Refugees helping restore historic Bath pub using traditional plastering skills

• Victoria Davies has been to meet those restoring an historic pub in Bath.

A Bristol man is helping restore an historic pub near Bath while teaching refugees an important skill.

Daahir Mohamed came to the UK from Somalia as a refugee himself and is now a skilled lime plasterer.

He's currently working on the 500-year-old Hop Pole pub in Limpley Stoke, which was saved from development by the community in 2022.

Daahir said: "So often a person from a refugee background spends years for waiting for an answer for their status, so they can work in the country, and when they're granted they're left on their own with no support.

"It just made sense encouraging individuals who have already been in this industry before to take this on board.

"Instead of looking elsewhere for workers lets us up-skill our local refugees and asylum seekers and community."

For Ayham Aldoghim, who fled Syria for the UK, this training has given him hope.

He said: "I met Daahir a few months ago but before that I was very unsure about what to do, very confused.

"When I saw him talking about the job I got very excited and said yes this was the opportunity I was waiting for.

"I'm trying to get better and better in this job and Daahir is trying to encourage me to do more and more and learn quickly.

The Hop Pole building is 500 years old, so traditional lime plaster is essential for the conservation of the pub.

Daahir's explained that the techniques and materials he's using are also part of his own history.

He said: "Growing up in Somalia in my early years I remember living in a small hut in a small village and every year we would re-plaster the outer walls of the hut with clay plaster and cow manure.

"Funnily enough, this is the third time I'm using cow manure as plaster on a wall in England and it brings a lot of connection between my past and my present."

Until villagers stepped in to buy the pub, the Hop Pole was going to be sold to developers.

Once secured, the building was so derelict it needed the support from a whole community of people to restore it.

Simon Coombe, from the Save the Hop Pole campaign, said the pub had already helped people in many different ways.

He said: "It's already giving back enormously where people are giving whatever they can give people are coming with advice, some with expertise, their labour their money.

"They're coming with their skills to teach those skills to other people and that's the heartwarming thing about this project people's lives are being changed already in this project.

"It's a meaningful job when you think about the history of the place. It's part of the community here they want it as beautiful as it was before and we are working on that."