A RIBBLE Valley pub has scooped an accolade at the Thwaites Awards for Excellence, which rate food, drink, entertainment and hospitality.

Michael and Carolyn Heathcote won the gong for best turnaround for their work improving the Higher Buck, Waddington.

The landlord received an engraved trophy and framed certificate and will head off on a five-star VIP trip to Oktoberfest in Munich this September.

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Built in the 1870s, the pub reopened at Easter last year after a £350,000 makeover which included adding guest bedrooms.

Mr Heathcote, who is also owner of the Duke of York at Grindleton, was raised in Pleasington, near Blackburn, and said his love of cooking stemmed from his childhood when his grandparents owned a biscuit bakery in Blackburn.

He travelled to America, Canada and Australia before returning to England in 1995 when he was appointed head chef at the Borrowdale Gates Country House Hotel, near Keswick, where he was awarded two AA rosettes.

The best newcomers were named as Joanne O’Callaghan and Davis Brown, who run the Sportsman, at Bromley Cross.

Rick Bailey, boss of Daniel Thwaites, said: “This has been a transformational year for the brewery and a year in which we have made significant progress in defining where we are headed as a business.

“No small part of that process has been the increased emphasis we have and will continue to place on our pub estate as the backbone of our operations. In the last five years, we have invested consistently, ploughing between £20 million and £25 million into more than 180 schemes across the estate — and we continue to invest at a rate of around £3 million per year.

“The pubs shortlisted are characteristic of those which have benefited from this capital expenditure and represent some of the best in the North.

“We are delighted to celebrate their commitment and dedication to raising standards within the trade and wish them an equally successfully year ahead.”

Pub of the year was Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which also won the coveted best pub fayre and best trainer awards. The Arnside pub is run by Tony Keates and Jeanette Hamer.