West Midlands pub wins major Country Pub of the year award for its legendary warm welcome and great beer
A popular West Midlands pub has added a major award to its already stellar reputation after being named Country Pub of the Year by CAMRA.
The Robin Hood on the Crescent in Willenhall was officially named the West Midlands County Pub of the Year by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) following a number of undercover judges visiting the pub and scoring it.
The pub, which is owned by Black Country Ales, had already been named the CAMRA Walsall pub of the year for 2025 and will now go up against pubs from Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire for the prize of West Midlands Pub of the Year, won in 2024 by the Bailey's Head in Oswestry.
Licensee Alex Murphy said she had heard that the pub was in the running for the award, but hadn't thought much about it until the announcement was made.
She said: "I never took it that seriously about being up for the award, because it's such a humongous award, but we found out that we'd won it and it was just unbelievable.
"We've never really done anything different here and have tried to run the pub as we thought it should be, so it's just such a huge thing for us."
Ms Murphy said that since she and her family had taken over as licensees, it had been a long road to make the pub what it was, but said it had been worth it and offered thanks to everyone who had supported the pub.
She said: "We took over during lockdown, so that was a tough time to take over a pub, and then people were getting used to me as licensee as I'm quite young and they didn't think I had an idea of what I was doing, but people began to realise that we were making it a better place.
"I've had a lot of support from the customers, many of whom will help with lifting barrels and things like that, and we've built real links with people in the community, such as the archery team, who didn't have much to do with the pub in the past, but now have all their events there.
"The support has been unbelievable and getting this award just makes me feel better for all the hard work I've put into the pub and I'm beyond grateful for all the support I've had from everyone."
Walsall CAMRA Chairman Ray Arrowsmith offered his own congratulations, saying: "I was pleasantly surprised as the same pub was put forward last year, but didn't even make the top three, so I think a lot of hard work has been put in by Alex, Chris and the team at the Robin Hood."
The presentation of the award will be made at the Robin Hood on Sunday, July 20 at 2pm.
