Pubs can form part of the beating heart of communities, and in Carlisle and the surrounding areas they are part of our cultural heritage.  

These communal living rooms have a unique, fascinating history.

In 1916, during the great war, the Government introduced the famous ‘Carlisle experiment’, due to the proximity of the Gretna munitions factory,

The 30,000-odd workers living in purpose-built townships liked to travel to Carlisle for a drink – leading to excessive rates of drunk and disorderly behaviour.

Evening-shift workers would sometimes bribe the train driver to get extra time in the city’s pubs.

In anticipation of their arrival, the barman of Boustead’s bar, in the Red Lion Hotel on Botchergate, would line up 500 shots of whisky. The Red Lion is now the County Hotel.

READ MORE: Carlisle breweries toast MP Julie Minns push for beer reforms

The solution was state ownership. The strength of the beer, the advertising, and the architectural design of pubs was tightly controlled in Whitehall.

The legacy of the fascinating Carlisle experiment has had one unfortunate repercussion, however.

When they were returned to private hands in 1973, the pubs were sold off in lots to large breweries and the majority remain tied to the global brewing companies fifty years on.

A large number of pubs across Carlisle and north Cumbria are tied-houses, meaning the area’s excellent breweries - such as Great Corby Brewhouse, Carlisle Brewing Company, West Walls Brewing Co., and the Old Vicarage Brewery in Walton – can struggle to get their products into local pubs.

I recently led a debate in the House of Commons on this very issue. I’d like to see tied-pubs be given a ‘guest beer right’, where landlords are allowed to sell the products of local breweries in the area they were created.  

Across the UK, 78 per cent of the beer sold in our pubs comes from just five global brewing companies.

Research shows that most beer drinkers are unaware that the mass-marketed craft beer brands that we see in our pubs across the UK are in fact owned by global brewers – a good example of which is Wainwright beer.  

Inspired by the chronicler of our famous Cumbrian fells, the name Wainwright is synonymous with the county of Cumbria, and that leads many visitors to believe that they are sampling a locally brewed beer when they come to Cumbria; in fact, it is just one of a range of beers produced by the global beer company Carlsberg.  

The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (Siba) runs a ‘brewery checker’, so consumers can find out if a brewery is independently owned, and an ‘assured’ mark for brewers to show their independence.

I therefore welcome the news that the Government will now consult on making amendments to the Pubs Code - the rules which govern the relationship between pubs and breweries.  

I hope we will soon see local beers being served in local pubs, which is something we can all raise a glass to.