Hesket Newmarket
| Hesket Newmarket | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Hesket Newmarket village green | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NY338386 |
| Location: | 54°44’17"N, 3°1’37"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Wigton |
| Postcode: | CA7 |
| Dialling code: | 016974 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Penrith and The Border |
Hesket Newmarket is a small village in Cumberland, within the Lake District on the opposite side of Skiddaw from Keswick.
The villages is noted for two social enterprises; a co-operatively-owned pub, the Old Crown Inn and a co-operatively-owned brewery, the Hesket Newmarket Brewery.
The village was also the home and birthplace of Carlisle-based haulage giant Eddie Stobart.
Name
The name is recorded in 1227 as Eskeheued, pointing to Old Norse eski meaning 'ash (tree)' and the Old English heafod meaning 'head', hence "ash-head" indicating a hill with ash trees. This is not not thought to be the usual origin of such placenames as 'Hesket' and 'Hesketh', which may be from the from Old Norse hestr and skeið, meaning "horse grazing-land".
Brewery
The Hesket Newmarket Brewery was founded in 1987 by Jim Fearnley who converted the barn at the back of the Old Crown Inn. The first beer, Blencathra Bitter, was launched in March 1988. A telex message sent by Chris Bonington from Kathmandu[1] and delivered by his wife Wendy, officially opened the brewery in April that year.
One of the brewery's most popular beers, Doris' 90th Birthday Ale, was officially launched on 12 September 1989 to celebrate the birthday of Jim's mother-in-law, Doris Blackwood.[2][3] The original intention had been to name the beer after a local fell, but the "temporary" name used at the party has remained.
Keeping the brewery, the Fearnley's sold the Old Crown to Robert Robson, who later sold it in 1998 to Kim and Lyn Matthews. By 1999 Jim wanted to retire from brewing. Worried that their beer might disappear and the barn be converted into a holiday cottage, local and distant customers alike asked if it was possible to buy the brewery as a group, and largely due the efforts of Kim Matthews, the landlord, and a very active Brewery Committee, the Hesket Newmarket Brewery Co-operative Ltd was established by 58 people to take over the ownership of the brewery. The community buyout received national media coverage. Kim Matthews, in recognition of his work on this rural cooperative, was invited to a reception at Downing Street honoring those who had contributed to rural enterprises. Mr. Matthews was also invited to Highgrove to meet the Prince of Wales, where the Hesket Newmarket Brewery Cooperative was cited as an exemplar for the Prince of Wales' Pub is the Hub Campaign
In 2001 the Old Crown was hit by a double blow: the loss of half its business when the fells were closed during the foot and mouth epidemic and the death of the landlady, Lyn Matthews. The Old Crown remained open, but time came to move on and sell the pub, and following the example of the brewery, a group of 125 customers formed a second co-operative to buy the pub in 2003.
The Prince of Wales visited the pub in 2004 to honour the shareholders' achievements.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hesket Newmarket) |