Crowned
with loyalty In this tale of two co-ops, the villagers of Hesket Newmarket in Cumbria unitedas one to save the last pub in town the Old Crown and its brewery.
Beer writer Roger Protz finds out more about the unique venture Licensees Lou and Linda Hogg are at the centre of a quiet revolution.
They run the Old Crown in Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria, where the villagers have banded together to run both the pub and its tiny brewery as co-operatives.
There are several pubs in other parts of the country that are owned by their communities and were saved from closure as a result.
But the Old Crown and its brewery are unique in being run as co-ops.
Each member has the same number of shares: the shares can't be sold on the open market and can only be sold back to the co-ops.
This avoids the risk of one or two people controlling a large block of shares that could be sold to a pub company or a big commercial brewery.
The biggest risk in an area of great natural beauty, near the northern lakes and surrounded by such famous peaks as Helvellyn and Skiddaw, is that a speculative builder or property company could get control of the pub and brewery and turn them into lucrative holiday flats.
Hesket Newmarket once had five pubs.
The villagers were worried that they might lose their last local and decided to save theOld Crown for the community.
Audrey Heslop, a member of both co-ops, says: "We won't get wealthy running a pub and brewery.
It's all about lifestyle."
The Old Crown is the heartbeat of the village.
When the co-op was set up, it was not only villagers who became shareholders.
People from as far away as Scotland, southern England, the United States, Canada and South Africa who had visited the pub and fallen under its spell, invested £1,500 each.
And it was the infectious warmth and friendliness of the place that encouraged the Hoggs to become the co-op's first tenants.
At the time they had no experience of the pub trade.
They both come from the north-east of England but have lived and worked in Stirling in Scotland for many years.
Lou was employed in electronics while Linda was a senior care worker in a nursing home.
In common with many other people, they came to Hesket, had a drink in the Old Crown, fell in love with the pub and applied for the tenancywhen the pub was re-opened in September.
"We're learning on the job," Lou says.
"We've not had a day off since September, but now that the holiday periods are over we will have to take some time off."
They're helped, guided and advised by the villagers.
Audrey Heslop, for example, makes soup for Linda to sell in the tiny dining room next to the main bar.
Other villagers make pies, while the local teashop supplies pastries and tarts.
An experienced chef prepares spicy Asian dishes for the Old Crown's famous curry nights.
And Lou, who had never pulled a pint in anger before taking over the Old Crown, gets instant help from brewer Mike Parker and his assistant Arthur Walby.
"They've been a tower of strength on the beer side," Lou says.
His tiny cellar is immaculate.
It's kept at 11ºC and, although there's only a short run to the bar, Lou on Mike's advice will install a python cooling system in case another blistering summer comes along.
The pub dates from the 18th century.
The main bar has a blazing log fire and a beamed ceiling, from which beer mugs belonging to locals hang.
The walls are covered in old photos and pictures of the area, along with hill climbers' equipment.
These include a set of ropes donated by the famous mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington, who lives in the area.
He is a member of the pub co-op and cut the ribbon on opening day.
A second bar is dominated by a pool table.
Local pool and darts leagues use the Old Crown on a weekly basis and provide regular income during the winter months when tourists are thin on the ground.
The pub also acts as the local lending library and stages quiz nights, folk nights and tall story competitions.
There's no jukebox or television: conversation is keenly encouraged.
The recent history of the Old Crown and how it turned into a co-op dates from 1988.
Two former teachers, Jim and Liz Fearnley, bought the pub and decided to add a tiny brewery in outhouses at the rear.
Trade was good, but after 10 years the Fearnleys were exhausted and sold the pub to concentrate on brewing their popular cask ales.
However, a year later they announced they were retiring for good and put the brewery on the market.
The villagers were horrified that the brewery might close and they would have to drink beer from either a regional or national supplier.
A meeting was held and plans were drawn up to run the brewery as a co-op.
There were 57 members to start with and each one bought 1,500 £1 shares.
Arthur Walby was employed as Jim Fearnley's successor as brewer.
Meanwhile, Kim and Lyn Matthews took over as licensees of the pub.
They built trade and won entry into several pub and beer guides.
But Lyn died suddenly from cancer in 2001 and Kim decided to make a new start by leaving the area.
The villagers had saved their brewery.
Now they had to start all over again and attempt to save their pub.
Julian Ross, a professional translator who lives in Carlisle but regularly went to the Old Crown, convened a meeting in November last year and proposed that a co-op be formed to own the pub.
"We had 35 initial shareholders," he says.
"We needed 125 and we had no problem in finding more.
Forty of the brewery shareholders also became shareholders in the pub.
Thanks to the local media The Cumberland News in particular we got a huge response."
No funding was available when the co-op was first set up, but eventually a grant came from the Lake District's sustainable development organisation.
The shareholders' investment and the grant enabled the co-op to offer a 21-year lease to Lou and Linda Hogg.
"The co-op is not a business," Julian Ross stresses.
"We hope to pay a dividend eventually but we're not here to make profits.
Our aim is to preserve the pub, not make money.
It's up to Lou and Linda to run a successful business and pay rent to the co-op."
If the Hoggs did decide to leave, they would have to give six months' notice and sell their lease back to the co-op.
They are free to buy wines, spirits and snacks from suppliers of their choice.
The bar has six hand-pumps selling the local beers but, as one small concession to the outside world, there's also a keg fount for Carlsberg lager.
In spring, summer and early autumn, the area is busy with walkers and serious climbers, who are drawn to the pub.
Trade has increased by 50% since it re-opened as a co-op.
"The important thing is that the money stays in the village," shareholder Audrey Heslop says.
"It benefits the local B&B, the tea rooms and the village in general, and the farms in the area thatsupply the pub."
As for Lou and Linda, they're not thinking of returning their lease to the co-op.
They are revelling in their new work and the pleasure of meeting old and new friends every day.
But they would like a day off soon.
Co-ops blaze trail for new form of ownership The Hesket Newmarket Brewery has been operating as a co-op for four years and is now ready to expand.
Julian Davey, the chairman of the co-op, says the arrival of Mike Parker, who brewed for national companies, including the Bass subsidiary, Stones of Sheffield, has brought an important element of professionalism to beer making.
"Jim Fearnley was a passionate amateur.
Mike says the recipes are sound, but he has tweaked them slightly," explains Davey.
"The foot-and-mouth outbreak concentrated our minds.
Beer sales dropped by 40% because people couldn't visit affected areas and we couldn't sell our beer to other pubs.
"The strength of the co-op meant that everyone mucked in to find new outlets once we could start to move beer again.
We have shareholders in the south of England who look for new outlets for us."
Davey, who is retired but still leads walks on the fells for visitors, says theco-op decided after foot-and-mouth that it had to build sales and make the beers more consistent.
Arthur Walby and volunteers deliver beer t
