Carlisle: Pub owners mark five years of serving community

Peter Scott and Kate Rowling took over The Pheasant Inn on a whim back in 2019 and have had to deal with both the pandemic and the cost of living crisis in their first five years in charge. 

But the imperative support of Cumbrians, who have helped to establish the Cumwhitton village pub as a real pillar of the local community, have meant that The Pheasant Inn is continuing to grow. 

The Pheasant Inn (Image: Supplied) Speaking to the News & Star, Peter explained how he and Kate's ambitions of establishing a hub, as well as a successful pub, have been achieved. 

He said: "We think of it as a community project. We want to focus on being a centre for the village and the community. We host festival suppers, local weddings, clubs, quizzes, anything and everything that we can do to bring the community together. We work with the community as much we can."

Peter and Kate hosted key workers at their new cottages on site during the pandemic, and also provided takeaways to local families on Friday nights when forced to close.

The pub's lively customers love coming for community events, or for some tasty food and drink (Image: Supplied) The first lockdown did allow the couple to reflect on and adapt the way they wanted to run the pub. 

Peter added: "During that first lockdown, we were doing maybe 100 deliveries of groceries per week, delivering them to elderly people in the village who were isolating. That community focus really started in the first lockdown, and grew from there. We've grown the business significantly from a revenue perspective year on year, but most of that is to cover the cost challenges that we have seen from the cost of living crisis, and the recent budget, which will be really tough."

But, thanks to the support of the local community, things are looking bright for the future at The Pheasant Inn. 

Peter concluded: "The locals here are absolutely fabulous. Their support is imperative. Some might come in once a year, some come in once a week. If there's something that we're not offering to the local community that could help them, then we would certainly look to put that on. All the small things that we do help to bring people back, the pub is somewhere where they can find an environment to meet up with friends and neighbours."

The Pheasant Inn invests in its young staff (Image: Supplied) The pub plans to expand its current opening hours, as more customers arrive, while they also want to keep investing in its young staff, who have enjoyed lots of opportunities in their first five years as owners of The Pheasant Inn.