Cider Pub Wins Award — and Publicity

Congratulations to the team at The Carpenters Arms in Westrip — crowned CAMRA’s Regional Cider Pub of the Year 2025, beating out pubs from across Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. That’s already worth a round of applause. But we’re also quietly pleased about what happened next. Within 24 hours of issuing the press release, the story had been picked up by five different news outlets, including:

📰 Gloucestershire Live
🗞 Stroud Times
📰 Punchline Gloucester
📺 BBC Gloucestershire
🗞 Bristol Post

Not bad for a local pub halfway up a hill in Westrip. But that’s the point. When you have a moment — a genuine story with heart, place, and personality — it deserves more than a polite Instagram post or a few likes on Facebook. It deserves to travel. That’s what PR can do. In this case, Sammy, the owner of The Carpenters Arms, took over the pub just two weeks before the first lockdown. She’s since built a thriving community pub with a passion for local cider and a warm, inclusive welcome. Add in the fact the pub sits on the Cotswold Way and serves only Gloucestershire-made ciders, and you’ve got a story that’s local, proud — and newsworthy.

At StoneComms, that’s our speciality: Finding the angle. Writing the words. Getting it into the right hands. We work with independent hospitality businesses across Stroud, Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds, helping them find their voice and tell their story — whether that’s through social media, a press moment, or a longer-term PR strategy that builds profile and reputation over time.

So here’s to The Carpenters Arms. A brilliant pub. A brilliant story. And proof, once again, that good news travels fast — if you know how to send it.