A PUB near Ludlow has bagged more awards. 

The Riverside Inn at Aymestrey, has picked up the prize for best Herefordshire pub in the National Pub & Bar Awards 2023.

It is the second year in the row that the country pub has won the county award and will now go forward to see if it can win the national prize.

The news comes on the back of the Riverside Inn also receiving an AA four-star rating, an AA breakfast award, and a certificate of achievement for very high quality food that was awarded by Harden's.

Andy Link, chef and patron and the Riverside Inn (pictured below), said: "We never tire of receiving awards. Every award is a resounding endorsement of the hard work each and every one of us puts into making the pub a success.

"This is team work, and I’m proud and delighted that our efforts are recognised by such a broad range of national assessors.

Ludlow Advertiser:

“We are committed to making the The Riverside a great place to work by encouraging team members, listening to new ideas people put forward, and making our work/life balance and pay/benefits packages attractive and rewarding. 

"The hospitality industry has had a bad reputation for the way staff are treated, but it doesn’t have to be that way, and things are changing. We want to be at the forefront of these positive steps to a better working environment.”

Mr Link is a Slow Food Movement’s Marches Chef Alliance member, and is responsible for bringing so-called ‘forgotten foods’ - such as the Shropshire Prune damson and the unique Mortimer Forest venison - back onto the menu and into Slow Food’s international ‘Ark of Taste’.

He is also keen to help the natural world recover, so has planted 200 native species such as crab apple, hawthorn and blackthorn within the Riverside’s grounds.

Mr Link has also launched a Community Fund to support local initiatives such as pond creation, meadow restoration, and bird and bat box building and installation.