Man charged with arson after Yorkshire pub ‘reduced to ashes’

A man is due to appear in court over an arson charge after a fire burnt down a 14th Century North Yorkshire pub in 2021.

The Star Inn pub at Harome reopened its restaurant on 24 November 2022 on the 12 month anniversary of a major fire destroyed the roof of the 14th Century Inn, causing £2 million in damages.

Situated just outside Helmsley on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, The Star is a restaurant and hotel serving locally-sourced Yorkshire food. The Star has won accolades including a Michelin star under owner Andrew Pern’s 26-year long tenure.

At its peak, nine fire engines attended the blaze after the thatched roof went up in flames, according to The Yorkshire Press.

Now, a 28-year-old man from Helmsley, a market town in North Yorkshire, is to appear in court after being charged with committing arson with recklessness in relation to the case.

He is due to appear at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday (August 14).

The news comes just days after The Crooked House, the UK’s wonkiest pub, was burned just weeks after being sold by Marston’s Brewery to a private buyer.

Police are treating the fire at the historic Black Country pub as arson while CAMRA has described the case as a ‘national tragedy’.

Staffordshire Police said the fire was deliberately started but investigations were currently unable to determine the cause.

It said: “Our investigation into a fire at the Crooked House on Himley Road last Saturday continues as we try to understand the circumstances, which we are now treating as arson.”

After many meetings with the conservation authorities, the old Inn has been put back much as it was, revealing some previously hidden features, conserving some of the charred roof timbers in acknowledgement of the latest episode of this much-loved C14th Inn’s history.