GBPA 2019: what the winners had to say

10-Sep-2019 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 10:39 GMT

The Morning Advertiser (MA) spoke to the 2019 Great British Pub Award winners to find out what it felt like to strike gold at the ‘pub Oscars’.

Brendan Padfield of the Unruly Pig in Bromeswell, Suffolk – who brought home the bacon in the Best for Wine category on the night (5 September) – told MA: “I am just so excited. We focused on the food, we then refocused on the wine – it’s an absolute validation for all the hard work by all the team. It’s amazing, I love it.”

What’s more, Harry Seccombe of Chaplin’s and the Cellar Bar in Boscombe, Dorset, winner of best live entertainment, having reached the final on several occasions added: “We live and breathe entertainment so it’s really good to get the recognition. Six times in the final is really good but to actually win it really means a lot.”

A finalist in four categories, and winner of two – Best Freehouse and Best Pub Garden – the Bull in Ditchling, East Sussex, was one of the big winners at the 2019 awards.

After winning the award for Best Freehouse, manager Molly Raftery – herself a finalist in the Best Pub Manager category – explained: “We didn’t think it was possible to win this award again, but we’ve kept striving for more, we’re constantly developing our business, building on our team, and it’s amazing to be recognised as the best in the industry.

However, run by husband and wife team Mark Annear and Mel Hard, it was Greene King pub the Cott in Dartington, Devon, that took the overall prize.

"It’s just great to have the recognition, we’ve built up a pub that was closed when we took it over and done loads of development and produced the food – we’re buying everything locally now – and we’ve got a great great local following,” Annear told MA on the night. “This is seriously a great accolade and we’re really pleased to get it.”