Last updated 09:27, Saturday, 04 October 2008

The new tenants of Prince Charles’s favourite Cumbrian pub have been revealed and take over next month.

Regular visitor: The Prince of Wales has hailed The Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket as a rural success story

Keith and Edna Graham and their niece Joanne Richardson take control of the Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket from Pat and Malcolm Hawksworth.

Malcolm and Pat have decided to semi-retire for family and health reasons after less than two years at the pub.

Despite the widely reported problems facing the pub trade, the couple have managed to increase turnover at the village inn.

Malcolm said: “We have really enjoyed our time here and are proud of what we have achieved.

“We don’t sell beer, the beer here is good enough to sell itself, we sell fellowship, that is the essence of a good pub.

“We wish our successors all the very best and I’m sure they will put their own stamp on things.”

While Joanne, 35, lives in the village, Edna, 56, and Keith, 60, will move into the pub.

The couple, who used to run The Pink House Hotel, near Wigton, (now the Kelsey Hotel) applied to run the Old Crown two years ago, but were pipped at the post by the Hawksworths.

Edna said: “I like the idea of the community, I like cooking and I like company.

“We thought we would give it one more shot.”

Keith will look after the cellar and the bar, while Edna and Jo will take care of the kitchen and front of house.

The Old Crown is run as a co-operative by a group of villagers and Prince Charles has championed the pub, which serves beer from the neighbouring Hesket Newmarket brewery co-operative, as an example of how to save country pubs nationwide.

His most recent visit to the bar was in February last year.

Pub co-op chairman Julian Ross said: “Malcolm and Pat have done a fantastic job for us. They have taken the pub on to a new level and we are hoping Keith, Edna and Jo will take it on again.”

He said the village pub had thrived while others across the country have struggled to survive because the co-operative has not looked for huge profits.

He explained: “We are not interested in extracting the maximum amount of money, we want the tenants to make a decent living, have enough money to mend the roof when it needs it, have a little dividend when we need it and be able to use our pub.”

The recent dividend for co-op members was £20 worth of beer tokens and many did not even take those. It is about supporting the local economy and almost everything spent in the pub stays in the local economy.

“The philosophy of The Old Crown has never changed, it is a pub that serves food rather than a restaurant that does beer.”

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