A COMMUNITY-SPIRITED pub in Kenilworth has scooped a national award.
The Engine has received a national Heart of the Community Award for the role it plays in town life.
The Mill End pub – run Kenilworth born-and-bred licensee Andrew Bear, known locally as Ted – was selected from 2,500 pubs around the country in the competition run by Heineken-owned Star Pubs & Bars.
The judges were bowled over by The Engine’s charity work, which has raised more than £50,000 for Myton Hospice through events such as family fun days, and helped countless other local good causes by holding activities ranging from collections to fund-raising barbecues.
The judges were equally impressed by the wider contribution The Engine makes to Kenilworth life – highlighting its annual prostate cancer awareness evenings which have diagnosed seven cases among local men, and its women’s health nights focused on dementia.
The pub has also organised a litter pick, which collected 54 bags of rubbish from Kenilworth streets and has become a biannual event, sponsorship of Odibourne allotment open days, and Ted’s involvement in increasing the number of floats at Kenilworth Carnival.
The Engine also scored highly for supporting sports in the town. Ted not only runs the local darts and dominoes leagues and sponsors two football teams and a ladies rugby team but organises coaches to take Kenilworth fans to Coventry City and Wasps matches.
Ted was an Engine regular before he took over the pub in 2004 when he wanted a change from a career in engineering. With the 54-year-old at the helm, The Engine has won Kenilworth Chamber of Commerce Worthies Award for best pub in Kenilworth for three of the last four years.
Ted said: “Kenilworth is a smashing town. I feel very fortunate to live here and to have been able to take over the local I love. Helping the community is the pub’s way of giving back.
“This award is recognition of my fantastic customers, who are so supportive, and the many other people and organisations in the town who we link up with and make Kenilworth such a special place to live.”
Lawson Mountstevens, Star Pubs & Bars managing director, said: “Ted is an archetypal pillar of the community. He is passionate about The Engine and the community it serves and gives them his all. The Engine represents all that is best about the Great British pub. Ted’s achievements are phenomenal and this award is well deserved.”
