REGULARS from the New Inn at Seagry raised a stunning £1,000 for Dorothy House Hospice Care last year – four times their original target.

And they are already well on their way to the first £1,000 for this year.

Landlady Sarah Adkins, who runs the pub with her husband Karl and parents Helen and John Greenhill, said because the pub had raised £1,000 the year before, the plan was to match it in 2013.

“But because we had done that by June we just said: ‘Let’s see what we can do.’”

They secured backing from local firms in the form of prizes and carried on regardless with quiz and bingo nights. “I don’t know why but it just snowballed,” she said.

Their winter shooting parties started donating their penalty fines and more people joined in the fundraising effort.

“Customers are really good at supporting anything that we try to do,” she said. “It is one of those pubs where everyone talks to you.”

Sarah explained Dorothy House was a very personal choice of charity for the pub. “We lost a couple of our big character customers to cancer and Dorothy House helped their families along with Macmillan.

“We decided to go with the local charity and that is what got us going. When it is a local charity people pull together.”

But even though they were proud of the £4,000 they handed over to the hospice they were spurred on to keep fundraising when they were told it cost £9,000 a day to keep the centre at Winsley near Bath up and running.

“We weren’t even able to give them half a day,” she said.

So far this year they have almost raised £1,000 with raffles and quizzes and their next event is an Easter egg draw.