Our pub company Cheshire Cat Pubs and Inns, owned by Tim and Mary, is celebrating again after two of their pubs achieved great accolades at the Pub and Bar Magazine Awards in London on Wednesday 26th June 2024. The Cholmondeley Arms and the Fitzherbert Arms made the journey to the awards having been chosen as County winners of Cheshire and Staffordshire respectively.

Cholmondeley Arms Manager Helen and Deputy manager Leigh arrived in London to see if the Cholmondeley Arms Team could go one further and win the Northwest region. Great news! The Chum won it! We now have the honour of ‘Best in the Northwest’ back within our Company Cheshire Cat. We held the honour previously with our sister pub the Church Inn back in 2021. Owners Tim and Mary were at the awards to help the teams celebrate!

The Fitzherbert Arms meanwhile had already won ‘Best Pub in Staffordshire’ for the third year running. The Fitz Manager Rebecca and Head Chef Connor headed to London to see if the Fitzherbert Arms Team could go one further and win the West Midlands region. To their complete surprise they went one better and won the honour of the National ‘Best Taste’ Award sponsored by Tyrells Crisps, which recognised most notably the great food performance under the stewardship of Head Chef Connor and his kitchen team and of course the effort of the entire team who make the Fitz the great pub it is today.

Please check out the photo of the entire team at the awards and you’ll notice the enormous bag of Tyrells crisps which has a photo of the Fitzherbert Arms across the front! It was fun carrying that around London after the awards! All in all, it was a great night in London, and we are all very proud of Rebecca, Connor and the entire Fitz team and Helen and Leigh and the entire Cholmondeley Arms team.

A great night at the Pub and Bar Magazine Awards in London! The Cholmondeley Arms had already won the County of Cheshire in the Awards a month or so ago. Manager Helen and Deputy manager Leigh headed to London to see if the Cholmondeley Arms Team could go one further and win the Northwest region. Great news! The Chum won it! We now have the honour of ‘Best in the Northwest’ back within our Company Cheshire Cat. We held the honour previously with our sister pub the Church Inn back in 2021. Owners Tim and Mary were at the awards too along with Rebecca and Connor from our Fitzherbert Arms who had been chosen as Best in Staffordshire for the third year running! The Fitzherbert won a special ‘Best Taste Award’ reflecting their pubs amazing food and drinks act.

All in all it was a great nght in London and we are all very proud of Helen and the team at the Cholmondeley Arms….another great accolade after winning ‘Pub of the Year’ at the Great British Pub Awards for 2023/24.

The Cholmondeley Arms, on Lord Cholmondeley’s estate in Cheshire has been declared Pub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards 2023. The pub was named the overall winner having won the ‘Rural Pub of the Year’ category at the awards held at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester on Tuesday night.

The awards, presented by Edith Bowman, are a showcase of the country’s best pubs, shining a light on the pub hospitality sector and those who work within it.

Cheshire Cat Pubs and Inns, owned by Tim Bird and Mary Mclaughlin, operates seven pubs and inns across Cheshire and Staffordshire, including the recently opened Mainwaring Arms on the Whitmore Estate in North Staffordshire and the award winning Church Inn in Mobberley, Cheshire.

Owner Tim Bird said of the win: “We will be a beacon of hope for rural pubs, with so many being forced to close due to ongoing economic headwinds. For the team, this is just amazing. Helen Mosford, our manager, has worked at the Cholmondeley for 12 years, taking on the role of manager earlier this year. Helen is the epitome of what makes a pub special, and we are so incredibly proud of her and every member of the team.”

Tim and Mary took on the Cholmondeley Arms in 2011, transforming the former schoolhouse through a significant restoration and refurbishment. The menu, created by Executive Chef Richard Williams and Head Chef Pawel Samczynski, offers locally-sourced produce, and the drinks offering includes a collection of 366 gins. The pub has its own gins too, the award winning Cholmondeley Arms Gin and Pink Gin. Adjacent to the Cholmondeley Arms is the ‘Old Headmaster’s House’ with its six newly refurbished bedrooms, perfect for an overnight stay in the country.

Join us in congratulating Helen, Richard and the whole team at the Cholmondeley Arms with their amazing double-win!

Having come runners-up in the Cheshire Life Magazine’s Cheshire Dining Pub of the Year final at the end of July, we are now proud to announce that the Cholmondeley Arms (The Chum) is a finalist again. This time in the National Great British Pub Awards 2023. The Chum has come through vigorous judging to make it to the final of Best Country/Rural Pub 2023 category. Judges are still to visit, with final interviews in late August. It is very tense, but we believe we can lift the trophy come 19^th September and celebrate on behalf of the many rural pubs that support communities across Cheshire.

Helen and the team have done a great job after the Chum, like many pubs, had to come back from the numerous  pandemic closures and its severe aftermath that affected staffing and of course the challenges of increased costs since. The Chum has sailed through many storms and is doing very well again now, we are pleased to say. Having had investment in the guest bedrooms in the Headmaster’s house adjacent to the pub and decorative work inside the pub itself, it offers a wonderful place to visit when out and about in rural Cheshire. We are very proud of the kitchen team who have cooked their hearts out since things returned to ‘normal’ and to the front of house team who ensure everyone receives a warm welcome! We will keep you posted on our progress, so fingers crossed for the Chum and the Team! Well done for reaching such an important National final!

We are proud to announce we have achieved a ‘Foodie Treble’! In December just before ‘lockdown 3’ the Cholmondeley Arms was chosen by the Good Pub Guide as ‘County Dining Pub of the Year 2021’! This was a really fantastic achievement for the Cholmondeley Arms kitchen team led by Andy. It is the third time the ‘Chum’ has won this award 1996 and 2001 and now 20 years later we’ve achieved the honour again!

In January 2021 the Church Inn was chosen by Michelin for their Pub and Good Food Guides with a Michelin Plate for 2021. This is the sixth year in a row that the Church Inn has collected this distinction and remains the only pub in Cheshire with a Michelin Plate. Richard and his team, like the Cholmondeley Arms team, have worked through a difficult year with great commitment and culinary excellence. We are very proud of this consistent performance.

Now in March 2021 the Roebuck Inn has been chosen in the Estrella Damm Top 100 Gastro Pubs 2021. The Roebuck is the highest ranking Cheshire pub and this award underlines an amazing year, where the Roebuck Inn has remained open through every lock down and made a great name for itself as a ‘Pub Hub’, serving the community with ‘Just Heat’ Meals and great Fish and Chips every Thursday and Friday. Andy and his team have maintained a very high standard of cooking during lockdowns and of course when open too. This award comes on the back of Head Chef Andy’s nomination at this year’s Pub industry ‘Oscars’, for the ‘Outstanding Industry Contribution Award’ recognising Andy’s lockdown efforts at the Roebuck Inn Pub Hub. The Hub Team have already been presented in February 2021 with a ‘Covid Community Hero Award by our MP Esther McVey. Great recognition for a year of great effort keeping the hub open for our local community!

We are very proud of all the teams, for their amazing achievements over the last few months of very challenging times for us all.

Well done everyone! Good luck Andy!

 

We are delighted to announce that the Cholmondeley Arms has landed two prestigious awards; the ‘County Dining Pub of the Year 2021’ and ‘Gin Pub of the Year 2021’ by The Good Pub Guide. This is the third year in a row the ‘Chum’ has won the national title ‘Gin Pub of the Year’ and the second time it has won the title of ‘County Dining Pub of the Year’.

This double celebration comes as we launch our very own ‘Cholmondeley Arms Gin’ in time for Christmas. The new Gin marks our forthcoming tenth anniversary, under the ownership of Tim and Mary, who took on the Cholmondeley Arms way back in 2011. They invested in the pub, restoring and redeveloping it in to the institution it is today.

Our new Cholmondeley Arms Gin has arrived and is receiving excellent reviews with 100 bottles already sold! Having our own Gin has been a dream for some time, but during ‘Lock down 2’, it was finally distilled by award winning producers and good friends, the Big Hill Distillery in Mobberley. The highly acclaimed gin has a traditional juniper base with a nice finish of lemon rind, root ginger and Alderley Edge honey – supplied by our beekeeping customers Mike and Ruth. The gin is served with lemon zest, plenty of ice and Double Dutch Indian tonic water and is fondly regarded as a ‘contemporary dry gin’.

We are all very proud of our achievements and wanted to say a big thank you to all our customers for your support and kind words over the years. These are currently tough times for pubs, so it is particularly welcome for the Cholmondeley team to be recognised with these two significant awards. We look forward to seeing you all soon for a Cholmondeley G&T!

Award-winning country pub, The Cholmondeley Arms, near Malpas in Cheshire, has been awarded the prestigious title of ‘Gin Pub of the Year 2020’ by The Good Pub Guide. The award category, introduced for the very first time last year, was added to recognise the increasing number of pubs now stocking an impressive selection of gins. This is the second year running that the Cholmondeley Arms has been chosen for this award.

With its staggering collection of more than 400 gins, it’s amazing Gin and Music Festival held annually in July and its Gin Tasting Classes, the Cholmondeley Arms showed the consistency and innovation to keep the award a second year! The award recognised the Cholmondeley’s 8-year focus on gin, before the renaissance really began too. The award also comes in the very month of the eighth anniversary of owners Tim Bird and Mary McLaughlin’s re-opening of the pub after its restoration to what you see today.

Tim Moody, General Manager of the Cholmondeley Arms, comments: “We’re proud and delighted to have been awarded the title of ‘Gin Pub of the Year for 2020’. Gin has always been our favourite tipple and being recognised with such a prestigious award for the second year running is a real boost for the whole team who have worked so hard to bring ‘Gin to the Inn’ here at the ‘Chum’. I’d like to say a big thank you to our excellent team and also to our loyal ‘gin loving’ customers – we couldn’t have done it without you all.”

Last weekend was another fantastic festival of gin, with a record-breaking weekend, bigger and better than previous years!

Crowds came to spend their weekend at the Cholmondeley Arms, sipping different gins from the outside bar, camping, enjoying our barbecue and delicious stone baked pizzas and dancing the night away to a great line-up of live music all weekend. New this year was our Cholmondeley Street Food, which included homemade spring rolls, lamb koftas and halloumi flatbreads.

A big thank you goes out to all the distillers who sponsored Gin Fest, including Brockmans, Spirit of George, Warner’s, Sipsmith, Peurto De Indias, Langley’s, Foxhole, Henners, Edinburgh, Weetwood, The English Drinks Company, Lime Bay, Chase, Taplin and Mageean and, of course, Fever Tree Tonic. Thank you for being a part of Gin Fest 2019.

Another HUGE thank you goes out to all our customers and to all our staff for their hard work!

This past weekend has been a true ‘GIN’spiration of what’s to come! We hope to see you all at Gin Fest 2020!

This year we are honoured to have, not just one, but two pubs at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park! The Cholmondeley Arms have joined the Church Inn this year and both teams will cook side by side. Not quite ‘when two tribes go to war’ but there will certainly be some friendly competition for sure.

hurch Inn Head chef Richard….Pub Chef of the Year, of course, is leading his team versus Andy, our Cholmondeley Arms Head chef… they are joined by other chefs from our pubs with landlords Simon and Tim of course. Jess will be trying to keep them all under control and Dan is back to help both camps keep up with prep and washing up!

The photo shows every one with Tom Kerridge just before the big opening at the Lambing Shed in Knutsford!

We look forward to a great weekend! See you all soon!