online course which explains the leased and tenanted pub agreement you are about to take on.
Our default agreement is our 5 Year Tenancy Agreement with a range of support available to you throughout your agreement with Admiral. We also offer induction training, our 7 Steps to Sales Success course is a 2 day online course that will provide you with the knowledge to run a pub and get you off to a great start before you get started. In addition to this, we offer other training workshops on a wide range of topics such as Marketing, Social Media, Cellar Training along with online training including Food Hygiene, Health & Safety and lots of other related courses. There is simply training available for every subject. When you take on a pub with us, your Business Development Manager will discuss your training requirements with you and identify areas where you may benefit from additional support or training.
Rents are based on open market value, Fair Maintainable Trade (FMT) and the future trading potential of the premises. This entails an assessment of the turnover and profitability that a reasonably efficient operator would be expected to achieve, taking into account the optimum trading style for the premises and making reasonable allowances for costs. This will involve estimating the trading potential rather than just adopting the actual level of trade under the existing ownership. This method of valuation is known as “the Profits Method”.
We want to empower our licensees to get on with the day to day running of the pub, as well as giving you the knowledge that you can count on us for as much (or as little) support as you need. Our team are truly passionate about community pubs and we want to do as much as we can to help you run sustainable and profitable businesses. Our support includes but isn’t limited to the following: Commercial & Marketing Support, Food Team, Licensing, Property Help Desk, Investments, Machines and Training.
Our BDMs work hard to build strong working relationships with their licensees. Your BDM is there to help you develop your pub and can support you in many different ways. From guidance around products and pricing, planning events, marketing your pub and development and training, our BDMs are empowered to make quick decisions which will help you move forward with your business.
We are continually investing in our pubs. From transformational refurbishments to small improvements where it really counts, we run an active investment programme and are committed to improving our estate of pubs. We also are fully invested in working alongside our licensees during the investment process to bring their ideas to fruition.
Admiral operates under the tenanted and leased model whereby we as the pub company own the pub and agree to rent the premises to you via a lease or tenancy agreement. Most tenancies/leases include a negotiated supply agreement covering the purchase of all drinks categories and possibly a range of other goods and services (hence the phrase ‘tied’ pubs). The level of rent you agree to pay at your pub will be dependent upon the extent of your purchasing obligations. Our rent offers are based on a Full Tie, and hence reflects the lowest rent payable. For licensees on long term agreements, we offer free-of-tie options for certain drinks categories in exchange for an annual fee. The prices you pay for drinks purchased from Admiral are likely to be different to those on the open market. When you take on the pub your BDM will discuss rent and the tie with you.
To enter into any tenancy agreement with Admiral, you will normally have to consider the following costs:
Personal Licence fee – This is the fee for obtaining your Personal Licence which you will require if you intend to be the Designated Premises Supervisor named on the premises licence.
Fixtures and Fittings (e.g. furniture, kitchen equipment, light
fittings, carpets etc) – These are usually valued on the day you enter the property. Whilst we prefer you to purchase the fixtures and fittings outright, there are occasions where we can provide alternative methods of purchase or may consider a rental agreement. Your BDM will discuss these options with you.
Deposit – The size of the deposit (or security bond) varies depending on the property and the commercial terms agreed but is normally the greater of a quarter’s rent or £5,000 and will be held for the duration of your agreement. In exceptional circumstances, we may allow you to pay a lower deposit and build this up over a time period.
Stock and glassware – These are purchased when you take over your pub, at an agreed valuation, from either the outgoing tenant or Admiral.
Working capital – The amount of working capital required (cash available) varies by pub, as each individual business requires different levels of funding. Your BDM will discuss this with you.
Pre Entry Awareness Training (PEAT) – This is mandatory training designed to raise awareness on the matters involved in operating a pub, from agreements, repairs and purchasing obligations. The cost of this course is £100 plus VAT.
Yes absolutely. We are always keen to encourage successful licensees to develop. Our BDMs work together with our licensees to achieve this and identify new opportunities. We also run training workshops to help you to gain the right skills, so you can take the step from running just one business to expanding with a second pub.
Admiral Taverns accept payment by Direct Debit or Open Banking (Pay by Link) only. Our Business Development Managers will discuss which method is most appropriate for you during the application process.
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