GBPA Hawthorn Pub of the Year: The Robin Hood
This pub is the perfect example of a pub that firmly sits at the heart of it’s community and is certainly one to be cherished, making the natural winner of the title of Hawthorn Pub of the Year in the Great British Pub Awards.
The pub beat off strong competition from five other shortlisted Hawthorn pubs to be declared the winner at the awards event in London.
Run by Ruth and Steve Lewis, and their grandson TJ, the Robin Hood was already an integral part of its local community for years, but when the pandemic hit, it came to the fore and stepped up to provide huge levels of support for struggling locals.
Community support
Alongside the local community the pub was instrumental in working throughout the lockdowns to help prepare and deliver free school meals, as well as run a community food bank, They also worked hard to provide some fantastic Easter cheer to fed up youngsters by delivering hundreds of Easter eggs to the doors of local children.
TJ was even press-ganged into service to provide entertainment with a variety of different outfits including Disney characters and inflatable dinosaur costumes to tour the area and bring a smile to the locked in locals while delivering eggs.
Judges were also impressed with the operators focus on training, which was described as excellent and also the work they were carrying out with a local college to provide employment and training opportunities to disadvantaged youngsters.
Judges said the Robin Hood was a pub to be proud of, not just for its superb work during the lockdown, but for its employment practices and its support at all levels of the local community.
