From troubled local to pub of the year

The Black Lion, in Firbeck, has been named the area’s top watering hole just 14 months after landlord Phil Rogers took the helm. week he received the prestigious Rotherham Pub of the Year Award from CAMRA officials in recognition of his efforts to turn round the once-ailing pub.

But the proud pint-puller puts the pub’s change of fortune down to more than great food and the perfect pint.

He claims that many more pubs could see the good times return if more landlords could follow his lead and wrestle ownership from the big pub chains.

Phil said: “I’ve worked really hard over the past year to make this place a success and it’s great to see some recognition of that. I’m really pleased with the CAMRA award.

“These are tough times for the pub trade but if more pubs were in the hands of private landlords, rather than big pub firms, they could succeed.”

Phil took charge at the Black Lion last summer after securing its £500,000 purchase from Punch Taverns.

It followed a torrid decade for the idyllic country pub which left two of its former landlords facing financial ruin after battling to meet rents of up to £90,000 a year and honour contracts forcing them to buy alcohol at a high mark-up.

Now things have changed and Phil is able to stock the ale he chooses—winning over the hearts of the CAMRA judges in the process—and run a pub which he is now proud to call a “success.”