The Baum named best pub in Greater Manchester

The Baum

The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) has today revealed that the Greater Manchester Pub Of The Year 2012 is The Baum.

The Rochdale pub is run by husband and wife Simon and Heidi Crompton whose team of around a dozen staff includes other members of their family.

Baum Licensee Simon Crompton said “We are all very very pleased. The award is for our whole team who are the key to the pubs’ success. They are all trained in the cellar and are all very conscientious about knowing about the beers so they can advise our customers. To win this award is just great, every one of us is smiling.”

The pub has family values and a strong commitment to the local community at its heart.

They welcome a wide variety of customers into their pub, be they office workers popping in for a drink after work, shoppers seeking a good value meal or cask ale fans looking to sample one of the ever changing range of cask ales and ciders. There is always a minimum of one beer from a local brewery and ingredients for their bar menu are sourced from local suppliers.

Tucked away on a small cobbled street on the north side of the town in the shadow of Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre, the pub is next to the original Co-op store which today serves as the Pioneers Museum charting the birth to the Cooperative movement.

Previously Morris's Hardware store, the pub first opened around 30 years ago, being extended into the building next door a few years later and most recently having a large conservatory added to the rear in 2010.

Simon began working at The Baum in 1993, becoming owner in 2005, just as the couple's first child was born.

The eight finalists for the award were evaluated by a team of secret shoppers from the local CAMRA branches who rated each pub on a range of criteria including atmosphere, decor, welcome, customer service, value for money, customer mix and of course the quality of the cask ales served. The judges visit the pubs on a range of different days and at varying times of day to experience the full breadth of what each pub has to offer.

CAMRA Regional Director Ralph Warrington said: "I am delighted to announce that the Baum is Greater Manchester's Regional CAMRA Pub of the Year for 2012.

"This is a fantastic pub that not only celebrates all that is best in traditional British cask beers, but is also a lynch pin of the local community.

"This is a great achievement by Simon and the team and a testament to their hard work at the Baum.

"The pub now goes forward to be judged against the other fifteen regional UK winners to decide who will be crowned CAMRA's Pub of the Year 2012. To get to the last sixteen pubs in this competition really marks out the Baum as one of the very best ".