We have heard from the Event Organisers that they are happy to take supporting comments from the community up to this Friday. We feel that for opening the Shop alone Janet deserves this award, but also she is setting up a small internet cafe at the Sycamore so that people not on-line can access this site. Support the Sycamore Inn’s entry for the Best Community Pub 2008 by adding your comments below or emailing them to us at parwich@hotmail.co.uk. We will collate and forward the comments posted here or emailed to us.
All comments must be in by Friday 23rd May.
PARWICH.ORG 
I am a regular visitor to Parwich, and am always impressed how friendly the village is. It’s great how welcoming the pub is and the new shop there is very impressive. It is incredible how much they have got in. (They stock more than my village shop, which is on a main road and serves a much bigger village.) I would only ever go into the pub in my own village on very special occasions, but am happy to pop into the Sycamore.
The Sycamore is a definite winner as Community Pub of the Year for me.
Well done Janet, I really hope you will win.
The Sycamore is still a local pub! It may not have haut cuisine or rare beers, but it is a welcoming traditional pub that is one of the important centres of our community. Janet has worked hard to keep it a community pub with something for everyone, and, with the creation of the new shop, I believe she undoubtedly deserves this accolade.
It’s the only pub I have ever been happy to stroll into and sit at the bar, familiar faces or not, as Steve and Janet are always friendly hosts (and take pity on you and chat to you if there is no one else there!)
We received the following comment by email:
I would like to add my name to those who support Janet at the Sycamore Inn in Parwich as the best community pub. I have been quite a few times over the past couple of years during my travels and always found it a very friendly, warm welcoming pub. I have taken a few different friends there with me and we have always enjoyed the meals and company. I look forward to my next visit, hopefully very soon.
Maurice Wilson
Tamworth
Staffs
Yep – I’ll go for that – cheers Steve and Janet, hope you win. The pub is great, and you both work very, very hard. Any chance of an occasional guest bitter?
As more and more pubs go down the Gastro route, shedding their daily “regulars” at the bar in favour of “destination diners” at the tables, I’ve come to appreciate the value of a true village pub. Janet and Steve have created a place that really does sit at the heart of its community, where everyone is made to feel welcome and included.
With the opening of the new shop, selling everything from daily basics to gastronomic delicacies (OH, that confit of duck!) to Phyllis’s free-range eggs (no “carbon footprint” here!), The Sycamore is more popular than ever, as village shoppers decide to punctuate their visits with a “quick one” in the bar. Where else can you see people catching up with the latest gossip with a glass of beer in one hand and a packet of corn flakes in the other?! All credit to Janet for seizing the initiative and getting things up and running so quickly.
With the village meetings, the darts, the dominoes, the games room, the coffee mornings, the quiz nights, the karaoke sessions, the busy Sunday lunches and the “oh, just one more then” late nights, the sunny benches out front and the tables round the side, the open-all-hours shopping, the forthcoming Internet access and even the occasional passing folk band, The Sycamore has got the lot. We are lucky to have it.
I would like to echo the comments of the others. We checked the pub before we bought our house – when there’s only 1 pub in a village it’s an important consideration! The first person we met was Steve who was working behind the bar in between his farming duties. Even though the pub was busy he still found time to make us feel really welcome and tell us about the village, the people and the local area.
Three years on and we are true “regulars”, for me the Sycamore is a real “home from home”. Where else would you feel comfortable dropping in your gardening gear, with half the garden behind your finger nails, for a couple of mid-gardening drinks and a chat…?
I really hope the Sycamore wins this award, it really deserves it. Janet and Steve both work so hard but still always manage to be friendly and cheerful and find time for a chat. As if the shop, pub, village hall bookings, dart, dominos etc weren’t enough, the pub provides even more…. My car broke down a month ago, on a Saturday morning – despite having the shop and the pub, one quick phone (courtesy of the very nice lady at Milldale shop) and Janet dropped everything and came to rescue me. She even offered Steve’s services for later that day to tow the car back. What more could you ask for…?!
I am writing on behalf of the Local History Society to express our support for the Sycamore Inn as ‘Best Community Pub 2008’. The present landlady has been an honorary member of our Society for some years in token of her support for our activities. The Sycamore Inn, a village pub for over three hundred years, may even have been one of the two pubs known to be here in 1577. It is now the only remaining pub in this small rural community, and is one of the centres of village life.
The pub has been a staunch supporter of our Society since it was founded eight years ago. We regularly hold our committee meetings in the pub; this year we started experimenting with an informal memory and photo sharing session in the pub; our guided walks usually start and finish at the pub, with refreshments and car parking provided there when we are entertaining visiting groups; and we hold our annual Christmas Social with mulled wine and homemade mince pies there, followed by an open quiz for the village run jointly with the pub. Also the pub and the associated shop are now the only outlet for our publications in the village, and they regular help publicise our events.
When we have organised special events in the village, such as a craft fare attended by some 700 people over the course of the day, the pub was open longer hours to provide refreshments for the visitors and allowed use of the car park. Also the pub has served as a venue for fund raising events such as an auction of reproduction old photographs.
The support of the Sycamore Inn and its landlady Janet Gosling has enabled us and other local groups to function more effectively, and it brings traditional community values through into the twenty-first century.
Andrew Robinson
Chairman
On behalf of Parwich Village Action Group we want to express support for the Sycamore Inn, Parwich in the Best Community Pub 2008 category.
We regularly use the pub as a means of circulating information and holding informal meetings. For example last month our Environment Sub-Group held a meeting to consult with as many people as possible on the Local Authority’s appraisal of the Parwich Conservation Area. The landlady not only was happy to provide a venue, but encouraged us to hold the meeting in the main bar. Not only did people who had specifically come along to the meeting join in, but additional people who just happened to have popped in for a drink had their say as well.
This week we held an open meeting there trying to promote the development of more affordable housing in the village. Our reasons for using the pub are two fold: firstly we are not charged for the hire which is a big factor for an entirely voluntary group, and secondly the relaxed friendly atmosphere is much better for some informal meetings than the village hall. People might not come to a more formal meeting, but will sit at the bar listening to what is being said by others and maybe even join in.
Our objectives as a Group include promoting and protecting the village way of life and heritage. Janet Gosling’s management of the Sycamore Inn contributes to this objective by providing a traditional friendly community pub. Although food is provided, the landlady keeps a balance between meeting the needs of visitors and keeping it as a local pub not just a restaurant. There are some pubs in the area that serve amazing food, but we are glad they are not in our village. They are great to go to for a meal out occasionally, but are not community pubs.
The landlady also this Easter made a fantastic commitment to the village by opening a shop, when the only shop in the village closed. For many elderly people and those that don’t drive the shop is a lifeline. Not only is it somewhere to buy things, but it is also somewhere to meet other people, to find out what is happening in the village or just somewhere to go to, to get out of the house. This has brought many people into the pub who had not gone there before and who otherwise might become very isolated.
Janet Gosling was brought up in the village and she has a genuine understanding of what makes a community work well. Not only is she a hard working business woman, but a member of our community who is committed to preserving our way of life and preserving a traditional local pub at a time when rural life and rural pubs are very much under threat.
Peter Trewhitt
Chair
We received the following by hand:
Janet & Stephen deserve to be recognised for their efforts in providing an establishment and service for a wide range of people, both local and from the wider community. As walkers who regularly visit a wide range of pubs we always appreciate the warm welcome and reliable hospitality offered at the Sycamore.
Alan West, Quarndon
Philip Dawson, Duffield
We have emailed these comments along with one marked ‘not for publication on the website’ to the organizers of the Great British Pub Awards. Thank you for your input.