Last updated at 19:12, Thursday, 18 June 2009

Cumbrian beer lovers have welcomed a national pub chain's decision to offer a new kind of lease which they believe could help save threatened rural pubs across the UK.

Sir Chris Bonington, centre, officially reopens the pub

• Video: The pub's official reopening

Hesket Newmarket's co-operative brewery has given a new lease of life to The Shepherds Inn at Melmerby in the Eden Valley.

Six months after the pub closed, the "micro-brewery" has now taken over its lease.

The co-operative has done the deal with Enterprise Inns, with an agreement that it can offer its own cask ales alongside other drinks that the company wants to be sold.

It is the first time a national pub chain has done such a deal with a co-operative brewery, raising hopes the move could prove to be a business model for other struggling country pubs.

The Shepherds Inn was officially re-opened on Wednesday by mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington.

He is one of the 94 shareholders who own the Hesket Newmarket Brewery, whose nine cask ales include such classics as Old Carrock Strong Ale, Doris' 90th and Great Cockup Porter.

The latter was famously enjoyed by the Prince of Wales when he visited the co-operatively-owned Old Crown pub at Hesket Newmarket and the neighbouring brewery.

Jim Chapple, editor of the Cumbrian Real Ale Guide, published by the county's branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: "This has got to be a good thing for pubs.

"It's good that Enterprise Inns allowed this to be put in place and it will be interesting to see whether they allow it to happen on a broader front. Pubs which belong to pub companies on tied leases often operate at a disadvantage because in many cases these companies supply beer to other outlets at lower prices."

Mr Chapple said the deal also made sense because many visitors to Cumbria wanted to sample some of the 100 or so locally brewed beers, and not simply drink beers which are available everywhere.

The Shepherds Inn, nestling at the foot of the Pennines fells on the village green, north of Cross Fell, aims to be at the heart of community life while appealing to lovers of real ale and good food and to tourists, including cyclists.

It will be managed by Ceri Webster, whose husband Andy manages the Hesket Newmarket Brewery. He said:"In the last three years, the Shepherds Inn has had three sets of tenants and it last closed just after Christmas.

"To survive, it needs a unique selling point as it's nine miles out of Penrith on the Alston Road, right at the foot of Hartside Pass.

"The Hesket Newmarket beers will be a big attraction but there will also be good food, much of it using our beers as ingredients as well as locally sourced ingredients and imaginative twists on traditional dishes.

"There's also a big beer garden and the mountaineer Doug Scot has donated some incredible signed prints from his expeditions to Everest and K2 in the late 70s. Some are signed by Sir Edmund Hillary. Doug's selling them to raise money for his Nepalese charity.

"We want to ensure this pub is at the centre of this community and hopefully we'll get local clubs using it."

First published at 19:11, Thursday, 18 June 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk