Well of course it can. The Queen's Head is well established. Recently I popped along to have a chat with Phillipa and Richard Bond about their 20 years at the helm. Yesterday I met up with Jill Tickle and Vicky Poole at the King's Head as they attempt to regenerate that pub.
There used to be six pubs in our village, although I suspect one or two of them were little more than the front room of a house. Indeed one of them was located in what is now a private home (ironically equidistant between the Queen's Head and the King's Head which are about 200 yards apart).
Then we had The Greyhound which is now a rather large private home. So for many years we have had just two pubs and then the King's shut for some time and we were left with just one (unless you count Park Farm which is a country hotel and Hethersett Social Club).
The demise of pubs is as Jill commented "very sad. Every pub that becomes a house is letting the community down."
There are certain places that should be the hub of a community - pubs and libraries being the obvious ones. And, with an ever increasing population, there is plenty of room for both. Richard Bond told me that he didn't feel there would be another pub built in Hethersett. So the two existing ones will have an ever increasing population to attract their custom from.
Pubs in Hethersett has been a strange subject over the years. When we first came to the village the King's was the place to be with the Queen's struggling. Then things changed and the Queen's became the pub of choice. Things swung back and forth until the Bonds brought great stability to the Queen's whilst the King's struggled.
Jill told me that she feels there is plenty of scope for two pubs in the village and she doesn't see it as the two being in competition. The one thing I'm certain of is we do not want a major historic pub going to ruin with weeds growing everywhere. Now the future of both pubs looks very bright.
Yes there is room in a village of our size for two pubs. I enjoy going to both. They have very different characters and I'm happy to promote both in any way that I can.
I did learn one thing, however. The pubs are referred to by local people as the Two Heads for obvious reasons. That's something I have never heard before. I wonder if it was just something made up yesterday. Perhaps somebody local can help me with that one.
* * *
Had an interesting aside yesterday when I walked to the library to pick up a box of information for the village dementia support group. Well I thought it was a box. It turned out to be a very large suitcase which I had to drag home. Who said there's no variety in libraries?