THE winner of the Gazette’s Pub of the Year competition in the Thornbury area is The Royal Oak in Cromhall.


Hundreds of nominations have flooded in to the Gazette over the past month and The Royal Oak has claimed victory. 


Landlord and landlady Mark and Sabrina Fisher – who only bought the pub in August last year – were taking a well-earned break in Lanzarote when they were told the good news.


“We are absolutely gobsmacked,” Mark said.


“We never thought we would actually win – getting into the top five was amazing enough and we were up against some really stiff competition.


“Finding out we are the winners while on holiday in Lanzarote too – this is just amazing.


“It’s a testament to the great effort given by our fantastic team here.”


During the competition, the public was asked to nominate their favourite pub and then the top five were shortlisted for the final vote in early September.


The Royal Oak managed to beat the Anchor Inn in Lower Morton, Hawkes House in Thornbury, The Swan in Thornbury and The Fox in Old Down to first place.


Mark, Sabrina and the rest of their team, including manager Nikki Clark, are now celebrating their huge achievement and looking forward to receiving a trophy, spending a day in Westminster with MP for Thornbury and Yate Luke Hall and serving their brewery’s beer at a bar in the Houses of Parliament.


Mark added: “Big thanks to all our customers and those who voted for us, we are thrilled.

“We haven’t been open a year yet and to achieve this is just amazing.


“We’re now looking forward to see what our next year brings.


“We are all over the moon.”


Mr Hall said: “I am delighted that the Royal Oak has won Pub of the Year, it is a really friendly and relaxed pub with probably the best in-house feature I have seen.


“A huge congratulations to the whole team.”


The pair transformed the pub when they took it over last year, coming from hotel and sales backgrounds - with no pub experience.


The Royal Oak now offers visitors a library, live TV coverage, exceptional food and an extensive range of wines, champagnes, local real ales, lager and cider.


Beer and ales are sourced from breweries around the area – including Dursley, Chipping Sodbury and Bristol.