New owner of Ship Inn steers pub towards reopening

The Ship Inn at Cockwood – wrecked by a storm three years ago – looks set to sail back into the local hospitality scene.

With a new owner at the helm, the pub is being repaired and restored with the aim of having the bar open next spring and the food service up and running later in 2027.

Local businessman Colin Authers bought the pub earlier this year, and is currently having work done to secure the badly damaged structure and prepare the site for further rebuilding and refurbishment.

He’s got the full support of the local community, many of whom are members of the ‘Refloating The Ship’ group, set up in 2025 to ensure that the much-loved local pub wouldn’t be permanently scuppered.

The future of The Ship has been uncertain since October 2023 when one of its gable end cob walls dramatically collapsed after taking a battering from Storm Ciaran.

The publicans, Heather and Matthew Brown, couldn’t foot the bill for the huge repair cost, and an insurance claim by the then owners Punch Taverns was refused.

In 2025 Dawlish Town Council registered The Ship as an ‘asset of community value’, meaning that if it was put up for sale, community groups would be given time to put together a bid for it.

In December that year, Punch Taverns put the pub on the market.

At this point Refloating The Ship were prepared to buy it themselves if necessary.

Co-founder Anne Heywood said: “As a community group there’s a lot of funding that’s accessible, which is not available to a private buyer or a business, and we were confident we could obtain the funding and get the work done.

“But what was driving us was more of a moral imperative… we wanted the pub back, we wanted that focus in our village, so when there was a realistic chance of it being bought by a private individual we would support that person and help them get the pub back up and running.

“We met Colin when he bought the pub and we saw him on site - we just walked down the road and chatted to him.

“He’s got lots of plans for the pub, developing it and making it a real community base - he’s talking about putting a covenant on The Ship so it’ll always stay a pub, which is a really positive approach.”

She said Colin will soon be submitting a planning application to create an additional dining area on the part of the site currently occupied by two old sheds - this will help make sure the pub is a viable business.

There are no plans at this stage for a public information event on the reopening of The Ship. But Anne has created a Facebook page for Refloating The Ship, where she posts regular updates from Colin on the building and redevelopment work.

She said: “There’s so much interest – during the summer season you have people coming here on holiday and they’re walking by and asking ‘what’s going on, when can we get back in?”

If all goes to plan, they could be raising a glass at the newly-reopened pub next summer.