A FURNESS couple are celebrating after their pub scooped the top award for Lakeland dining in a regional food and drink awards.

Licensees Craig and Louise Sherrington, who run The General Burgoyne at Great Urswick, near Ulverston, were presented with the Lakeland Dining Experience award at a glitzy ceremony at The Hilton Hotel, Manchester.

The accolade, announced at the Cheshire Life Food and Drink Awards 2013, is the second for the pub this year. In January, The General Burgoyne was named Dining Pub of the Year at the Cumbria Life Food and Drink Awards.

Chef patron Craig took on the ailing pub with Louise in July 2010 and they have since transformed it into a destination eatery serving Britain’s best loved traditional home cooked dishes, while still retaining the character and atmosphere of a local village watering hole.

Louise said: “We have no background in marketing whatsoever but over the past 12 months we have started to market ourselves completely differently. Any pub not using Facebook or Twitter is really missing a trick. These tools are free and allow you to speak to your customers directly. I think that not using either of them is the equivalent of not having a sign outside your pub.”

Robinson’s business development manager for Cumbria Steve Robinson said: “What Craig and Louise have done since moving into The General Burgoyne is to become a central focal point of the village. They have a young family and a business to run but they don’t make it all about them. They proactively give back to the community.”