Three cheers as pub wins CAMRA award

The John Bull Inn has taken the title of North Northumberland Cider Pub of the Year in the Tyneside and Northumberland Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) awards.

Landlord Gus Odlin was delighted to take the title. He said: “Obviously I am very pleased for the pub.

“Cider has taken off big style nationally and it is becoming quite trendy at the moment.”

It is not the first prize that the Howick Street pub has won over the years.

Gus said: “It is really good that, in this day and age of pub closures, a backstreet boozer like us is defying the odds and holding its own.”

CAMRA’s Tyneside and Northumberland area press officer Martin Ellis praised The John Bull.

He said: “Over the years the John Bull has won many awards from CAMRA. It is well loved by members from across the branch area.”

The John Bull wasn’t the only pub in Northumberland to be raising a glass to success in the awards.

Berwick-based micro-pub The Curfew, which has been trading for less than two years, took the title of Northumberland Pub of the Year, as well as North Northumberland Pub of the Year. It is the first pub in the branch’s northern outpost of Berwick to win the overall Northumberland title.

The Office, in Morpeth, took the prize for the South-East Northumberland Cider Pub of the Year, as well as the South-East Northumberland Pub of the Year.