On Saturday 4th May at 2pm the Chairman of the West Cumbria Branch of CAMRA, Stephen Walker will present this prestigious annual award to The Fox Tap at Keswick Brewery.

The Fox Tap Bar is open to the public from 12 noon that day.

The Keswick Brewery has just celebrated its 18th birthday.

The Embleton Spa Hotel has been listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for the past two years. They keep a good quality pint of beer and the hotel has a brilliant outdoor drinking area with great views of the fells.

Ali Dixon and his wife Jo, who live in Keswick, took over the lease of the Embleton Spa in 2013 and they have built up an enviable trade, offering fresh food along with decent beer. Current price of a pint is £4.10.

They recently purchased the freehold of the Royal Hotel in the hamlet of Dockray which is about halfway between Keswick and Penrith and just a mile from Ullswater, which is regarded by many as the most beautiful lake in the National Park. Ali spent a lot of time in the Ullswater area as a child and even worked at the Royal as a 16 year old. The Royal Hotel dates back to the 16th century and both Mary Queen of Scots and William Wordsworth visited the hotel.

When Mary Queen of Scots stayed there on 13th July 1568 it was then called The Cross Keys and was originally a farmhouse. The Cross Keys became the Royal Hotel round about 1860.

During the quieter winter months Ali has Coniston Bluebird on handpump at the Royal and as the weather warms up he intends to add Loweswater Gold and a variety of local guest ales.

Ali has a very useful talent for a hotel owner. When required he can rattle the pans in the kitchen as he can ‘chef’ with the best of them.

The Pheasant Hotel at Bassenthwaite has been selling beer brewed at Westgate Brewery in Wakefield. They have been trialling several of their real ales, including Blonde, pictured above.

This Westgate Brewery was owned by drinks wholesaler HB Clark, which was bought out by a North Shields based company called Kitwave a few years ago, but HB Clark continues to trade as a separate entity within the group.

Ironically, Greene King’s brewery in Bury St. Edmunds is also called the Westgate Brewery.

The quality of the Westgate beer at the Pheasant has been good. Price per pint £5

Unfortunately the unspoilt bar in the Pheasant is rarely manned and drinks must be purchased at the restaurant bar, which also doubles as Reception and for customers ordering food, so delays and queues are common.

HB Clark have a local depot in Maryport.

Members of the West Cumbria Branch of CAMRA have selected the Fox Tap bar at Keswick Brewery as the Pub of the Year 2024

The Fox Tap has built up a loyal local following.

There are usually half a dozen handpumped beers on sale plus a similar number of keg beers, all of which are brewed on site.

Most of their real ales are unfined. They obviously travel well as their beers are always fresh !

The bar only trades for 25 hours a week - Tuesday to Saturday 2-7pm

This is an extremely friendly bar and service is excellent.

Plenty of outside seating and dogs are welcome.

Later this year the brewery will be celebrating its 18th birthday

Runners up in the Pub of the Year were : The Woolpack at Boot ; The Sun at Bassenthwaite ; The Candlestick at Whitehaven

In May 2023 a new landlady, Annette Brown took over the lease of the George in Keswick.

However, it is all change again and another new Marston’s tenant is at the helm.

Latest addition is a television in the bar, which is something that has never been seen in there before.

The George is the oldest hotel/bar in Keswick, dating back to the time of the English Civil War. It is a Grade 2 listed building and has many original features.

Although it sold locally brewed Jennings ales for many years, before Jennings Brewery acquired it as a tied house it sold Yates beer and before that sold Youngers and McEwans ales.

The snug on the left also used to have its own bar.

It used to be the busiest bar in town for local beer drinkers

The Jennings Brewery complex which is up for sale by Carlsberg is currently under offer

Sit back for a second close your eyes and imagine your ideal local community pub. What would it be like ?

Comfortable, welcoming, a range of well kept cask ales, no cooked food, fruit machines, piped music, a hub for local groups to meet over a drink in a relaxed informal atmosphere. A sense that newcomers entering the pub for the first time will be made to feel at home and most importantly of all a landlord who considers all his customers to be friends and is on first name terms with most of the locals.

Well in Cockermouth in the Swan Inn we are lucky enough to have all that and more. It has two quiz teams, hosts a variety of community groups, is the headquarters of the Cockermouth Mechanics Band, has folk music sessions twice a month and is the meeting place for the Cockermouth contingent of West Cumbria CAMRA. At Christmas the “lights switch on “ attracts a huge crowd as does the Easter Egg Dump, popular with children and their families.

See for yourselves visit it on any night and you will breathe in the atmosphere of a genuine community pub were good beer and conversation are the two most important things as the sign above the arch next to the Bar says “ Come in for a Crack “

Alas however Joe Fagan its landlord will soon be taking a well earned rest as he is due to retire at the end of January 2024.

Joe, born a Cockermouth lad, has run the Swan since 2016 . His father was a butcher whilst his mother ran a fish and chip shop in Cockermouth. At the age of 17 he began running his own newsagent’s business and this was followed by him buying a china shop on main street which he ran and developed for 9 years before he finally sold out. The shop still bears the Fagans name. Joe tells me he has always enjoyed running his own businesses “Every business was the best “ he said After a career running successful shops , he entered the hospitality trade in 2009 when he bought and ran a hotel in Portinscale . For the first time he had a bar and a cellar and had to learn how to keep and serve real ales. Joe says he loved it and got the bug for running pubs .

He had always wanted to run the Swan which he saw as his type of pub where everyone could feel welcome. Generations of his family had drunk in the Swan

However, at the time he was ready to enter the pub trade the landlady of the Swan was not ready to retire so he took over the tenancy of the Bush on Main street in March 2009

It was the year of the flood . everything in the Bush was underwater and wrecked . Joe gives credit to what was then Marstons as they took charge and did everything in terms of refurbishing the pub

Finally, in 2014 the tenant of the Swan retired and Joe was ready to take over the the pub he had always wanted,

The Swan which he saw as “my type of Pub a traditional community pub where everyone could feel welcome however Marston’s would only let it to Joe on a seven-day lease, this fragile situation lasted a year until a permanent lease was granted in 2015.

A lot of Joe's regulars from the Bush followed him up to the Swan and the Pub became a favourite of the locals such that in 2017 it officially became a legally protected ‘Asset of Community Value’ for a five year period.

This meant its use could not be changed by the owners during this period without the local community being consulted which given the voracious appetite for closing pubs by big Brewery and pub chains is just as well .

When I interviewed Joe, I asked him what his favourite beer was - Jennings Bitter he promptly replied, but alas it is no longer brewed along with a host of other award-winning Jennings Beer since the closure of the Jennings Castle Brewery by Carlsberg Marston.

Joe likes good beer, well kept ,and is a keen supporter of local breweries . ‘Being a landlord is not just a matter of pulling a pint ‘ he said, ‘running a pub is about personality and you've got to be able to talk on all levels about a variety of subjects without being drawn into contentious ones like politics and football. You’ve got to make everyone who comes through the door feel welcome’

The Swan and its community will miss Joe when he retires and it is to be hoped that the new licensee sustains the welcoming community atmosphere

As for the owners The Marston’s Pub Company, well don't get me started on that subject !

Len Wainwright, West Cumbria CAMRA

On Saturday 18th November 2023 an enthusiastic busload of West Cumbria CAMRA branch members travelled to the Greyhound pub in Bothel to present landlords Rachael Scott and Andrew Wood with a Pub of the Season award, pictured above with branch chairman Stephen Walker who is holding the framed certificate. They took over the tenancy of the pub in February of this year, prior to which both of them worked as Police officers.

Andrew had lived in the village for some time, but neither of them had any previous experience at running a pub. They made big changes to the pub and were enthusiastic about looking after and selling handpulled ales.

They encouraged local clubs to meet in the pub and put on quiz and music nights.

It was apparent when the branch members poured into the pub just how enthusiastic and friendly all the staff were. Andrew was working in the kitchen and the food we had was tip top.

Unfortunately, the couple have decided to bale out and to return to their former profession, but we are told that the new tenants are equally enthusiastic.

As this is now the last pub in the village, it is of paramount importance that it keeps trading.

(Article & photo provided by Len Wainwright)