A ‘TIME CAPSULE’ museum in Buckfastleigh is preparing to reopen after a major facelift.

The Valiant Soldier, the pub which was frozen in time in the mid 1960s, has undergone an £11,000 refurbishment.

Rod Denley-Jones, secretary of the Buckfastleigh Trust which runs the museum, said: ‘The reception

area of the museum has recently been refurbished at the cost of some £11,000 facilitated by Buckfastleigh Town Council, Teignbridge District Council and the museum itself.’

The Fore Street museum is due to reopen next month with an official reopening on April 23.

The trust said the revamp was thanks to Buckfastleigh Town Council’s ‘hard work; in securing a successful funding bid from the UK Government UK Shared Prosperity Fund as part of the new ‘Buckfastleigh Gateway Project’.

A spokesman said: ‘We’d like to thank all who have made donations, we are very grateful for all financial help given.

‘Maintaining this unique attraction is an ongoing task.’

Dubbed ‘the pub where time was never called’, the Valiant Solider closed in 1965.

Everything was literally left as it was and today it is run as a museum and heritage centre, giving visitors a glimpse into the past.

The current building dates from the 1700s and the earliest mention of it as a pub is in 1813.

In 1939 its last landlord, Mark Roberts, became the tenant.

In 1965 the brewery withdrew the licence and Mr and Mrs Roberts promptly downed tools as the last customers left the premises, leaving everything just as it was.

The pub remained untouched including optics, glasses, furniture, brewery ephemera even the change in the till.

It is thought to be unique in Britain having been left in its original working state for more than 50 years.

The property was put up for sale in the mid-1990s but members of the community, helped by Teignbridge Council, acquired the premises in 1997.

A trust was formed which set about recording and preserving what it contained, before opening it to the public.