A MULTI-award winning pub will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a bank holiday beer festival.

The Yew Tree Inn at Spurstow, near Tarporley, will also celebrate picking up the best freehouse in the North West at the Great British Pub Awards 2015.

The Thank Yew It’s Friday! Festival will run over four days – from Friday, August 28 – to mark the milestone with a selection of favourite beers chosen by both management and customers from hundreds that have appeared on the bar since the pub was rescued and restored in 2010.

With two regular beer festivals held each year, more than 600 cask-conditioned beers have been featured and the Camra Good Beer Guide has praised the pub in each edition since 2011.

The 15 festival beers chosen include a mix of cask-conditioned and ‘craft keg’ – including championship brews Jaipur IPA from Thornbridge in Derbyshire, Old Moor Porter from Acorn of Barnsley and NZ Pale Ale from Hawkshead in Cumbria. Popular local duo The Beard Band kicks off the celebrations on the Friday evening while on Sunday Tarporley’s Higher Ground trio will perform. 

Licensees Jon and Lindsay Cox revived the abandoned village inn with a major restoration prior to re-launching in May 2010. Since then it has become a thriving community pub and destination dining venue, earning entries in many prestigious guides including The Good Pub Guide, the Michelin Guide and Sawdays. 

Twice voted Pub of the Year in the Marketing Cheshire Awards, the inn was also a finalist this year in the GQ Magazine Best Pub Awards.

Director Jon Cox said: “We have had five terrific years at the Yew Tree and want to celebrate with everyone who has supported us by putting on a very special bank holiday beer festival.

“We asked our regular customers for the top five beers they wanted to see back here and then put together a list of our favourite beers from across the country – from Yorkshire, the Derbyshire Dales and the Lake District to London. It was tough, but we are expecting a great weekend raising a glass or two to our next five years.” 

Since opening The Yew Tree has held several fundraising events for local charities and recently raised £3,500 for St Luke’s Hospice with a charity golf day.

A charity clay pigeon shoot will be held in the autumn and tickets are now sale for a charity open air cinema evening on September 4 in the Paddock alongside the pub – where regular farmers’ markets are also held. 

Plans are now being made to develop the pub over the forthcoming five years.