The delighted landlord of a vibrant Kendal pub is celebrating winning two more prestigious accolades to add to his growing list of achievements.

The New Union on Stricklandgate has scooped the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ales) Westmorland Pub of the Year and the CAMRA Westmorland Cider Pub of the Year, both for the third time in a row.

The bustling hostelry was judged the best by a CAMRA panel against four other pubs in Westmorland, and will now be pitted against the other winners from Cumbria's three other branches.

Landlord Phil Walker, who took over the pub in 2017, has wasted no time in establishing the New Union as one of the town's go-to public houses, scooping his first CAMRA awards in 2019 when the pub was bestowed the hallowed title of CAMRA National Pub of the Year.

The CAMRA awards were not judged in 2021 because the Covid lockdowns forced many hostelries to be closed for much of the year so the New Union has landed the regional awards at least every year possible since 2019.

The New Union holds regular live music, quiz nights, whisky tastings, as well as showing live sports and hosting frequent community events.

The pub also serves a vast array of gins and whiskeys, and Phil takes great pride in his selection of beers and ciders: "We specialise in traditional ciders from producers all over the UK, and at the minute we offer around 15 bag-in-box and in bottles aswell.

"We're doing a permanent deal with the Lakes Brew Co - they've supported us since day one, but we've decided that to support them locally, we'll have their DDH Pale on keg and the Lakes on cask all the time.

"We also have one Belgian or German beer on at all times, which at the moment is Chimay Blue.

"We're just very, very proud to have been able to achieve this, especially after the pandemic, and we just want to thank all our customers aswell, for all their support from all of us here from the team."

Founded in 1971, CAMRA now has more than 183,000 members across the world and it aims to promote real ale and pubs, as well as acting as a representative for the consumer in relation to the UK and European beer and drinks industry.