Award-winning reasons to visit the Moorlands

Published on 24 March 2022

What do the winners of Hotel of the Year, Large and Small Visitor Attraction, Tea Room and Coffee Shop and Casual Dining Restaurant have in common? They're all in the Moorlands of course!

There are already so many reasons to visit the Staffordshire Moorlands - and award winning local businesses and attractions only add to the district's appeal for people planning days out and holidays in the UK.

So it's great news that Moorlands businesses featured highly at this year's Enjoy Staffordshire Tourism and Good Food Awards with several bringing home gold, silver and bronze winners awards.

Councillor Andrew Hart, Cabinet Member for Tourism at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, said: "We've always known we have some first rate hospitality businesses and visitor attractions in the Moorlands but it's great to see some of them officially recognised with these awards.

"I congratulate all those businesses that were shortlisted and, of course, those that were named amongst the winners.

"I hope these awards help to raise the profile of all our leisure businesses and that people will make the Moorlands their destination of choice when planning holidays and days out this spring and summer and beyond."

It's the eighth time the awards, which are open to any Staffordshire tourism business, have been held with winners named in 16 different categories.

Local winners in the Moorlands were:

·       Alton Towers Resort - which won Golds in the Accessible and Inclusive and Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable categories and Silver for Large Visitor Attraction.

·       CBeebies Land Hotel at Alton Towers also won top prize in the Hotel of the Year award.

·       Black Lion Inn, Butterton - Bronze winner of the Pub of the Year and also highly commended in the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable category.

·       Gelato and Cakes, Cheadle was highly commended in the Food and Drink Retailer and Farm Shop of the Year category.

·       Foxfield Railway was named overall winner of the county's Small Visitor Attraction.

·       Walk with the Animals at Peak Wildlife Park near Leek took the Bronze award for Experience of the Year and the Park was highly commended in the Large Visitor Attraction category.

·       Ramblers Retreat Country Tea Room, Alton - took Gold for Tea Room and Coffee Shop of the Year and will go forward to represent Staffordshire in the Taste of England awards. The business also won Silver in the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable category and was highly commended for Resilience and Innovation.

·       The Three Horseshoes Country Inn, Leek was named Gold winner in the Casual Dining Restaurant category.

The winners of 14 categories will now go forward to represent Staffordshire at the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence to be held in June.

Good luck to all our Moorlands winners