Congratulations to Janet and Steve for winning the regional (East & West Midlands) heat of the Best Community Pub 2008. The Sycamore Inn is now in the national final up against eight other regional finalists. The results will be announced at a black-tie reception at the London Hilton in Park Lane on Thursday 18th of September.
Well done Janet and Steve, you definitely deserve to win this category!

Also congratulations to Ruth and Phil at the Bluebell Inn, Tissington for winning their regional heat and getting to the final for the Best Food Pub category.
It is impressive that two local pubs are through to the finals, especially as the East & West Midlands region, including Derbyshire, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire in the north, seems to stretch via the Welsh boarders most of the way to London, including Henley on Thames and Bedford.








After a lunch at
We’ve had lunch and tea quite a few times here and finally I’ve decided to share this little gem with you. The Old Smithy is a village shop and tearooms, to be honest it is really like a deli. It is situated in the lovely old village of Beeley, on the Chatsworth estate, about 100 metres from the pub. You have a choice of seating areas: outside at the front, in the rear garden or inside. Most helpfully you can reserve a table, I rang just before we left to ensure they had space. (01629 734666)


After all the excitement of Wakes Week, we seem to be heading into something of a quiet period. For the first time since the official launch of this site (March 16th), no new posts were published yesterday, ending an unbroken 129-day run.





