CAMRA honours Holmes Mill conversion

The Campaign for Real Ale has named Holmes Mill as Britain’s Best Pub Conversion.

 

The award was presented at a special reception at Holmes Mill where Professor Steven Parissien of CAMRA handed the award to James Warburton, chairman of James’ Places, who has masterminded the ambitious redevelopment scheme.

The development included an ambitious conversion of a Grade II Listed Victorian Mill into a mixed leisure and retail destination incorporating brewery, beer and food halls and hotel.

Original beams and joists, exposed brickwork and even the original mill wheel have all been preserved in an innovative venue that combines a Bavarian-scale beer hall with a brewery, restaurant, food hall and hotel.

Praising the scale and ambition of the Holmes Mill redevelopment, the judges were also impressed with the lengths to which James Places’ have gone to preserve the historic fabric and original machinery of the 19th Century Mill. In its first year of trading, the beer hall sold more than half a million pints of real ale and craft beer. With 32 hand-pull pumps on the 105ft long island bar – one of the longest in Britain – the beer hall showcases a minimum of 24 cask ales at any one time.