PUB OF THE SEASON: The Ploughman, Dearham
Telephone:01900 814748
Our winter pub of the season is slightly off the usual tourist track; it’s a community pub well worth celebrating. Dearham was a mining village, and many people were also employed in the steel works in nearby Workington. There are still five pubs in the village, but the Ploughman is the only one selling real ale. Right on the main road running through the edge of Dearham between Cockermouth and Maryport, it’s a small cosy pub only one room wide. In the summer it’s a riot of colour with hanging baskets and pots full of flowers.
The Ploughman has been run for the past 14 years by Edith Banister, with the help of partner Tom Hodgson. Edith is originally from the nearby village of Plumbland and used to work at West Cumberland Hospital in Hensingham. When she left she felt she needed something to keep herself occupied. The pub had been left empty for over three years by its owners Greenhall Whitley, and Edith decided to buy it and turn it back into a thriving pub. In that she has certainly succeeded.
The pub was originally called The Struggler; apparently when in was built in 1835 its owner struggled to find enough stone. At first it consisted of just one front room, but has been extended a number of times since. Upstairs was the village library, which could only be accessed from outside. Later the pub was taken into the Carlisle State Management scheme, and was sold to Greenhall’s when the scheme ended in the 1970s.
Edith and Tom renamed the pub the Ploughman and decided to go for Hartley’s and Robinson’s beers, just before the closure of the Ulverston brewery. Currently the regular beer is Unicorn (ABV 4.2%), the rebranded Robinson's Best Bitter. A seasonal beer is also always available.
Although not an ale drinker himself, Tom keeps the beers in excellent condition. Edith cooks all the food, but prefers to stay in the background. Tom is Dearham born and bred; a remarkable man who probably has the equivalent of three full time jobs. A butcher by trade, he has for the last 21 years owned the Cottage Pie just along the road, and usually gets up at three in the morning to start baking. In addition to his own shop the bakery supplies about 20 shops in the Workington and Maryport area, and he bakes 10,000 pies a week. So Tom has already done a day’s work by 9.30 in the morning. He also does outside catering. When he’s finished in the shop he will then come along to do whatever needs to be done in the cellar. He snatches a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon and then he can be on the go until after midnight. He says he can manage with only four hours sleep; he certainly still manages to be a welcoming host.
Tom is on the parish council and the pub supports a number of local charities: not only the brass band but also the First Responders team and old peoples charities. Tom reckons the pub has raised about £15,000 over the years. The upstairs function room is used for meetings by all sorts of local groups, including the award-winning Dearham brass band. Both the Ploughman and the Cottage Pie put on a magnificent display of flowers in the summer, and the Ploughman has won the commercial premises section of the Village in Bloom competition for the last 12 years. At the back there is a small beer garden which houses a number of old ploughs, a wooden cart, and other pieces of agricultural machinery collected over the years, and which are filled with flowers in the summer.
We wish Edith and Tom all the best in continuing to do such an excellent job in supplying good real beers to this part of West Cumbria.