Beer Festival and Beyond

Another Beer Festival has come and gone, once more in fine style with good weather and fine folk drinking lots of Britains' finest ales, over 130 real ales in fact!.

This is quite some achievement for a small rural valley like ours. All 3 pubs had a good festival, although we thought that there may have been slightly less people about than last year, but the ones here made up for that by drinking a bit more - well done all of you and thank you for coming.
I would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of support after the terrible events of June 2nd. A few people have suggested they would stay away to give the valley time to settle down and us all time to recover, this is a lovely thought, but I hope I can speak for all the pubs, B+B's,  campsites and cottages in the area and urge everyone to come and visit Eskdale. What we want is to see happy smiling faces back in the valley.
July is looking quiet at Brook House with some weekend vacancies available and plenty of space during the week, to book give us a ring on 01946723288 or go to our online booking page.

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

A day that will be hard to forget for so many people from West Cumbria.
As I am sure everyone is aware a man killed and injured many people on this day. He terminated his journey near Doctor Bridge finally taking his own life.
Just past Brook House  on  the way to the campsite he fired shots at several people, injuring at least two, we brought one lady into the pub and looked after her as best we could until the poilce finally took her off for medical treatment. We brought everyone inside and locked the doors, this was a tense time as we were told by the police that the man was now on foot and armed with a rifle with telescopic sights. Five helicopters were up in the air and at least 15 police vehicles passed by Brook House.
There was a sense of relief when we were given information that the situation had been resolved and everyone could go back to their business, the tourists moved on, staff changed and we continued work. A busy night passed in a blur, avoiding press and helping the police as required.
As the full horror of the day unfolded and the death toll rose a sense of numbness has descended upon many of us as I am sure it has accross the country. When I got up this morning I went outside, the birds were still singing, the cuckoo calling,  nothing has changed but the whole landscape seems softer, almost surreal.
Eskdale has got off lightly, only one death and that being the killer. Harry Berger from the Woolpack Inn has been seriously injured and is in hospital, he was shot whilst in Seascale and has recieved surgery on his arm/hand, as far as I am aware no one else from the Boot was injured.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all those killed and injured yesterday, a sad day for everyone.