PRESS RELEASE

 

27 June 2008

For immediate use
 

Pub of the Season – Stanley Arms Calderbridge

 

CAMRA’s West Cumbria branch has selected the Stanley Arms in Calderbridge for its Summer 2008 Pub of the Season award.

 

This 12 bedroom roadside hotel has only been in the hands of its current owners for 8 months but already they have made a big impact.  For Wayne Curtis and Angela McGowen, running the hotel is a complete change in career and lifestyle.  Wayne previously worked in unified communications design and Angela in commercial and project management, when they had what Wayne describes as a ‘mid life crisis’ and decided to channel their energies into their own business.  After plans to buy a couple of other pubs fell through, they came up from West Yorkshire to look at the Stanley Arms, and fell in love with it on the spot.

 

The hotel is full of character, and boasts a superb beer garden, idyllically situated next to the river Calder.  The couple have made a few changes, and developed a new menu based on the type of food they like to eat themselves.  Customers can choose from bar food or a full restaurant menu.  Angela does the cooking, using locally sourced ingredients where possible.

 

Wayne had run a real ale pub in Wiltshire twenty years ago, and was keen to put real beer in the Stanley Arms.  Regular beers are all from Thwaites of Blackburn.  ‘Thwaites brewery really went the extra mile for us’ he says, ‘they were really interested and have backed us to the hilt. 

 

‘We started off with Wainwright, that went well so we added Lancaster Bomber, now we also have Nutty Black mild as a regular beer and we are having to put in a fourth handpump for guest beers.’

 

The hotel’s popularity is growing, and caters for everyone from the Suzuki Owners’ Club to the local WI.  CAMRA members Ron and Mary Thompson, who nominated the Stanley Arms for the award, said ’as local villagers we are very impressed and pleased with the changes that Wayne and Angela have made in such a short space of time.  It’s now a welcoming place with a great atmosphere’.

 

A presentation will be made at 9.30pm on Wednesday 2nd July.  Wayne says he and Angela are ‘absolutely made up’ at receiving the award; ‘it’s a recognition of all the hard work we’ve put in’.

 

For further information contact:

 

            Ros Berry, Press Officer, CAMRA West Cumbria                01900   828384

            Stephen Walker, Chairman, CAMRA West Cumbria 01900   828748

Wayne Curtis, Stanley Arms                                                  01946   841235

 

Notes for the editor

 

  • CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is a campaigning organisation with over 90,000 members nationwide.