White Cross Inn, Groeswen, nominated for Community Pub Hero

The White Cross Inn, Groeswen, has been nominated for the PubAid Community Pub Hero Award in recognition for the dedication and hard work of the team running the venue. 

If they win the award, it won't be the first honour the pub has been given, having won the Caerphilly County Borough Council Rural Economy Award in 2022.

Not only that but they also secured the Countryside Alliance Best Pub in Wales in 2019 - but only discovered their victory in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The White Cross has also been named CAMRA pub of the year runner up on numerous occasions, and has been included in the Good Beer Guide for the last 12 years consecutively.  

The White Cross Inn is well-known for its selection of beers (Image: Mair Arthur)

Landlady Mair Arthur said: "I took the pub over 13 years ago, it was a sad soul-less place, now it is the heart of the community, the original warm hub, the original networking venue.

"I wanted to save the pub. It is not rocket science running a pub, but like any other successful business it takes passion, belief and hard work and to be fair I eat, sleep and breath the White Cross.

"We do so many events and have raised a lot of money for charity - none of these things would or could happen without customers, they would argue they would not happen without me."

As well as all this, the pub has also had its moment in the spotlight, when an episode of Doctor Who was filmed there in December 2022, closing the pub for a week.

Ms Arthur has been delighted by the nomination, and believes she has managed what she set out to do when she purchased the inn.

She said: "When I take a minute to think, I know I have done what I set out to do - save the pub, but I rarely say I when I talk about the pub, because without the customers there is no pub....it is teamwork.

"We have regulars from, Cardiff, Pontypridd, Hengoed, Oakdale not just Groeswen and the surrounding area.

"Everyday around Wales there are pubs closing. We are bucking the trend the pub is the beating heart of its own community."

Ms Arthur says the pub is all about teamwork and her dedicated gang of helpers (Image: Mair Arthur)The finalists for the Community Pub Hero Award will be announced on February 22. 

Co-founder of PubAid, Des O’Flanagan said: “The Community Pub Hero Awards are now in their fifth year and this year will be the biggest yet.

"So many pubs do great work in their local communities and PubAid is here to celebrate the good they do across the industry and raise awareness of all the positives pubs bring to a community.

 “In the current cost of living crisis when communities can feel more disparate, pubs play an essential role in bringing people together and creating communities.

"They do such fantastic work raising money for charities big and small and supporting grassroots sport that we want to say thanks to them from the industry with the Community Pub Hero Awards.”