We don't have a pub in our village but we do have a vilage hall (just across the road form my house, actually) that we use for most of the village events and for private functions such as birthdays, weddings etc. Maybe you should come to some arrangement with your village hall committee over charges (or get on it, they always seem to want people). We actually have events to raise money for the village hall to pay for upkeep, the ents licence etc, and they are usually sell outs - bear in mind that there are only around 200 people in our village. We get barrels of beer in, which we can't sell but ask for a 'contribution' - everyone knows the score. When we have a private party we usually end up paying around £30 for the evening.

The only problem is that, being so close to the hall, we usually end up doping the catering at our house - shorlty after we moved in and before our kitchen was renovated, I cooked lasagne for 100 people.

What I'm saying is that, without a pub, the village hall can take on a whole new lease of life.