English villagers try to save struggling pubs

Bridget Jones / Associated Press Monica Shackelly chats with customer Leslie Hathaway at the Chequers pub in Chipping Norton, England. Money woes brought on by regulations, taxes and competition force many beloved taverns in the countryside to close their doors. But locals in a few spots have managed to keep the ale flowing. By Henry Chu
June 9, 2009 Reporting from Kentisbeare, England -- Last summer, the tranquil English village of Kentisbeare woke up to find a dagger piercing its heart.

The man who ran the neighborhood pub, the Wyndham Arms, had decided to call it quits. Hit by hard times, he locked up one evening and never came back, leaving the village bereft of its "local," the watering hole down the road where, for more than 200 years, the good folk here could always drop in for a pint, a pie or a piece of gossip.