New Clarence, Hull
Hull’s first community-owned pub and Stoke-on-Trent's Victorian time warp win Pub Saving Awards and Heritage Award
CAMRA has named the Hull Community Pub Society, who saved the New Clarence in Hull, as winners of its Pub Saving Awards 2025 - the first city pub to do so - and revealed the Vine in Pittshill, Stoke-on-Trent - which dates back to the Victorian era - as the winner of the Heritage Award.
The Pub Saving Award runner ups were Ashton Hayes Community Hub Ltd, who rescued the Golden Lion in Ashton Hayes, Chester and the George Community Pub (Wickham Market) Ltd who campaigned for the George in Wickham Market, Suffolk, while the Crown Inn in Stockport was runner up for the Heritage Award.
The Pub Saving Awards celebrate communities who have rallied together to fight for their local, saving the pub from a grim fate of conversion or even demolition. The awards put these campaigns in the spotlight, inspiring others to investigate community ownership for their local.
The New Clarence is Hull's first community-owned pub and is the first city pub to win CAMRA’s Pub Saving Awards. The high land value of high streets and city centres makes pubs an enticing target for greedy developers, and as a result, much harder for campaigners to save than their rural counterparts. The judges were incredibly impressed with the group’s achievement of saving the New Clarence.
After closing in 2023, developers submitted planning applications to convert the New Clarence to a House in Multiple Occupation. The Hull Community Pub Society was formed, fighting off the applications and subsequent appeals. They then raised almost £250,000 plus a £300,000 backing from the now discontinued Community Ownership Fund to buy the pub in February 2025. The New Clarence reopened its doors to its community 6 September 2025.
Joint runner up in the Pub Saving Awards was the Ashton Hayes Community Hub Ltd (AHCHL), who rescued the Golden Lion in Ashton Hayes, Chester. The only pub in the village was at risk of being turned into private housing when the 300-year-old building closed in early 2013 and was neglected for 12 years. The local community have spent over a decade campaigning to save it. By raising almost £250,000, and a £360,000 grant from the Community Ownership Fund, the local community completed the purchase of the Golden Lion in June 2024 and reopened 7 August 2025.
The George Community Pub (Wickham Market) Ltd who saved the George in Wickham Market, Suffolk was also runner up in the Pub Saving Awards. The last remaining pub in the village, the George is a 500-year-old Grade II listed pub which was devastated by a fire in 2013. This was the start of an epic 12-year campaign to restore and reopen it as a community-owned pub. 450 shareholders investing over £400,000 and the Lottery Heritage Fund awarding the campaign £1.5m, alongside other grants such as the Community Ownership Fund, meant the restoration project was given the go-ahead in July 2023. The pub reopened on 7 June 2025.
From grand Victorian gin palaces to preserved inter-war gems, the Heritage Award is open to all pubs on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. To promote and preserve the interiors of historic pubs, the award highlights people that have saved or have carefully revived a heritage pub.
The Heritage Award winner is the Vine in Pittshill, Stoke-on-Trent, a back-street Victorian local which had closed during the coronavirus pandemic. The Grade II pub has an interior of outstanding national historic importance and was bought at auction by Steve Burke and his partner Lisa Combes, who have restored it to its former glory. Renovations have been made to the roof, basement and a small beer yard, but the layout of the historic pub has been preserved.
The runner up for the Heritage Award was the Crown Inn in Stockport, a pub with an interior of special national historic interest. Following years of decline, the Crown Inn closed at the beginning of 2025 with locals worried about the pub’s future. The lease was taken on by Alan and Chris Gent of the award-winning Petersgate Tap who embarked upon a full restoration of the Crown, breathing new life into the pub. The Crown Inn reopened in August 2025 and is once again a real asset to Stockport's pub and beer scene.
Paul Ainsworth, Pub Saving Award Coordinator said:
“These community champions and heritage heroes deserve to be applauded. I continue to be amazed by the dedication and grit of these campaigners, who spend years or even decades campaigning to save pubs.
“However, if we want more communities to be able to do this, they need support from government. The Community Ownership Fund provided cash for groups to take ownership and the running of community facilities that would otherwise be sold, converted or demolished. This was wound up by the Government and has not been directly replaced. The forthcoming Right to Buy scheme must come alongside a dedicated programme of advice, guidance and funding to make sure community pubs go from strength to strength.”
The pubs will be presented with their awards at events organised by CAMRA branches.
Ends
Notes to editors
For more information about the pubs and the campaigns to save them, please contact press@camra.org.uk
Photos of the Pub Saving winner and runners up: camra-stock.camra.org.uk/256263685/collection/114/pub-saving-award-2025
Photos of the Heritage Award winner and runner up: camra-stock.camra.org.uk/256263685/collection/113/heritage-award-2025
CAMRA has detailed guides and resources for anybody looking to save their local: camra.org.uk/save-your-local-pub
More information about the Pub Saving Awards: camra.org.uk/awards/pub-saving
More information about the Heritage Award: camra.org.uk/awards/heritage
Information about historic pub interiors and CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Group: camra.org.uk/heritage-pubs
More information about the New Clarence: hullcommunitypub.com
More information about the Golden Lion: ahchl.co.uk
More information about the George: thegeorgecommunitypub.co.uk
More information about the Vine: camra.org.uk/pubs/vine-stoke-on-trent-123167
More information about the Crown Inn: camra.org.uk/pubs/crown-inn-stockport-167360
About CAMRA
CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is a not-for-profit UK consumer group.
We have been campaigning for pubs, pints and people since 1971.
Media Contact:
CAMRA Press Office:
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