Flintshire pub makes it to finals of national ‘Pubs in Bloom’ competition.

A Flintshire pub has been named as a finalist in a national Pubs in Bloom competition.

Thwaites Brewery opened up the competition to its 250 pubs around the country to celebrate those who made their property stand out from the crowd.

The Druid Inn at Gorsedd near Holywell was one of six finalists chosen by competition judges for its colourful hanging baskets, eye-catching planters and outstanding kerb appeal.

Licensee at The Druid Inn, Sarah Elson, said:

“People are stopping and saying how nice the pub looks, it’s been lovely to get such a reaction. “It looks like a proper village pub and that’s what we wanted to achieve.

I feel honoured to live somewhere so nice and it’s nice to make the pub look so good – we wanted to make it the centrepiece of the village.

“We have also chosen as many plants and flowers as we could that would attract bees and butterflies so that we are also playing a part in supporting nature.”

Judges were impressed with the time and effort that had been put into making the pubs look so appealing.

The Druid Inn had over 400 flowers decorating the front of their pub.

Judge Toni Naylor, Pub Marketing Executive at Thwaites, said:

“It’s been fantastic to see so many of our pubs join in the competition.

It was all about making pubs look appealing so people take notice and want to go inside – we know once they’re inside they’ll enjoy a warm welcome and great food and beer.

We got loads of pubs really going the extra mile so choosing our six finalists and an overall winner was really difficult.

The Druid Inn was up against some tough competition, so it did really well to be named a finalist – and I know they are already making plans for next year.

We love how they have thought through how they can make their pub the centrepiece of the village, because pubs play a really important part of village life and it’s lovely to see it standing out in such a colourful way.”

The overall competition winner was The Shoal Hill Tavern in Cannock.