THE South West’s best pubs battled it out on Thursday, January 30, at St Austell Brewery’s 18th Estate Awards, with pubs in St Kew and Lydford taking away an accolade.

The annual event, at Newquay’s Great Western Hotel, celebrated excellence across the brewery’s award-winning managed and tenanted estates — made up of 180 pubs, inns and hotels across the West Country.

A total of 17 awards were presented throughout the evening, in categories including food and drink, accommodation, innovation and customer service. In addition to the awards, St Austell Brewery’s Charitable Trust presented a £5,000 cheque to The Benevolent — a trade charity that provides help and support to those who work in the UK drinks industry, and their families.

Steve Worrall, St Austell Brewery’s retail director, said: “We believe in doing things properly at St Austell Brewery and take great pride in looking after our guests and creating amazing experiences for them, every time they visit one of our pubs or hotels. While our Estate Awards may primarily be an internal recognition, they truly represent best practice, hard work and excellent service across the South West’s hospitality industry.

“It was a fantastic night of celebration and our pub and hotel teams should feel extremely proud of all that they continue to achieve.”

In the Post area, St Kew Inn was named the best tenancy for its food offering, while Jared Lothian and Hannah Mayne from Lydford’s Castle Inn were named the brewery’s ‘New Tenants of the Year’.

‘Tenants of the Year’ were Simon and Kelly Hill of the Tavern Inn in Newquay, while Rob Brewer celebrated a fantastic year of business at the Pier House in Charlestown by picking up the ‘Manager of the Year’ award.

The Par Inn picked up ‘Community Pub of the Year’, while the Central in Newquay and the Lanivet Inn won awards for their exemplary customer service. ‘Best Beer Pub’ went to Bristol’s Albion which grew its beer sales by 28% last year, while the Heron Inn in Malpas took home the accolade for ‘Wine House of the Year’.

‘Accommodation Houses of the Year’ were awarded to the Old Custom House in Padstow, and long-time St Austell Brewery tenancy, The King of Prussia in Fowey. Graze in Bath and the Hewas Inn, in Sticker, were both praised for their business acumen, picking up the ‘Best Turnaround Pub’ awards.

This year’s ‘Innovation Prize’ was awarded to the Pityme Inn, in Wadebridge, who introduced an ‘order and pay’ mobile app, allowing customers to book a table and choose from the menu, before arriving at the pub.