Sussex pub named region's best (From The Argus)

Sussex pub named region's best

2:42pm Monday 17th September 2012 in News

A traditional family-run Inn has been named the region’s top pub.

The Wilkes Head, named after 18th century radical John Wilkes, has won the CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year 2012 accolade.

The pub, situated just off the A29 at Eastergate and five miles east of Chichester, will now be entered for the national finals in February where the 16 regional winners will compete to be crowned National Pub of the Year.

CAMRA decided on the winners by judging on all the criteria that makes a “great” pub, including the decor, atmosphere, customer service, value money, clientele mix, and the quality of real ale and cider.

Sonia Scott, director of the pub, who works alongside her husband Trevor Brown and daughter Nina Scott in running the premises, has spoken of her joy at their pub receiving the award.

She said: “We are extremely honoured to receive the accolade. We feel we have provided the best service we possibly can.

“The food and drink we supply are both to a very high standard, the premises have improved a lot and the business is very well run.”

The family’s fourth anniversary at the pub was on September 3. CAMRA describes it as a “small Grade II-listed red-brick pub” dating from 1803, offering four guest beers and an October beer festival.

The October festival is the second of the year. The pub successfully staged a festival during the Jubilee celebrations.

This year 51 new pub entries from Surrey and Sussex have made it into CAMRA’s 40th anniversary edition of the Good Beer Guide.

The region also now has 40 breweries, including eight newly opened in the last year. A total of 1,009 breweries are now in operation across the country, more than twice as many as a decade ago.