Best Fundraising Pub of the year

The Licensed Trade Charity is sponsoring this award, which recognises the best and most successful fundraising campaign in the past 12 months run by any type of pub

North: Gardeners Arms

Thornton, Lancashire

David Brady and his wife, Judith, are no strangers to picking up awards for their pub because of its charity work. The Gardeners Arms has won the top accolade from a local newspaper in recognition of the way its customers regularly pull out all the stops for worthy causes.

The community local has raised an astonishing £20,000 in the past year, the highlight being an Easter fun day that saw £14,000 raised for a children's hospice. Yet, the Bradys insist it is not just the amount of money raised that matters. The real heart of successful fundraising lies in the sort of events staged to rake in the cash.

David explains: "We always try and stage fun events that will encourage all the local community to take part. This way, we engender a real community spirit and bring local people together, which makes the whole thing so worthwhile.

"The fun day was a huge event to stage because there were so many different things going on, but we are fortunate to have a very good committee, which brought everything together and ensured there were no major hiccups on the day."

A five-a-side soccer tournament, bowling competition, sponge throwing, coconut shy and scores of different stalls and amusements provided the backbone to the giant event. The local fire brigade also played a major role, providing sponsorship and a myriad of attractions to keep the crowds entertained.

"It was an 18-hour marathon and we all felt exhausted, but the end product fully justified the hard work," says David.

Apart from the fun day, the Gardeners also hosts other regular money-raising projects such as a weekly Play Your Cards Right, raffles and regular bowling events on the pub's own green.

Two charities, Claire House Children's Hospice and the Ronald McDonald House, both in Liverpool, are the main beneficiaries of the Gardeners' labours. However, other local associations, schools and clubs have also received help.

David comments: "Obviously, these events do bring more people into the pub and increases business, but the real benefit, apart from raising money for good causes, is the community spirit it fosters. New customers can make friends with regulars and helps them share a real local experience."

David and Judith have run the Mitchells & Butlers' Sizzling Pub Company house for 18 months and helped raise the Gardeners' profile as a true community local with a generous heart.

Central: Thorpe Salvin,

Parish Oven Nottinghamshire

Licensees Russell and June Green and their big-hearted regulars at the Parish Oven know how to raise money and enjoy themselves at the same time. The village pub's charity fundraising over the past year has topped more than £14,000, but just as important it has sealed a true bond of friendship between the Parish Oven's loyal crowd of regulars.

"In the words of the song, it's not what you do, but the way that you do it," enthuses Russell, who has engendered a real community spirit in the pub since taking over the Avebury Taverns' tenancy two years ago.

Highlights during the past 12 months have been a sponsored Blackpool Tower Dash and a specially commissioned Parish Oven Fillies Calendar featuring wives and girlfriends of pub regulars. The calendar, depicting the ladies in 12 different farming scenes, was a major money earner grossing more than £6,000.

The Blackpool Tower Dash, staged to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the famous seaside landmark, required teams at locations with 110 miles of Blackpool, to reach the resort using a variety of different modes of transport. The escapade raised more than £1,000 to add to other fundraising events including a grand summer charity auction staged in the pub's gardens.

Russell comments: "We are delighted to have raised such a magnificent sum this year and it's also been great fun doing it. It was important to get some different kinds of money raising schemes that would encourage people to take part. Enjoying yourself into the bargain is one of the golden rules of fundraising."

Already Russell and his team are hard at work devising charity projects for the current year. The Parish Oven plans to enter a team for a 10-mile barge pull through 31 different locks on the nearby canal in the summer and the male regulars are planning to beat the ladies at their own game by producing their own calendar.

Two charities, the Breast Cancer Care and the Bassetlaw Hospital's mammogram unit, have been the main two beneficiaries of the pub's fundraising efforts over the year.

The Greens believe loyal support from people living in Thorpe Salvin and surrounding communities plus the generosity of local firms, which have provided prizes and sponsorship, have been the two main reasons for the charity success story.

"It's been a real team effort," says Russell, a veteran of 20 years in the licensed trade.

Home Counties: Bird in Hand

Gosmore, Hertfordshire

Regulars of the Bird in Hand really know how to put the fun into fundraising. According to licensees Carol Hendry and Matthew Clark, their customers are up for anything that brings a smile to peoples' faces and raises money for their nominated charities.

Sunday afternoons are the most likely to germinate the ideas with regulars willing to sponsor contestants who engage in baked beans wrestling, someone to roll in a puddle or dye their hair an outrageous colour. Matthew explains: "Almost all of the them are impromptu and start with someone daring someone else. For example, the baked beans wrestling raised £20 and puddle rolling raised more than £30."

Carol took on the Greene King Pub Partners tenancy five years ago and Matthew joined one year later. Before then, fundraising was an alien to the Bird in Hand. It started after a much-loved local died and the villagers decided to support the local hospice in which he passed away.

Since then, fundraising has been a way of life at the Hertfordshire pub. Carol and Matthew have organised numerous activities such as rounders matches, an annual village idiot competition, race nights, cycle races around the village, and even persuaded regulars to pose for a "saucy" calendar, which raised around £16,500.

They also remember a conker contest with much laughter. Carol explains: "Someone must have thought there was a fight at the pub because the police turned up dressed in riot gear."

Another major event at the pub is the Holly Ball with 200 villagers dining in a marquee erected in the garden. Half of the profits together with part of the bar takings go to charity.

Carol and Matthew also help organise the village fete, which raised around £4,000, split equally between the hospice and the local church.

A few months ago, the Bird in Hand played host to a live recording of a song composed for the Peacock Butterfly Appeal to raise awareness of breast and testicular cancer. The pub and other retail outlets nearby are selling copies of the single, Nature's course, and Matthew reports sales are running into their hundreds.

Charities also benefited from an unexpected source when two regulars donated a magnificent model of the pub that had taken them two years to build. Carol comments: "We didn't know what they were doing, but we thought something was up when they took photographs and started measuring things like the height of the bar." The model was auctioned and bought by a local business for £2,200, who immediately gave it back to the pub to display.

West: Merrymoor Inn

Mawgan Porth, Cornwall

Dudley Bennett says with pride: "The tradition of fundraising in this parish is second to none. The people around here are absolutely terrific."

Dudley and his wife, Lynne, have owned and run the Merrymoor Inn for the past 31 years and are in a good position to judge the generosity of people of Mawgan Porth