A north Norfolk pub has been crowned the best in the East Anglia, with managers saying the accolade is owed to their fabulous staff.
The White Horse at Brancaster Staithe has been crowned the East of England's best pub in the National Pub and Bar awards 2018.
Rob Williamson is the general manager of the pub and inn, he said: 'We're over the moon. We went down to London on Wednesday and there were the winners from every county which then got whittled down to regional winners and then the ultimate winner.'
The 29-year-old continued: 'In hospitality you often have to work long and unsociable hours, but this award showed that all our hard work has paid off.
'I think what won it for us had to be our staff. Obviously we have a fantastic location, as well as our own brewery nearby and a house craft beer. We also have fresh shellfish dropped off at the bottom of the garden; patrons often see fisherman bringing fresh mussels and oysters across the car park to the back door.'
He added: 'But it's the staff that have the relationship with the customers. We invest in our staff, because if you have happy and looked-after staff that are invested in their customers, then they in turn want to invest in us ultimately.'
Mr Williamson, who has been general manager for almost 18 months, continued: 'Our customers have been celebrating with us on social media, a lot of them saying they're not surprised!
'Even people who have stayed with us and this isn't their local have got in touch to congratulate us.'
This is the second year out of three that the White Horse has won the East of England best pub award.
'We're going for the big one next year,' said the father-of-one. 'We want to win the national award. The winner this year had a lot smaller team with only 15 members of staff, and we have over fifty, but we're determined.'
The White Horse is part of the family run group, Anglian Country Inns, owned by the Nye family.
'Cliff and his sons Howard and James are fantastic people to work for. They know everyone's names from Doris in housekeeping to the general managers.'
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