By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 12:45, Monday, 15 June 2009

Cumbria's world-famous co-operative brewery at Hesket Newmarket is to give a new lease of life to a traditional Eden Valley pub – thanks to a ground-breaking deal.

The “micro-brewery” has bought the lease for Melmerby’s Shepherds Inn, which closed six months ago.

The co-operative has done the deal with the pub’s owner Enterprise Inns, with an agreement that it can offer its own cask ales alongside other drinks that the company wants to be sold.

It is the first time any national pub chain has done such a deal with a co-operative brewery, raising hopes that the move may prove to be a model that offers new hope to struggling rural pubs across the UK.

The pub will be officially re-opened on Wednesday by mountaineering celebrity Sir Chris Bonington.

He is one of the 94 shareholders who own the Hesket Newmarket Brewery, whose nine cask ales include such classics as Old Carrock Strong Ale, Doris’ 90th, and Great Cockup Porter.

That drink was famously enjoyed by the Prince of Wales when he visited cooperatively owned Old Crown pub at Hesket Newmarket, and the neighbouring brewery.

The Shepherds Inn, nestling at the foot of the Pennines fells on the village green, north of Cross Fell, will aim to be at the heart of community life while appealing to lovers of real ale and good food and tourists, including cyclists.

It will be managed by Ceri Webster, whose husband Andy manages the Hesket Newmarket Brewery.

He said: “In the last three years, the Shepherds Inn has had three sets of tenants and it last closed just after Christmas.

“To survive, it needs a unique selling point as it’s nine miles out of Penrith on the Alston Road, right at the foot of Hartside Pass.

“The Hesket Newmarket beers will be a big attraction but there will also be good food, much of it using our beers as ingredients as well as locally sourced ingredients and imaginative twists on traditional dishes.

“There’s also a big beer garden and the mountaineer Doug Scot has donated some incredible signed prints from his expeditions to Everest and K2 in the late 70s.

“Some are signed by Sir Edmund Hillary [who with sherper Tenzing Norgay was first to conquer Everest]. Doug’s selling them to raise money for his Nepalise charity.

“We want to ensure this pub is at the centre of this community and hopefully we’ll get local clubs using it.

“We aim to replicate the atmosphere at the Old Crown while remembering that this is a traditional Eden Valley pub.”

The find out more about the pub, which is just off the A689 and stands on the village green, log on to www.shepherdsmelmerby.co.uk

First published at 11:26, Monday, 15 June 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk