Hartshorne's The Admiral Rodney Inn shortlisted for national pub awards

The Admiral Rodney Inn was nominated by Heather Wheeler who is a local MP, and nominated the pub in the Community Support Hero category and has seen competition from almost 1000 other pubs nationwide.

This Community Support Hero Award recognises licensees who help their communities. It looks for pubs which are a ‘good neighbour’ to their local community.

Three other pubs, The Clifton Arms, The Bell and Bear and The Rose and Crown, in Blackburn, Emberton and Ashbury respectively have also been shortlisted in this category.

The pub was shortlisted because of the incredible community spirit. They host a number of events throughout the year to support the community and local charities and have recently raised £7,500 to support a local family who’s 6-year-old daughter has cancer.

Lesley Taylor from the Admiral Rodney, said: ''We are delighted and humbled to be nominated by Heather Wheeler MP for the Matthew Clark Pub Aid Community Pub Hero Award. Being at The Admiral Rodney has given us a great opportunity to get involved in our lovely community over the last 9 years. The events and fundraising we have done this past year have been so successful, helped a young 6 year old girl with cancer, created new friendships within our pub and it is credit to our community for making them successful – they are the true heroes and we would like to thank each and every one of them for their continual support in all we do. We are very much looking forward to the presentation evening at The House of Commons''

The winners will be announced at an award ceremony, sponsored by Matthew Clark, at the Houses of Parliament on 5 March and all shortlisted pubs are invited to attend along with industry leaders and MPs.

Des O’Flanagan, co-founder of PubAid, added: “We launched these awards to celebrate the great work that pubs do for their community. The Admiral Rodney is a perfect example of how pubs support and are a hub for many people in their community. The awards are in their fifth year and the volume of entries this year was staggering. What clearly came across from reading all the entries is that there are so many publicans that are doing amazing work nationwide. It was very hard to get to a shortlist so even getting to the finals is an amazing accolade for the Admiral Rodney.”

PubAid, which organises the awards in association with Matthew Clark and the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, has refreshed the awards and created more categories to congratulate more community pubs throughout the UK. There are 33 finalists in total across five categories.