CHEERS! The fascinating history of Grayshott pub The Fox and Pelican is retold in a free booklet published to celebrate its 120th anniversary.

Grayshott Heritage marked a landmark year with a pre-Christmas launch of an illustrated history, which customers can now pick up at the pub.

The most surprising fact is that it was to avert the threat of an ordinary ‘beer house’ appearing on the green that galvanised a group of prominent villagers to join forces to provide a more salubrious hostelry.

They launched the Grayshott and District Refreshment Association to provide ‘good quality’ alcoholic drinks , tea and coffee and a plate of meat, bread and cheese, and 68 shareholders bought into the scheme that funded the pub’s construction.

High-profile supporters included playwright George Bernard Shaw, who donated books, also turning the hostelry into Grayshott’s first public library.

The pub was named after Bishop Fox of Winchester – Grayshott diocese— who had a pelican as his symbol of piety.

The pioneering scheme attracted national interest and leading 19th-century illustrator Walter Crane created the first pub sign, which is now on show in Grayshott Pottery.

Grayshott Society chairman Richard Peskett said: “George Bernard Shaw gave a small library of books at the time of the opening in 1899 and local thespian Rod Sharp came along to the launch to speak as him in contemporary fashion, standing almost in the exact position in the building today, as he would have done at the opening 120 years ago.

“We all hope the establishment will be a focal point for many more years to come.”