Just prior to an expanding venture capital backed hotel group from the North East acquiring the Pheasant Hotel at Dubwath, near to Bassenthwaite Lake from owner Lord Inglewood, a pint of real ale cost £3 and the Listed public bar was always manned. That was just over 2 years ago

Fast forward to this week and yet another price increase - and the single real ale that was on sale on 20th February was up to £4.95 a pint and £2.50 a half

The iconic unspoilt bar in The Pheasant, which is listed in the CAMRA National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, is now very rarely staffed and drinks must be purchased in the nearby restaurant bar and carried back. The restaurant bar has a cash register which doesn’t show any visible pricing of drinks to customers on the modern LED display - which although may not be unlawful is certainly not user-friendly, especially in a bar where prices are not cheap.

A shame that what is probably one of the most attractive traditional public bars in Cumbria is largely unstaffed.

A previous General Manager, Barry Wilson, who worked there many years ago kept a much tighter ship and drinkers came from far and wide to drink his well kept Draught Bass in the lovely old bar that has been in a time warp since before WW2. Barry was to be regularly seen, smartly turned out in blazer and wearing a cravat, taking food orders in the bar. At that time the handpumps were unusually sited on the bar back and are still intact but are no longer used.

Under Barry’s old school regime, you would never see staff cleaning beer lines when the bar was trading, as this is potentially dangerous to customers and is most unprofessional, but surprisingly the current owners bizarrely instruct staff to do this when a barrel of real ale goes off and during this process there is now often a strong unpleasant odour of bleach.

The highly successful and expanding hotel company that now owns the Pheasant has quickly acquired a large number of hotels in the Lake District, including no less than 6 in Ambleside. It probably has more hotels than any other company in the National Park, for better or for worse.

Investors in venture capital projects expect a quick return on their investment, which might explain the regularly escalating price of the real ales in this lovely old coaching inn.