COMMUNITY PUBS The Old Crown, Hesket Newmarket Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria CA7 8JG 016974 78288 Website theoldcrownpub.co.uk/ Hesket Newmarket is a small community inside the northern edge of the Lake District National Park. It is the only pub in the village. The story of the Old Crown dates back to 1987 when new landlords Jim and Liz Fearnley purchased the pub with the dream of running a pub which served curries and brewing their own beer. They bought the pub and the barn at the rear and turned the barn into Hesket Newmarket brewery. Jim and Liz ran both the pub and the brewery until 1995 when they decided to sell the pub and concentrate on the award-winning brewery. They ran the brewery until 1999 when they decided they wanted to retire. Villagers were worried that the brewery might be swallowed up by a larger brewer or closed, so to stop that happening 58 villagers and supporters got together and formed a co-operative to buy the brewery; today Hesket Newmarket Brewery is a thriving microbrewery. In 2002 a shareholder in the brewery floated the idea of forming a second co-operative to buy the pub and to secure it for the village and wider community. 125 customers of the pub eventually clubbed together to buy the pub. The co-operative was officially registered in March 2003 and the purchase was completed on 21 August that year. The co-operative does not run the pub on a day to day basis; it recruits tenants to run it. The Old Crown continues to be a warm, cosy, friendly pub selling good food and great beer brewed at Hesket Newmarket Brewery behind the pub.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:46:23 +0000
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