Licensees weather storm to serve school dinners

Award winning licensees Ashley and Kelly McCarthy, of Ye Old Sun Inn, in Colton Yorkshire, stepped in to provide lunch for more than 50 school children when the cook became stranded in the snow.

The couple, winners of The Publican's ​Publicans of the Year title, made sure the kids got a hot lunch by making cottage pie and apple crumble with vanilla custard for the students at Appleton Roebuck Primary School, near Tadcaster.

Ashley said: "We wanted to help out in any way we could. It was a bit of a scramble getting things ready. Quite a lot of our regular customers have kids at the school - we just wanted to do what we could."

Meanwhile pubs up and down the country have been trying to cope with the weather.

London resident pig Zack has been enjoying his first white Christmas at the Prince of Wales, Merton. While Zack played in the garden licensee Paul Green tempted customers sending text messages telling them they've got the heating on.

And the Ship in Wandsworth didn't hesitate to capitalise on its cosy features by tweeting a picture of their big log fire. The snow proved to be an enticing feature in itself, with some pubs' images being enhanced in the snow, such as the Castle Inn in Lulworth Cove, Dorset

Thankfully staff at the Thornbridge brewery in Bakewell were able to keep the beer flowing in spite of nine inches of snow.

But it wasn't putting a smile on everyone's face. Michael Kheng of the Cloud Bar in Lincoln was worried that the weather would deter some of the expected 40,000 visiting the Lincoln Christmas Festival. He said: "We're supposed to have a beer festival in time for the Lincoln Christmas Festival on the terrace, and the beers are already tapped."

Share your snow experiences with us by emailing news@thepublican.com​