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