West Cumbria Pubs

The media has been full of stories recently about the decline of traditional British pubs. Driving round West Cumbria between Whitehaven and Silloth it was startling how many village pubs were closed or up for sale. It is odd to talk of remote places on a densely populated island but as you go north of Maryport, itself a small town, the coastal communities rapidly give the impression of being isolated from everywhere else. Local businesses have a small catchment of population so there is a huge reliance on traffic from holiday makers and day trippers. The last thing they need is a summer like the one 2012 dished up. During my short stay, we tried a few different pubs that had taken different approaches to differentiate themselves from other local businesses.

The Ship Hotel, Allonby

Allonby, eight miles north of Maryport, was established as a fishing village and became known as a popular resort for sea-bathing in the early 19th century. It sits on the Cumbrian coast road adjacent to the Solway Firth and when the tide is out it has a very expansive sandy beach. The beach is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, although given the dodgy weather in the northwest sunbathing is unlikely to be high on the agenda. Dumfries and Galloway can be seen across the Solway and the sunset on my website banner was taken towards Dumfries and Galloway from Allonby beach (and provided the inspiration for a Yates beer).

The family-run Ship Hotel is recorded as being the place where Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens stayed while touring Cumberland. A house in the area seen on that trip was some of the inspiration for Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White. A number of rooms are available for guests. While unexceptional, the Ship was a perfectly adequate place to stay with my 3 teenagers in 2011. Comfortable beds, plenty of hot water and a bar just downstairs worked perfectly. The Ship is an outlet for Yates Brewery in Westnewton, 3.5 miles inland from Allonby. Yates Bitter is a perfectly good reason to visit.

Roll on twelve months and it was a visit for lunch with my parents. The lunchtime menu is brief with a mixture of standard British pub dishes. The evening menu has a wider range of food and can be seen here. My dish of choice was hand battered haddock served with chips, garden peas and a wedge of lemon. All credit to them, the Ship knows how to do a good slice of fish. It turns up to the table hot and inviting with a huge mound of chips. Focussing on the fish, the batter was wonderfully crunchy and the haddock was just great. Last year the chips were inadequate partners to the fish but they’ve improved in the last twelve months. The peas were passive bystanders in the whole thing. Fresh peas would help but the fish and chips at the Ship is very decent pub grub.

The Lowther Arms, Mawbray

Mawbray is just under three miles further up the coast from Allonby. It is primarily a farming village and sits less than half a mile inland from the Solway shore. The Lowther Arms is on the south of the green in the centre of the village. The pub reopened in 2006 after ceasing operation in the 1980s.

The owners have worked on renovating the pub including an extension to the rear. This means that the front of the pub is fairly traditional but a small dining room at the back is available for eating. French windows open on to a rudimentary beer garden.

There are two hand-pulled beers and these change regularly. The main choice on the first evening was Loweswater Gold from Cumbria Legendary Ales. For cider lovers, Westons Old Rosie was available on tap. Bad time to be the designated driver.  The food menu is on a blackboard as you enter the pub and in a manner mirroring French bistros the landlady will bring the blackboard to the table while you make your choice. The food does change but retains some favourites. They also hold themed food nights to help bring punters in and were advertising a Chinese food evening two weeks after our visit(s).

First time around I ordered the seafood platter that the landlady had said would include haddock, scampi and shrimp. The plate came to the table with fresh peas and a portion of side salad. Chips were served in a huge bowl so you could help yourself to as much as you wanted. The small piece of haddock was in a good crispy batter and the breaded scampi were fine. It was surprising though that the shrimp was presented in Marie Rose sauce so the overall plate was a bit unbalanced. Chips were great.

Sunday lunchtimes, the menu includes roast dinner options as well as other pub style meals. This was my opportunity to have Cumberland sausage with egg. The best thing was that other people ordered roasts and the communal vegetable approach meant that I didn’t just have chips as the vegetable accompaniment. Carrots, cauliflower, peas and cabbage were all available. Unfortunately no one would share their Yorkshire puddings. The Cumberland sausage was excellent but the fried egg was poor with its brittle, crispy white. That said I ordered the same dish again a few days later and the egg was more up to snuff. 

We never got to try appetisers or desserts because the mains were ridiculously large. Food was not earth-shattering but the Lowther Arms is a decent option if you’re in the area.

Old Crown, Hesket Newmarket

Hesket Newmarket is a picturesque village on the edge of the Lake District with Wigton probably the closest place of any size. The Old Crown is a cooperatively owned pub and is also home to the Hesket Newmarket brewery.

The main point of the visit was to sample beers and food was secondary. The beer of choice was Skiddaw, a sooth copper bitter. First taste seemed unusual but after that it was a lovely more-ish beer. It was also good to see Weston’s Stowford Press on tap.

Food-wise the lunch menu is sparse. The only options are soup, sandwiches or ham and eggs (with two portion sizes). The dinner menu has many more options. Obvious choice seemed to be the ham and eggs (large). This came with side salad and coleslaw, neither of which really added anything. I didn’t expect cold ham either. The eggs however were absolutely spot on. Wonderful flavour with a perfect runny yolk. 

At lunch the food is definitely secondary to the beer and I’m not sure I understand that approach when the pub has a full menu in the evening. It would be good to try the evening menu but someone else has to drive.